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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/8069.txt b/8069.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1776e8e --- /dev/null +++ b/8069.txt @@ -0,0 +1,23175 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Expositions of Holy Scripture, by Alexander Maclaren + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Expositions of Holy Scripture + Isaiah and Jeremiah + +Author: Alexander Maclaren + +Posting Date: August 18, 2012 [EBook #8069] +Release Date: May, 2005 +First Posted: June 11, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Franks, Michelle Shephard and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + +EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE + + +ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. + +ISAIAH AND JEREMIAH + + + + +EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE + +ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. + +ISAIAH + +_Chaps. I to XLVIII_ + + + + +CONTENTS + +THE GREAT SUIT: JEHOVAH _versus_ JUDAH (Isaiah i. 1-9; 16-20) + +THE STUPIDITY OF GODLESSNESS (Isaiah i. 3) + +WHAT SIN DOES TO MEN (Isaiah i. 30-31) + +THE PERPETUAL PILLAR OF CLOUD AND FIRE (Isaiah iv. 5) + +A PROPHET'S WOES (Isaiah v. 8-30) + +VISION AND SERVICE (Isaiah vi. 1-13) + +THE EMPTY THRONE FILLED (Isaiah vi. 1) + +A SERAPH'S WINGS (Isaiah vi. 2) + +THE MAKING OF A PROPHET (Isaiah vi. 5) + +SHILOAH AND EUPHRATES (Isaiah viii. 6, 7) + +THE KINGDOM AND THE KING (Isaiah ix. 2-7) + +LIGHT OR FIRE? (Isaiah x. 17) + +THE SUCKER FROM THE FELLED OAK (Isaiah xi. 1-10) + +THE WELL-SPRING OF SALVATION (Isaiah xii. 3) + +THE HARVEST OF A GODLESS LIFE (Isaiah xvii. 10, 11) + +'IN THIS MOUNTAIN' (Isaiah xxv. 6-8) + +THE FEAST ON THE SACRIFICE (Isaiah xxv. 6) + +THE VEIL OVER ALL NATIONS (Isaiah xxv. 7) + +THE SONG OF TWO CITIES (Isaiah xxvi. 1-10) + +OUR STRONG CITY (Isaiah xxvi. 1-2) + +THE INHABITANT OF THE ROCK (Isaiah xxvi. 3-4) + +THE GRASP THAT BRINGS PEACE (Isaiah xxvii. 5) + +THE JUDGMENT OF DRUNKARDS AND MOCKERS (Isaiah xxviii. 1-13) + +A CROWN OF PRIDE OR A CROWN OF GLORY (Isaiah xxviii 3-5) + +MAN'S CROWN AND GOD'S (Isaiah lxii 3) + +THE FOUNDATION OF GOD (Isaiah xxviii. 16) + +GOD'S STRANGE WORK (Isaiah xxviii. 21) + +THE HUSBANDMAN AND HIS OPERATIONS (Isaiah xxviii. 23-29) + +'QUIETNESS AND CONFIDENCE' (Isaiah xxx. 15) + +GOD'S WAITING AND MAN'S (Isaiah xxx. 18) + +THREE PICTURES OF ONE REALITY (Isaiah xxxi. 5) + +THE LORD'S FURNACE (Isaiah xxxi. 9) + +THE HIDING-PLACE (Isaiah xxxii. 2) + +HOW TO DWELL IN THE FIRE OF GOD (Isaiah xxxiii. 14, 15; I John iv. 16) + +THE FORTRESS OF THE FAITHFUL (Isaiah xxxiii. 16) + +THE RIVERS OF GOD (Isaiah xxxiii. 21) + +JUDGE, LAWGIVER, KING (Isaiah xxxiii. 22) + +MIRACLES OF HEALING (Isaiah xxxv. 5-6) + +MIRAGE OR LAKE (Isaiah xxxv. 6-7) + +THE KING'S HIGHWAY (Isaiah xxxv. 8-9) + +WHAT LIFE'S JOURNEY MAY BE (Isaiah xxxv. 9-10) + +THE TRIUMPH OF FAITH (Isaiah xxxvii 14-21; 33-38) + +WHERE TO CARRY TROUBLES (Isaiah xxxvii. 14) + +GREAT VOICES FROM HEAVEN (Isaiah xl. 1-10) + +O THOU THAT BRINGEST GOOD TIDINGS (Isaiah xl. 9) + +'HAVE YE NOT? HAST THOU NOT' (Isaiah xl. 2; 28) + +UNFAILING STARS AND FAINTING MEN (Isaiah xl. 26; 29) + +THE SECRET OF IMMORTAL YOUTH (Isaiah xl. 30, 31) + +CHRIST THE ARRESTER OF INCIPIENT EVIL AND THE NOURISHER OF INCIPIENT +GOOD (Isaiah xlii. 3, 4) + +THE BLIND MAN'S GUIDE (Isaiah xlii. 16) + +THY NAME: MY NAME (Isaiah xliii, 1; 7) + +JACOB--ISRAEL--JESHURUN (Isaiah xliv. 1, 2) + +FEEDING ON ASHES (Isaiah xliv. 20) + +WRITING BLOTTED OUT AND MIST MELTED (Isaiah xliv. 22) + +HIDDEN AND REVEALED (Isaiah xlv. 15, 19) + +A RIGHTEOUSNESS NEAR AND A SWIFT SALVATION (Isaiah xlv. 12, 13) + +A RIVER OF PEACE AND WAVES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS (Isaiah xlviii. 18) + + + + +THE GREAT SUIT: JEHOVAH _VERSUS_ JUDAH + +'The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah +and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings +of Judah. I Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath +spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have +rebelled against Me. 3. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his +master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. +4. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, +children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have +provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away +backward. 5. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more +and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 6. From +the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; +but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been +closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. 7. Your +country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, +strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown +by strangers. 8. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a +vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. 9. +Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we +should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto +Gomorrah.... 16. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your +doings from before Mine eyes; cease to do evil; 17. Learn to do well; +seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for +the widow. 18. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: +though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow: though +they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. 19. If ye be willing +and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land. 20. But if ye refuse +and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the +Lord hath spoken it.'--ISAIAH 1,1-9; 16-20. + + +The first bars of the great overture to Isaiah's great oratorio are +here sounded. These first chapters give out the themes which run +through all the rest of his prophecies. Like most introductions, they +were probably written last, when the prophet collected and arranged his +life's labours. The text deals with the three great thoughts, the +_leit-motifs_ that are sounded over and over again in the prophet's +message. + +First comes the great indictment (vs. 2-4). A true prophet's words are +of universal application, even when they are most specially addressed +to a particular audience. Just because this indictment was so true of +Judah, is it true of all men, for it is not concerned with details +peculiar to a long-past period and state of society, but with the broad +generalities common to us all. As another great teacher in Old +Testament times said, 'I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or +thy burnt-offerings, to have been continually before me.' Isaiah has +nothing to say about ritual or ceremonial omissions, which to him were +but surface matters after all, but he sets in blazing light the +foundation facts of Judah's (and every man's) distorted relation to +God. And how lovingly, as well as sternly, God speaks through him! That +divine lament which heralds the searching indictment is not unworthy to +be the very words of the Almighty Lover of all men, sorrowing over His +prodigal and fugitive sons. Nor is its deep truth less than its +tenderness. For is not man's sin blackest when seen against the bright +background of God's fatherly love? True, the fatherhood that Isaiah +knew referred to God's relation to the nation rather than to the +individual, but the great truth which is perfectly revealed by the +Perfect Son was in part shown to the prophet. The east was bright with +the unrisen sun, and the tinted clouds that hovered above the place of +its rising seemed as if yearning to open and let him through. Man's +neglect of God's benefits puts him below the animals that 'know' the +hand that feeds and governs them. Some men think it a token of superior +'culture' and advanced views to throw off allegiance to God. It is a +token that they have less intelligence than their dog. + +There is something very beautiful and pathetic in the fact that Judah +is not directly addressed, but that verses 2-4 are a divine soliloquy. +They might rather be called a father's lament than an indictment. The +forsaken father is, as it were, sadly brooding over his erring child's +sins, which are his father's sorrows and his own miseries. In verse 4 +the black catalogue of the prodigal's doings begins on the surface with +what we call 'moral' delinquencies, and then digs deeper to disclose +the root of these in what we call 'religious' relations perverted. The +two are inseparably united, for no man who is wrong with God can be +right with duty or with men. Notice, too, how one word flashes into +clearness the sad truth of universal experience--that 'iniquity,' +however it may delude us into fancying that by it we throw off the +burden of conscience and duty, piles heavier weights on our backs. The +doer of iniquity is 'laden with iniquity.' Notice, too, how the awful +entail of evil from parents to children is adduced--shall we say as +aggravating, or as lessening, the guilt of each generation? Isaiah's +contemporaries are 'a seed of evil-doers,' spring from such, and in +their turn are 'children that are corrupters.' The fatal bias becomes +stronger as it passes down. Heredity is a fact, whether you call it +original sin or not. + +But the bitter fountain of all evil lies in distorted relations to God. +'They have forsaken the Lord'; that is why they 'do corruptly.' They +have 'despised the Holy One of Israel'; that is why they are 'laden +with iniquity.' Alienated hearts separate from Him. To forsake Him is +to despise Him. To go from Him is to go 'away backward.' Whatever may +have been our inheritance of evil, we each go further from Him. And +this fatherly lament over Judah is indeed a wail over every child of +man. Does it not echo in the 'pearl of parables,' and may we not +suppose that it suggested that supreme revelation of man's misery and +God's love? + +After the indictment comes the sentence (vs. 5-8). Perhaps 'sentence' +is not altogether accurate, for these verses do not so much decree a +future as describe a present, and the deep tone of pitying wonder +sounds through them as they tell of the bitter harvest sown by sin. The +penetrating question, 'Why will ye be still stricken, that ye revolt +more and more?' brings out the solemn truth that all which men gain by +rebellion against God is chastisement. The ox that 'kicks against the +pricks' only makes its own hocks bleed. We aim at some imagined good, +and we get--blows. No rational answer to that stern 'Why?' is possible. +Every sin is an act of unreason, essentially an absurdity. The +consequences of Judah's sin are first darkly drawn under the metaphor +of a man desperately wounded in some fight, and far away from +physicians or nurses, and then the metaphor is interpreted by the plain +facts of hostile invasion, flaming cities, devastated fields. It +destroys the coherence of the verses to take the gruesome picture of +the wounded man as a description of men's sins; it is plainly a +description of the consequences of their sins. In accordance with the +Old Testament point of view, Isaiah deals with national calamities as +the punishment of national sins. He does not touch on the far worse +results of individual sins on individual character. But while we are +not to ignore his doctrine that nations are individual entities, and +that 'righteousness exalteth a nation' in our days as well as in his, +the Christian form of his teaching is that men lay waste their own +lives and wound their own souls by every sin. The fugitive son comes +down to be a swine-herd, and cannot get enough even of the swine's food +to stay his hunger. + +The note of pity sounds very clearly in the pathetic description of the +deserted 'daughter of Zion.' Jerusalem stands forlorn and defenceless, +like a frail booth in a vineyard, hastily run up with boughs, and open +to fierce sunshine or howling winds. Once 'beautiful for situation, the +joy of the whole earth,... the city of the great King'--and now! + +Verse 9 breaks the solemn flow of the divine Voice, but breaks it as it +desires to be broken. For in it hearts made soft and penitent by the +Voice, breathe out lowly acknowledgment of widespread sin, and see +God's mercy in the continuance of 'a very small remnant' of still +faithful ones. There is a little island not yet submerged by the sea of +iniquity, and it is to Him, not to themselves, that the 'holy seed' owe +their being kept from following the multitude to do evil. What a +smiting comparison for the national pride that is--'as Sodom,' 'like +unto Gomorrah'! + +After the sentence comes pardon. Verses 16 and 17 properly belong to +the paragraph omitted from the text, and close the stern special word +to the 'rulers' which, in its severe tone, contrasts so strongly with +the wounded love and grieved pity of the preceding verses. Moral +amendment is demanded of these high-placed sinners and false guides. It +is John the Baptist's message in an earlier form, and it clears the way +for the evangelical message. Repentance and cleansing of life come +first. + +But these stern requirements, if taken alone, kindle despair. 'Wash +you, make you clean'--easy to say, plainly necessary, and as plainly +hopelessly above my reach. If that is all that a prophet has to say to +me, he may as well say nothing. For what is the use of saying 'Arise +and walk' to the man who has been lame from his mother's womb? How can +a foul body be washed clean by filthy hands? Ancient or modern +preachers of a self-wrought-out morality exhort to impossibilities, and +unless they follow their preaching of an unattainable ideal as Isaiah +followed his, they are doomed to waste their words. He cried, 'Make you +clean,' but he immediately went on to point to One who could make +clean, could turn scarlet into snowy white, crimson into the lustrous +purity of the unstained fleeces of sheep in green pastures. The +assurance of God's forgiveness which deals with guilt, and of God's +cleansing which deals with inclination and habit, must be the +foundation of our cleansing ourselves from filthiness of flesh and +spirit. The call to repentance needs the promise of pardon and divine +help to purifying in order to become a gospel. And the call to +'repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ,' is +what we all, who are 'laden with iniquity,' and have forsaken the Lord, +need, if ever we are to cease to do evil and learn to do well. + +As with one thunder-clap the prophecy closes, pealing forth the eternal +alternative set before every soul of man. Willing obedience to our +Father God secures all good, the full satisfaction of our else hungry +and ravenous desires. To refuse and rebel is to condemn ourselves to +destruction. And no man can avert that consequence, or break the +necessary connection between goodness and blessedness, 'for the mouth +of the Lord hath spoken it,' and what He speaks stands fast for ever +and ever. + + + + +THE STUPIDITY OF GODLESSNESS + +'The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel +doth not know, My people doth not consider.'--ISAIAH i. 3. + + +This is primarily an indictment against Israel, but it touches us all. +'Doth not know' _i.e._ has no familiar acquaintance with; 'doth not +consider,' _i.e._ frivolously ignores, never meditates on. + +I. This is a common attitude of mind towards God. + +Blank indifference towards Him is far more frequent than conscious +hostility. Take a hundred men at random as they hurry through the +streets, and how many of them would have to acknowledge that no thought +of God had crossed their minds for days or months? So far as they are +concerned, either in regard to their thoughts or actions, He _is_ 'a +superfluous hypothesis.' Most men are not conscious of rebellion +against Him, and to charge them with it does not rouse conscience, but +they cannot but plead guilty to this indictment, 'God is not in all +their thoughts.' + +II. This attitude is strange and unnatural. + +That a man should be able to forget God, and live as if there were no +such Being, is strange. It is one instance of that awful power of +ignoring the most important subjects, of which every life affords so +many and tragic instances. It seems as if we had above us an opium sky +which rains down soporifics, go that we are fast asleep to all that it +most concerns us to wake to. But still stranger is it that, having that +power of attending or not attending to subjects, we should so commonly +exercise it on _this_ subject. For, as the ox that knows the hand that +feeds him, and the ass that makes for his 'master's crib' where he is +sure of fodder and straw, might teach us, the stupidest brute has sense +enough to recognise who is kind to him, or has authority over him, and +where he can find what he needs. The godless man descends below the +animals' level. And to ignore Him is intensely stupid. But it is worse +than foolish, for + +III. This attitude is voluntary and criminal. + +Though there is not conscious hostility in it, the root of it is a +sub-conscious sense of discordance with God and of antagonism between +His will and the man's When we are quite sure that we love another, and +that hearts beat in accord and wills go out towards the same things, we +do not need to make efforts to think of that other, but our minds turn +towards him or her as to a home, whenever released from the +holding-back force of necessary occupations. If we love God, and have +our will set to do His will, our thoughts will fly to Him, 'as doves to +their windows.' + +It is fed by preoccupation of thought with other things. We have but a +certain limited amount of energy of thought or attention, and if we +waste it, as much as most of us do, on 'things seen and temporal,' +there is none left for the unseen realities and the God who is +'eternal, invisible.' It is often reinforced by theoretical +uncertainty, sometimes real, often largely unreal. But after all, the +true basis of it is, what Paul gives as its cause, 'they did not _like_ +to retain God in their knowledge.' + +The criminality of this indifference! It is heartlessly ungrateful. +Dogs lick the hand that feeds them; ox and ass in their dull way +recognise something almost like obligation arising from benefits and +care. No ingratitude is meaner and baser than that of which we are +guilty, if we do not requite Him 'in whose hands our breath is, and +whose are all our ways,' by even one thankful heart-throb or one word +shaped out of the breath that He gives. + +IV. This attitude is fatal. + +It separates us from God, and separation from Him is the very +definition of Death. A God of whom we never think is all the same to us +as a God who does not exist. Strike God out of a life, and you strike +the sun out of the system, and wrap all in darkness and weltering +chaos. 'This is life eternal, to know Thee'; but if 'Israel doth not +know,' Israel has slain itself. + + + + +WHAT SIN DOES TO MEN + +'Ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no +water. 31. And the strong shall be as tow, and His work as a spark; and +they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.'--ISAIAH i. +30-31. + + +The original reference of these words is to the threatened retribution +for national idolatry, of which 'oaks' and 'gardens' were both seats. +The nation was, as it were, dried up and made inflammable; the idol was +as the 'spark' or the occasion for destruction. But a wider +application, which comes home to us all, is to the fatal results of +sin. These need to be very plainly stated, because of the deceitfulness +of sin, which goes on slaying men by thousands in silence. + + 'That grim wolf with privy paw + Daily devours apace.' + +I. Sin withers. + +We see the picture of a blasted tree in the woods, while all around are +in full leaf, with tiny leaves half developed and all brown at the +edges. The prophet draws another picture, that of a garden not +irrigated, and therefore, in the burning East, given over to barrenness. + +Sin makes men fruitless and withered. + +It involves separation from God, the source of all fruitfulness (Ps. +i.). + +Think of how many pure desires and innocent susceptibilities die out of +a sinful soul. Think of how many capacities for good disappear. Think +of how dry and seared the heart becomes. Think of how conscience is +stifled. + +All sin--any sin--does this. + +Not only gross, open transgressions, but any piece of godless living +will do it. + +Whatever a man does against his conscience--neglect of duty, habitual +unveracity, idleness--in a word, his besetting sin withers him up. + +And all the while the evil thing that is drawing his life-blood is +growing like a poisonous, blotched fungus in a wine-cask. + +II. Sin makes men inflammable. + +'As tow' or tinder. + +A subsidiary reference may be intended to the sinful man as easily +catching fire at temptation. But the main thought is that sin makes a +man ready for destruction, 'whose end is to be burned.' + +The materials for retribution are laid up in a man's nature by +wrong-doing. The conspirators store the dynamite in a dark cellar. +Conscience and memory are charged with explosives. + +If tendencies, habits, and desires become tyrannous by long indulgence +and cannot be indulged, what a fierce fire would rage then! + +We have only to suppose a man made to know what is the real moral +character of his actions, and to be unable to give them up, to have +hell. + +All this is confirmed by occasional glimpses which men get of +themselves. Our own characters are the true Medusa-head which turns a +man into stone when he sees it. + +What, then, are we really doing by our sins? Piling together fuel for +burning. + +III. Sin burns up. + +'Work as a spark.' The evil deeds brought into contact with the doer +work destruction. That is, if, in a future life or at any time, a man +is brought face to face with his acts, then retribution begins. We +shake off the burden of our actions by want of remembrance. But that +power of ignoring the past may be broken down at any time. Suppose it +happens that in another world it can no longer be exercised, what then? + +Evil deeds are the occasion of the divine retribution. They are 'a +spark.' It is they who light the pyre, not God. The prophet here +protests in God's name against the notion that He is to be blamed for +punishing. Men are their own self-tormentors. The sinful man immolates +himself. Like Isaac, he carries the wood and lays the pile for his own +burning. + +Christ severs the connection between us and our evil. He restores +beauty and freshness to the blighted tree, planting it as 'by the river +of water,' so that it 'bringeth forth its fruit in its season,' and its +'leaf also doth not wither.' + + + + +THE PERPETUAL PILLAR OF CLOUD AND FIRE + +'And the Lord will create over the whole habitation of Mount Zion, and +over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a +flaming fire by night.'--ISAIAH iv. 5. + + +The pillar of cloud and fire in the Exodus was one: there are to be as +many pillars as there are 'assemblies' in the new era. Is it straining +the language too much to find significance in that difference? Instead +of the formal unity of the Old Covenant, there is a variety which yet +is a more vital unity. Is there not a hint here of the same lesson that +is taught by the change of the one golden lamp-stand into the seven, +which are a better unity because Jesus Christ walks among them? + +The heart of this promise, thus cast into the form of ancient +experiences, but with significant variations, is that of true communion +with God. + +That communion makes those who have it glorious. + +That communion supplies unfailing guidance. + +A man in close fellowship with God will have wonderful flashes of +sagacity, even about small practical matters. The gleam of the pillar +will illumine conscience, and shine on many difficult, dark places. The +'simplicity' of a saintly soul will often see deeper into puzzling +contingencies than the vulpine craftiness of the 'prudent.' The darker +the night, the brighter the guidance. + +That communion gives a defence. + +The pillar came between Egypt and Israel, and kept the foe off the +timid crowd of slaves. Whatever forms our enemies take, fellowship with +God will invest us with a defence as protean as our perils. The same +cloud is represented in the context as being 'a pavilion for a shadow +in the heat, and for a refuge and for a covert from storm and from +rain.' + + + + +A PROPHET'S WOES + +'Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till +there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the +earth! 9. In mine ears said the Lord of hosts, Of a truth many houses +shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant. 10. Yea, +ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer +shall yield an ephah. 11. Woe unto them that rise up early in the +morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, +till wine inflame them! 12. And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and +pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of +the Lord, neither consider the operation of His hands. 13. Therefore my +people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and +their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with +thirst. 14. Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth +without measure: and their glory and their multitude, and their pomp, +and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it. 15. And the mean man +shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the +eyes of the lofty shall be humbled: 16. But the Lord of hosts shall be +exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in +righteousness. 17. Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and +the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat. 18. Woe unto them +that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart +rope: 19. That say, Let Him make speed, and hasten His work, that we +may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and +come, that we may know it! 20. Woe unto them that call evil good, and +good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that +put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! 21. Woe unto them that are +wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! 22. Woe unto +them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle +strong drink: 23. Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away +the righteousness of the righteous from him! 24. Therefore as the fire +devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root +shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because +they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word +of the Holy One of Israel. 25. Therefore is the anger of the Lord +kindled against His people, and He hath stretched forth His hand +against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and +their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this His +anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still. 26. And +He will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto +them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed +swiftly: 17. None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall +slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, +nor the latchet of their shoes be broken: 28. Whose arrows are sharp, +and all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs shall be counted like +flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind: 29. Their roaring shall be +like a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, +and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall +deliver it. 30. And in that day they shall roar against them like the +roaring of the sea: and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and +sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.'--ISAIAH v. +8-30. + + +Drunkenness is, in this text, one of a ring of plague-spots on the body +politic of Judah. The prophet six times proclaims 'woe' as the +inevitable end of these; such 'sickness' is 'unto death' unless +repentance and another course of conduct bring healing. But drunkenness +appears twice in this grim catalogue, and the longest paragraph of +denunciation (vv, 11-17) is devoted to it. Its connection with the +other vices attacked is loose, but it is worth noting that all these +have an inner kinship, and tend to appear together. They are 'all in a +string,' and where a community is cursed with one, the others will not +be far away. They are a knot of serpents intertwined. We touch but +slightly on the other vices denounced by the prophet's burning words, +but we must premise the general observation that the same +uncompromising plainness and boldness in speaking out as to social sins +ought to characterise Christian teachers to-day. The prophet's office +is not extinct in the church. + +The first plague-spot is the accumulation of wealth in few hands, and +the selfish withdrawal of its possessors from the life of the +community. In an agricultural society like that of Judah, that clotting +of wealth took the shape of 'land-grabbing,' and of evicting the small +proprietors. We see it in more virulent forms in our great commercial +centres, where the big men often become big by crushing out the little +ones, and denude themselves of responsibility to the community in +proportion as they clothe themselves with wealth. Wherever wealth is +thus congested, and its obligations ignored by selfish indulgence, the +seeds are sown which will spring up one day in 'anarchism.' A man need +not be a prophet to have it whispered in his ear, as Isaiah had, that +the end of selfish capitalism is a convulsion in which 'many houses +shall be desolate,' and many fields barren. England needs the warning +as much as Isaiah's Judah did. + +Such selfish wealth leads, among other curses, to indolence and +drunkenness, as the next woe shows. The people described make drinking +the business of their lives, beginning early and sitting late. They +have a varnish of art over their swinishness, and must have music as +well as wine. So, in many a drink-shop in England, a piano or a band +adds to the attractions, and gives a false air of aestheticism to pure +animalism. Isaiah feels the incongruity that music should be so +prostituted, and expresses it by adding to his list of musical +instruments 'and wine' as if he would underscore the degradation of the +great art to be the cupbearer of sots. Such revellers are blind to the +manifest tokens of God's working, and the 'operation of His hands' +excites only the tipsy gaze which sees nothing. That is one of the +curses which dog the drunkard-that he takes no warning from the plain +results of his vice as seen in others. He knows that it means shattered +health, ruined prospects, broken hearts, but nothing rouses him from +his fancy of impunity. High, serious thoughts of God and His government +of the world and of each life are strange to him. His sin compels him +to be godless, if he is not to go mad. But sometimes he wakes to a +moment's sight of realities, and then he is miserable till his next +bout buys fatal forgetfulness. + +The prophet forces the end of a drunken nation on the unwilling +attention of the roisterers, in verses 13-17, which throb with +vehemence of warning and gloomy eloquence. What can such a people come +to but destruction? Knowledge must languish, hunger and thirst must +follow. Like some monster's gaping mouth, the pit yawns for them; and, +drawn as by irresistible attraction, the pomp and the wicked, senseless +jollity elide down into it. In the universal catastrophe, one thing +alone stands upright, and is lifted higher, because all else has sunk +so far,-the righteous judgment of the forgotten God. The grim picture +is as true for individuals and their deaths as for a nation and its +decay. And modern nations cannot afford to have this ulcer of +drunkenness draining away their strength any more than Judah could. 'By +the soul only are the nations great and free,' and a people can be +neither where the drink fiend has his way. + +Three woes follow which are closely connected. That pronounced on +daring evil-doers, who not only let sin draw them to itself, but go +more than halfway to meet it, needing no temptation, but drawing it to +them eagerly, and scoffing at the merciful warnings of fatal +consequences, comes first. Next is a woe on those who play fast and +loose with plain morality, sophisticating conscience, and sapping the +foundations of law. Such juggling follows sensual indulgence such as +drunkenness, when it becomes habitual and audacious, as in the +preceding woe. Loose or perverted codes of morality generally spring +from bad living, seeking to shelter itself. Vicious principles are an +afterthought to screen vicious practices. The last subject of the +triple woes is self-conceit and pretence to superior illumination. Such +very superior persons are emancipated from the rules which bind the +common herd. They are so very clever that they have far outgrown the +creeping moralities, which may do for old women and children. Do we not +know the sort of people? Have we none of them surviving to-day? + +Then Isaiah comes back to his theme of drunkenness, but in a new +connection. It poisons the fountain of justice. There is a world of +indignant contempt in the prophet's scathing picture of those who are +'mighty' and 'men of strength,'-but how is their strength shown? They +can stand any quantity of wine, and can 'mix their drinks,' and yet +look sober! What a noble use to put a good constitution to! These +valiant topers are in authority as judges, and they sell their +judgments to get money for their debauches. We do not see much of such +scandals among us, but yet we have heard of leagues between +liquor-sellers and municipal authorities, which certainly do _not_ +'make for righteousness.' When shall we learn and practise the lesson +that Isaiah was reading his countrymen,--that it is fatal to a nation +when the private character of public men is regarded as of no account +in political and civic life? The prophet had no doubt as to what must +be the end of a state of things in which the very courts of law were +honeycombed with corruption, and demoralised by the power of drink. His +tremendous image of a fierce fire raging across a dry prairie, and +burning the grass to its very roots, while the air is stifling with the +thick 'dust' of the conflagration, proclaims the sure fate, sooner or +later, of every community and individual that 'rejects the law of the +Lord of Hosts, and despises the word of the Holy One of Israel.' Change +the name, and the tale is told of us; for it is 'righteousness that +exalteth a nation,' and no single vice drags after it more infallibly +such a multitude of attendant demons as the vice of drunkenness, which +is a crying sin of England to-day. + + + + +VISION AND SERVICE + +'In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a +throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. 2. Above +it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered +his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did +fly. 3. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the +Lord of Hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory. 4. And the posts +of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was +filled with smoke. 5. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because +I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of +unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. 6. +Then flew one of the seraphims onto me, having a live coal in his hand, +which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: 7. And he laid it +upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine +iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. 8. Also I heard the voice +of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then +said I, Here am I; send me. 9. And he said, Go, and tell this people, +Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive +not. 10. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, +and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their +ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. 11. +Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be +wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be +utterly desolate, 12. And the Lord have removed men far away, and there +be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. 13. But yet in it shall +be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a tell tree, +and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: +so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.'--ISAIAH vi. 1-13. + + +WE may deal with this text as falling into three parts: the vision, its +effect on the prophet, and his commission. + +I. The Vision.--'In the year that King Uzziah died' is more than a date +for chronological accuracy. It tells not only when, but why, the vision +was given. The throne of David was empty. + +God never empties places in our homes and hearts, or in the nation or +the Church, without being ready to fill them. He sometimes empties them +that He may fill them. Sorrow and loss are meant to prepare us for the +vision of God, and their effect should be to purge the inward eye, that +it may see Him. When the leaves drop from the forest trees we can see +the blue sky which their dense abundance hid. Well for us if the +passing of all that can pass drives us to Him who cannot pass, if the +unchanging God stands out more clear, more near, more dear, because of +change. + +As to the substance of this vision, we need not discuss whether, if we +had been there, we should have seen anything. It was doubtless related +to Isaiah's thoughts, for God does not send visions which have no point +of contact in the recipient. However communicated, it was a divine +communication, and a temporary unveiling of an eternal reality. The +form was transient, but Isaiah then saw for a moment 'the things which +are' and always are. + +The essential point of the vision is the revelation of Jehovah as king +of Judah. That relation guaranteed defence and demanded obedience. It +was a sure basis of hope, but also a stringent motive to loyalty, and +it had its side of terror as well as of joyfulness. 'You only have I +known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for +all your iniquities.' The place of vision is the heavenly sanctuary of +which the temple was a prophecy. Eminently significant and +characteristic of the whole genius of the Old Testament is the absence +of any description of the divine appearance. The prophet saw things +'which it is not lawful for a man to utter,' and his silence is not +only reverent, but more eloquent than any attempt to put the Ineffable +into words. Even in this act of manifestation God was veiled, and +'_there_ was the hiding of His power.' The train of His robe can be +spoken of, but not the form which it concealed even in revealing it. +Nature is the robe of God. It hides while it discloses, and discloses +while it hides. + +The hovering seraphim were in the attitude of service. They are +probably represented as fiery forms, but are spoken of nowhere else in +Scripture. The significance of their attitude has been well given by +Jewish commentators, who say, 'with two he covered his face that he +might not see, and with two he covered his body that he might not be +seen' and we may add, 'with two he stood ready for service, by flight +whithersoever the King would send.' Such awe-stricken reverence, such +humble hiding of self, such alacrity for swift obedience, such flaming +ardours of love and devotion, should be ours. Their song celebrated the +holiness and the glory of Jehovah of hosts. We must ever remember that +the root-meaning of 'holiness' is separation, and that the popular +meaning of moral purity is secondary and derivative. What is +rapturously sung in the threefold invocation of the seraphs is the +infinite exaltation of Jehovah above all creatural conditions, +limitations, and, we may add, conceptions. That separation, of course, +includes purity, as may be seen from the immediate effect of the vision +on the prophet, but the conception is much wider than that. Very +beautifully does the second line of the song re-knit the connection +between Jehovah and this world, so far beneath Him, which the burst of +praise of His holiness seems to sever. The high heaven is a bending +arch; its inaccessible heights ray down sunshine and drop down rain, +and, as in the physical world, every plant grows by Heaven's gift, so +in the world of humanity all wisdom, goodness, and joy are from the +Father of lights. God's 'glory' is the flashing lustre of His +manifested holiness, which fills the earth as the train of the robe +filled the temple. The vibrations of that mighty hymn shook the +'foundations of the threshold' (Rev. Ver.) with its thunderous +harmonies. 'The house was filled with smoke' which, since it was an +effect of the seraph's praise, is best explained as referring to the +fragrant smoke of incense which, as we know, symbolised 'the prayers of +saints.' + +II. The effect of the vision on the prophet.--The vision kindled as +with a flash Isaiah's consciousness of sin. He expressed it in regard +to his words rather than his works, partly because in one aspect speech +is even more accurately than act a cast, as it were, of character, and +partly because he could not but feel the difference between the mighty +music that burst from these pure and burning lips and the words that +flowed from and soiled his own. Not only the consciousness of sin, but +the dread of personal evil consequences from the vision of the holy +God, oppressed his heart. We see ourselves when we see God. Once flash +on a heart the thought of God's holiness, and, like an electric +search-light, it discloses flaws which pass unnoticed in dimmer light. +The easy-going Christianity, which is the apology for religion with so +many of us, has no deep sense of sin, because it has no clear vision of +God. 'I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye +seeth Thee: wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.' + +The next stage in Isaiah's experience is that sin recognised and +confessed is burned away. Cleansing rather than forgiveness is here +emphasised. The latter is, of course, included, but the main point is +the removal of impurity. It is mediated by one of the seraphim, who is +the messenger of God, which is just a symbolical way of saying that God +makes penitents 'partakers of His holiness,' and that nothing less than +a divine communication will make cleansing possible. It is effected by +a live coal. Fire is purifying, and the New Testament has taught us +that the true cleansing fire is that of the Holy Spirit. But that live +coal was taken from the altar. The atoning sacrifice has been offered +there, and our cleansing depends on the efficacy of that sacrifice +being applied to us. + +The third stage in the prophet's experience is the readiness for +service which springs up in his purged heart. God seeks for volunteers. +There are no pressed men in His army. The previous experiences made +Isaiah quick to hear God's call, and willing to respond to it by +personal consecration. Take the motive-power of redemption from sin out +of Christianity, and you break its mainspring, so that the clock will +only tick when it is shaken. It is the Christ who died for our sins to +whom men say, 'Command what Thou wilt, and I obey.' + +III. The prophet's commission.--He was not sent on his work with any +illusions as to its success, but, on the contrary, he had a clear +premonition that its effect would be to deepen the spiritual deafness +and blindness of the nation. We must remember that in Scripture the +certain effect of divine acts is uniformly regarded as a divine design. +Israel was so sunk in spiritual deadness that the issue of the +prophet's work would only be to immerse the mass of 'this people' +farther in it. To some more susceptible souls his message would be a +true divine voice, rousing them like a trumpet, and that effect was +what God desired; but to the greater number it would deepen their +torpor and increase their condemnation. If men love darkness rather +than light, the coming of the light works only judgment. + +Isaiah recoils from the dreary prospect, and feels that this dreadful +hardening cannot be God's ultimate purpose for the nation. So he humbly +and wistfully asks how long it is to last. The answer is twofold, heavy +with a weight of apparently utter ruin in its first part, but +disclosing a faint, far-off gleam of hope on its second. Complete +destruction, and the casting of Israel out from the land, are to come. +But as, though a goodly tree is felled, a stump remains which has vital +force (or _substance_) in it, so, even in the utmost apparent +desperateness of Israel's state, there will be in it 'the holy seed,' +the 'remnant,' the true Israel, from which again the life shall spring, +and stem and branches and waving foliage once more grow up. + + + + +THE EMPTY THRONE FILLED + +'In the year that King Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a +throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple.'--ISAIAH +vi. 1. + + +Uzziah had reigned for fifty-two years, during the greater part of +which he and his people had been brilliantly prosperous. Victorious in +war, he was also successful in the arts of peaceful industry. The later +years of his life were clouded, but on the whole the reign had been a +time of great well-being. His son and successor was a young man of +five-and-twenty; and when he came to the throne ominous war-clouds were +gathering in the North, and threatening to drift to Judah. No wonder +that the prophet, like other thoughtful patriots, was asking himself +what was to come in these anxious days, when the helm was in new hands, +which, perhaps, were not strong enough to hold it. Like a wise man, he +took his thoughts into the sanctuary; and there he understood. As he +brooded, this great vision was disclosed to his inward eye. 'In the +year that King Uzziah died' is a great deal more than a date for +chronological purposes. It tells us not only the _when_, but the _why_, +of the vision. The earthly king was laid in the grave; but the prophet +saw that the true King of Israel was neither the dead Uzziah nor the +young Jotham, but the Lord of hosts. And, seeing that, fears and +forebodings and anxieties and the sense of loss, all vanished; and new +strength came to Isaiah. He went into the temple laden with anxious +thoughts; he came out of it with a springy step and a lightened heart, +and the resolve 'Here am I; send me.' There are some lessons that seem +to me of great importance for the conduct of our daily life which may +be gathered from this remarkable vision, with the remarkable note of +time that is appended to it. + +Now, before I pass on, let me remind you, in a word, of that apparently +audacious commentary upon this great vision, which the Evangelist John +gives us: 'These things said Esaias, when he had beheld _His_ glory and +spake of _Him_.' Then the Christ is the manifest Jehovah; is the King +of Glory. Then the vision which was but a transitory revelation is the +revelation of an eternal reality, and 'the vision splendid' does not +'fade but brightens, into the light of common day'; when instead of +being flashed only on the inward eye of a prophet, it is made flesh and +walks amongst us, and lives our life, and dies our death. Our eyes have +seen the King in as true a reality, and in better fashion, than ever +Isaiah did amid the sanctities of the Temple. And the eyes that have +seen only the near foreground, the cultivated valleys, and the homes of +men, are raised, and lo! the long line of glittering peaks, calm, +silent, pure. Who will look at the valleys when the Himalayas stand +out, and the veil is drawn aside? + +I. Let me say a word or two about the ministration of loss and sorrow +in preparing for the vision. + +It was when 'King Uzziah died' that the prophet 'saw the Lord sitting +upon the throne.' If the Throne of Israel had not been empty, he would +not have seen the throned God in the heavens. And so it is with all our +losses, with all our sorrows, with all our disappointments, with all +our pains; they have a mission to reveal to us the throned God. The +possession of the things that are taken away from us, the joys which +our sorrows smite into dust, have the same mission, and the highest +purpose of every good, of every blessing, of every possession, of every +gladness, of all love--the highest mission is to lead us to Him. But, +just as men will frost a window, so that the light may come in but the +sight cannot go out, so by our own fault and misuse of the good things +which are meant to lead us up to, and to show us, God, we frost and +darken the window so that we cannot see what it is meant to show us. +And then a mighty and merciful hand shivers the painted glass into +fragments, because it has been dimming 'the white radiance of +Eternity.' And though the casement may look gaunt, and the edges of the +broken glass may cut and wound, yet the view is unimpeded. When the +gifts that we have misused are withdrawn, we can see the heaven that +they too often hide from us. When the leaves drop there is a wider +prospect. When the great tree is fallen there is opened a view of the +blue above. When the night falls the stars sparkle. When other props +are struck away we can lean our whole weight upon God. When Uzziah dies +the King becomes visible. + +Is that what our sorrows, our pains, losses, disappointments do for us? +Well for those to whom loss is gain, because it puts them in possession +of the enduring riches! Well for those to whom the passing of all that +can pass is a means of revealing Him who 'is the same yesterday, and +to-day, and for ever'! The message to us of all these our pains and +griefs is 'Come up hither.' In them all our Father is saying to us, +'Seek ye My face.' Well for those who answer, 'Thy face, Lord, will I +seek. Hide not Thy face far from me.' + +Let us take care that we do not waste our griefs and sorrows. They +absorb us sometimes with vain regrets. They jaundice and embitter us +sometimes with rebellious thoughts. They often break the springs of +activity and of interest in others, and of sympathy with others. But +their true intention is to draw back the thin curtain, and to show us +'the things that are,' the realities of the throned God, the skirts +that fill the Temple, the hovering seraphim, and the coal from the +altar that purges. + +II. Let me suggest how our text shows us the compensation that is given +for all losses. + +As I have pointed out already, the thought conveyed to the prophet by +this vision was not only the general one, of God's sovereign rule, but +the special one of His rule over and for, and His protection of, the +orphan kingdom which had lost its king. The vision took the special +shape that the moment required. It was because the earthly king was +dead that the living, heavenly King was revealed. + +So there is just suggested by it this general thought, that the +consciousness of God's presence and work for us takes in each heart the +precise shape that its momentary necessities and circumstances require. +That infinite fulness is of such a nature as that it will assume any +form for which the weakness and the need of the dependent creature +call. Like the one force which scientists now are beginning to think +underlies all the various manifestations of energy in nature, whether +they be named light, heat, motion, electricity, chemical action, or +gravitation, the one same vision of the throned God, manifest in Jesus +Christ, is protean. Here it flames as light, there burns as heat, there +flashes as electricity; here as gravitation holds the atoms together, +there as chemical energy separated and decomposes them; here results in +motion, there in rest; but is the one force. And so the one God will +become everything and anything that every man, and each man, requires. +He shapes himself according to our need. The water of life does not +disdain to take the form imposed upon it by the vessel into which it is +poured. The Jews used to say that the manna in the wilderness tasted to +each man as each man desired. And the God, who comes to us all, comes +to us each in the shape that we need; just as He came to Isaiah in the +manifestation of His _kingly_ power, because the throne of Judah was +vacated. + +So when our hearts are sore with loss, the New Testament Manifestation +of the King, even Jesus Christ, comes to us and says, 'The same is my +mother and sister and brother,' and His sweet love compensates for the +love that can die, and that has died. When losses come to us He draws +near, as durable riches and righteousness. In all our pains He is our +anodyne, and in all our griefs He brings the comfort; He is all in all, +and each withdrawn gift is compensated, or will be compensated, to each +in Him. + +So, dear friends, let us learn God's purpose in emptying hearts and +chairs and homes. He empties them that He may fill them with Himself. +He takes us, if I might so say, into the darkness, as travellers to the +south are to-day passing through Alpine tunnels, in order that He may +bring us out into the land where 'God Himself is sun and moon,' and +where there are ampler ether and brighter constellations than in these +lands where we dwell. He means that, when Uzziah dies, our hearts shall +see the King. And for all mourners, for all tortured hearts, for all +from whom stays have been stricken and resources withdrawn, the old +word is true: 'Lord shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.' + +Let me recall to you what I have already insisted on more than once, +that the perfecting of this vision is in the historical fact of the +Incarnate Son. Jesus Christ shows us God. Jesus Christ is the King of +Glory. If we will go to Him, and fix our eyes and hearts on Him, then +losses may come, and we shall be none the poorer; death may unclasp our +hands from dear hands, but He will close a dearer one round the hand +that is groping for a stay; and nothing can betaken away but He will +more than fill the gap it leaves by His own sweet presence. If our eyes +behold the King, if we are like John the Seer in his rocky Patmos, and +see the Christ in His glory and royalty, then He will lay His hands on +us and say, 'Fear not! Weep not; I am the First and the Last,' and +forebodings, and fears, and sense of loss will all be changed into +trustfulness and patient submission. 'Seeing Him, who is invisible,' we +shall be able to endure and to toil, until the time when the vision of +earth is perfected by the beholding of heaven. Blessed are they who +with purged eyes see, and with yielding hearts obey, the heavenly +vision, and turn to the King and offer themselves for any service He +may require, saying, 'Here am I; send me.' + + + + +A SERAPH'S WINGS + +'With twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, +and with twain he did fly.'--ISAIAH vi. 2. + + +This is the only mention in Scripture of the seraphim. I do not need to +enter upon the much-debated, and in some respects interesting, question +as to whether these are to be taken as identical with the cherubim, or +as to whether they are altogether imaginary and symbolical beings, nor +as to whether they are identical with the angels, or part of their +hierarchy. All that may be left on one side. I would only notice, +before I deal with the specific words of my text, the significance of +the name. It means 'the flaming' or 'burning ones,' and so the +attendants of the divine glory in the heavens, whether they be real or +imaginary beings, are represented as flashing with splendour, as full +of swift energy, like a flame of fire, as glowing with fervid love, as +blazing with enthusiasm. That is the type of the highest creatural +being, which stands closest to God. There is no ice in His presence, +and the nearer we get to Him in truth, the more we shall glow and burn. +Cold religion is a contradiction in terms, though, alas, it is a +reality in professors. + +And so with that explanation, and putting aside all these other +questions, let us gather up some, at least, of the lessons as to the +essentials of worship, and try to grasp the prophecy of the heavenly +state, given us in these words. + + +I. The Wings of Reverence. + +He covered his face, or _they_ covered _their_ faces, lest they should +see. As a man brought suddenly into the sunlight, especially if out of +a darkened chamber, by an instinctive action shades his eyes with his +hand, so these burning creatures, confronted with the still more fervid +and fiery light of the divine nature, fold one pair of their great +white pinions over their shining faces, even whilst they cry 'Holy! +Holy! Holy! is the Lord God Almighty!' + +And does not that teach us the incapacity of the highest creature, with +the purest vision, to gaze undazzled into the shining light of God? I, +for my part, do not believe that any conceivable extension of creatural +faculties, or any conceivable hallowing of creatural natures, can make +the creature able to gaze upon God. I know that it is often said that +the joy of the future life for men is what the theologians call 'the +beatific vision,' in which there shall be direct sight of God, using +that word in its highest sense, as applied to the perceptions of the +spirit, and not of the sense. But I do not think the Bible teaches us +that. It does teach us 'We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as +He is.' But who is the 'Him'? Jesus Christ. And, in my belief, Jesus +Christ will, to all eternity, be the medium of manifesting God, and +there will remain, to all eternity, the incapacity which clogs +creatures in time--' No man hath seen God at any time, nor _can_ see +Him.' + +But my text, whilst it thus suggests solemn thoughts of a Light that +cannot be looked at with undazzled eyes, does also suggest to us by +contrast the possibility of far feebler-sighted and more sinful +creatures than these symbolical seraphs coming into a Presence in which +God shall be manifest to them; and they will need no veil drawn by +themselves across their eyes. God has veiled Himself, that 'we, with +unveiled faces, beholding His glory, may be changed into the same +image.' So the seraph, with his white wings folded before his eyes, may +at once stand to us as a parallel and a contrast to what the Christian +may expect. We, _we_ can see Jesus, with no incapacity except such as +may be swept away by His grace and our will. And direct vision of the +whole Christ is the heaven of heaven, even as the partial vision of the +partially perceived Christ is the sweetest sweetness of a life on earth. + +There is no need for us to draw any screen between our happy eyes and +the Face in which we 'behold the glory as of the only Begotten of the +Father.' All the tempering that the divine lustre needed has been done +by Him who veils His glory with the veil of Christ's flesh, and therein +does away the need for any veil that we can draw. + +But, beyond that, there is another consideration that I should like to +suggest, as taught us by the use of this first pair of the six wings, +and that is the absolute need for the lowliest reverence in our worship +of God. It is strange, but true, I am afraid, that the Christian danger +is to weaken the sense of the majesty and splendour and separation of +God from His creatures. And all that is good in the Christian +revelation may be so abused as that there shall come, what I am sure +does in effect sometimes come, a terrible lack of due reverence in our +so-called worship. What does that lofty chorus of 'Holy! Holy! Holy!' +that burst from those immortal lips mean but the declaration that God +is high above, and separate from, all limitations and imperfections of +creatures? And we Christians, who hear it re-echoed in the very last +Book of Scripture by the four-and-twenty elders who represent redeemed +humanity, have need to take heed that we do not lose our reverence in +our confidence, and that we do not part with godly fear in our filial +love. If one looks at a congregation of professing Christians engaged +in their worship, does not one feel and see that there is often a +carelessness and shallowness, a want of realisation of the majesty and +sanctity and tremendousness of that Father to whom we draw near? +Brethren, if a seraph hides his face, surely it becomes us to see to it +that, since we worship a God who is a consuming fire,' we serve Him +with far deeper 'reverence and godly fear' than ordinarily mark our +devotions. + + +II. The Wings of Humility. + +'With twain he covered his feet.' The less comely and inferior parts of +that fiery corporeity were veiled lest they should be seen by the Eyes +that see all things. The wings made no screen that hid the seraph's +feet from the eye of God, but it was the instinctive lowly sense of +unworthiness that folded them across the feet, even though they, too, +burned as a furnace. The nearer we get to God, the more we shall be +aware of our limitations and unworthiness, and it is because that +vision of the Lord sitting on 'His throne, high and lifted up,' with +the thrilling sense of His glory filling the holy temple of the +universe, does not burn before us that we can conceit ourselves to have +anything worth pluming ourselves upon. Once lift the curtain, once let +my eye be flooded with the sight of God, and away goes all my +self-conceit, and all my fancied superiority above others. One little +molehill is pretty nearly the same height as another, if you measure +them both against the top of the Himalayas, that lie in the background, +with their glittering peaks of snow. 'Star differeth from star in +glory' in a winter's night, but when the great sun swims into the sky, +they all vanish together. If you and I saw God burning before us, as +Isaiah saw Him, we should veil ourselves, and lose all that which so +often veils Him from us--the fancy that we are anything when we are +nothing. And the nearer we get to God, and the purer we are, the more +shall we be keenly conscious of our imperfections and our sins. 'If I +say I am perfect,' said Job in his wise way, 'this also should prove me +perverse.' Consciousness of sin is the continual accompaniment of +growth in holiness. 'The heavens are not pure in His sight, and He +chargeth His angels with folly.' Everything looks black beside that +sovereign whiteness. Get God into your lives, and you will see that the +feet need to be washed, and you will cry, 'Lord! not my feet only, but +my hands and my head!' + + +III. Lastly-The Wings for Service. + +'With twain he did fly.' That is the emblem of joyous, buoyant, +unhindered motion. It is strongly, sadly contrary to the toilsome +limitations of us heavy creatures who have no wings, but can at best +run on His service, and often find it hard to 'walk with patience in +the way that is set before us.' But--service with wings, or service +with lame feet, it matters not. Whosoever, beholding God, has found +need to hide his face from that Light even whilst he comes into the +Light, and to veil his feet from the all-seeing Eye, will also feel +impulses to go forth in His service. For the perfection of worship is +neither the consciousness of my own insufficiency, nor the humble +recognition of His glory, nor the great voice of praise that thrilled +from those immortal lips, but it is the doing of His will in daily +life. Some people say the service of man is the service of God. Yes, +when it is service of man, done for God's sake, it is so, and only +then. The old motto, 'Work is worship,' may preach a great truth or a +most dangerous error. But there is no possibility of error or danger in +maintaining this: that the climax and crown of all worship, whether for +us footsore servants upon earth, or for these winged attendants on the +throne of the King in the heavens, is activity in obedience. And that +is what is set before us here. + +Now, dear brethren, we, as Christians, have a far higher motive for +service than the seraphs had. We have been redeemed, and the spirit of +the old Psalm should animate all our obedience: 'O Lord, truly I am Thy +servant.' Why? The next clause tells us: 'Thou hast loosed my bonds.' +The seraphs could not say that, and therefore our obedience, our +activity in doing the will of the Father in heaven, should be more +buoyant, more joyful, more swift, more unrestricted than even theirs. + +The seraphim were winged for service even while they stood above the +throne and pealed forth their thunderous praise which shook the Temple. +May we not discern in that a hint of the blessed blending of two modes +of worship which will be perfectly united in heaven, and which we +should aim at harmonising even on earth? 'His servants serve Him and +see His face.' There is possible, even on earth, some foretaste of the +perfection of that heavenly state in which no worship in service shall +interfere with the worship in contemplation. Mary, sitting at Christ's +feet, and Martha, busy in providing for His comfort, may be, to a large +extent, united in us even here, and will be perfectly so hereafter, +when the practical and the contemplative, the worship of noble +aspiration, of heart-filling gazing, and that of active service shall +be indissolubly blended. + +The seraphs sang 'Holy! Holy! Holy!' but they, and all the hosts of +heaven, learn a new song from the experience of earth, and redeemed men +are the chorus-leaders of the perfected and eternal worship of the +heavens. For we read that it is the four-and-twenty elders who begin +the song and sing to the Lamb that redeemed them by His blood, and that +the living creatures and all the hosts of the angels to that song can +but say 'Amen!' + + + + +THE MAKING OF A PROPHET + +'Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean +lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine +eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.'--ISAIAH vi. 5. + + +In previous pages we have seen how Isaiah's vision of Jehovah throned +in the Temple, 'high and lifted up,' derived significance from the time +of its occurrence. It was 'in the year that' the earthly King 'died' +that the heavenly King was revealed. The passing of the transient +prepared the way for the revelation of the Eternal, and the revelation +of the Eternal more than compensated for the passing of the transient. +But strengthening and calming as these thoughts are, they by no means +exhaust the purpose of the vision, nor do they describe all its effects +on the recipient. These were, first and immediately, the consciousness +of unworthiness and sin, expressed in the words that I have taken for +my text. Then came the touch of the 'live coal from the altar,' laid on +the unclean lips by the seraph; and on that followed willing surrender +for a perilous service. + +These three stages flowing from the vision of God, recognition of sin, +experience of purging, abandonment to obedience and service, must be +repeated in us all, if we are to live worthy lives. There may be much +that is beautiful and elevating and noble without these; but unless in +some measure we pass through the prophet's experience, we shall fail to +reach the highest possibilities of beauty and of service that open +before us. So I wish to consider, very simply, these three stages in my +remarks now. + +I. If we see _God_ we shall see our _sin_. + +There came on the prophet, as in a flash, the two convictions, one +which he learned from the song of the seraphs, ringing in music through +the Temple, and one which rose up, like an answering note from the +voice of conscience within. They sang 'Holy! holy! holy! Lord God +Almighty.' And what was the response to that, in the prophet's +heart?--'I am unclean.' Each major note has a corresponding minor, and +the triumphant doxology of the seraph wakes in the hearer's conscience +the lowly confession of personal unlikeness to the holiness of God. It +was not joy that sprang in Isaiah's heart when he saw the throned King, +and heard the proclamation of His name. It was not reverence merely +that bowed his head in the dust, but it was the awakened consciousness, +'Thou art holy; and now that I understand, in some measure, what Thy +holiness means, I look on myself and I say, "unclean! unclean!"' + +The prophet's confession assumes a form which may strike us as somewhat +singular. Why is it that he speaks of 'unclean lips,' rather than of an +unclean heart? I suppose partly because, in a very deep sense, a man's +words are more accurately a cast, as it were, from a man's character +than even his actions, and partly because the immediate occasion of his +confession was the words of the seraphim, and he could not but contrast +what came burning from their pure lips with what had trickled from, and +soiled, his own. + +But, however expressed, the consciousness of personal unlikeness to the +holiness of God is the first result, and the instantaneous result, of +any real apprehension of that holiness, and of any true vision of Him. +Like some search-light flung from a ship over the darkling waters, +revealing the dark doings of the enemy away out yonder in the night, +the thought of God and His holiness streaming in upon a man's soul, if +it does so in any adequate measure, is sure to disclose the heaving +waters and the skulking foes that are busy in the dark. + +But it was not only the consciousness of sinfulness and antagonism that +woke up instantaneously in response to that vision of the holy God. It +was likewise a shrinking apprehension of personal evil from contact of +God's light with Isaiah's darkness. 'Who shall ascend into the hill of +the Lord? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart.' What is to +become, then, of the man that has neither the one nor the other? The +experience of all the world witnesses that whenever there comes, in +reality, or in a man's conceptions or fancy, the contact of the +supernatural, as it is called, with the natural, there is a shrinking, +a sense of eerieness, an apprehension of vague possibilities of evil. +The sleeping snake that is coiled in every soul stirs and begins to +heave in its bulk, and wake, when the thought of a holy God comes into +the heart. Now, I do not suppose that consciousness of sin is the whole +explanation of that universal human feeling, but I am very sure it is +an element in it, and I suspect that if there were no sin, there would +be no shrinking. + +At all events, be that as it may, these are the two thoughts that, +involuntarily and spontaneously and immediately, sprang in this man's +heart when his purged eyes saw the King on His throne. He did not leap +up with gladness at the vision. Its consolatory and its strengthening +aspects were not the first that impinged upon his eye, or upon his +consciousness, but the first thing was an instinctive recoil, 'Woe is +me; I am undone.' Now, brethren, I venture to think that one main +difference between shallow religion and real is to be found here, that +the dim, far-off vision, if we may venture to call it so, which serves +the most of us for a sight of God, leaves us quite complacent, and with +very slight and superficial conceptions of our own evil, and that if +once we saw, in so far as it is possible for humanity to-day to see, +God as He is, and heard in the depths of our hearts that 'Holy! holy! +holy!' from the burning seraphim, the easy-going, self-satisfied +judgment of ourselves which too many of us cherish would be utterly +impossible; and would disappear, shrivelled up utterly in the light of +God. 'I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear,' said Job, 'but +now mine eye seeth Thee; therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust +and ashes.' A hearsay God and a self-complacent beholder--a God really +seen, and a man down in the dust before Him! Has that vision ever +blazed in on you? And if it has, has not the light shown you the +seaminess of much in which a dimmer light detects no flaws or stains? +Thank God if, having seen Him, you see yourselves. If you have not +felt, 'I am unclean and undone,' depend upon it, your knowledge of God +is faint and dim, and He is rather One heard of from the lips of others +than realised in your own experience. + +II. Again, note the second stage here, in the education of a soul for +service--the sin, recognised and repented, is burned away. + +'Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, +which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar; and he laid it +upon my mouth, and said, Lo! this hath touched thy lips; and thine +iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.' + +Now, I would notice as to this stage of the process, first, that Isaiah +singularly passes beyond all the old ritual in which he had been +brought up, and recognises another kind of cleansing than that which it +embodied. He had got beyond the ritual to what the ritual meant. We +have passed beyond the ritual, too, by another process; and, though I +would by no means read full, plain, articulate Christian thought into +the vision of Isaiah--which would be an anachronism, and unfaithful to +the gradual historical development of the idea and means of +redemption--yet I cannot help pointing to the fact that, even although +this vision is located as seen in the Temple, there is not a single +reference (except that passing allusion to the altar) to the ritual of +the Temple, but the cleansing comes in another fashion altogether. + +But far more important than that thought is the human condition that is +required ere this cleansing can be realised. 'I am a man of unclean +lips.' 'I am undone!' It was because that conviction and confession +sprang in the prophet's consciousness that the seraph winged his way +with the purifying fire in his hands. Which being translated is just +this: faith alone will not bring cleansing. There must go with it what +we call, in our Christian phraseology, repentance, which is but the +recognition of my own antagonism to the holiness of God, and the +resolve to turn my back on my own past self. Now, it seems to me that a +great deal of what is called, and in a sense is, Evangelical teaching, +fails to represent the full counsel of God, in the matter of man's +redemption, because it puts a one-sided emphasis on faith, and slurs +over the accompanying idea of repentance. And I am here to say that a +trust in Jesus Christ, which is unaccompanied by a profound penitent +consciousness and abhorrence of one's own sins, and a resolve to turn +away from them for the time to come, is not a faith which will bring +either pardon or cleansing. We do not need to have less said about +trust; we need to have a great deal more said about repentance. You +have to learn what it is to say, 'I abhor myself'; you have to learn +what it is to say, 'I will turn right round, and leave all that past +behind me; and go in the opposite direction'; or the faith which you +say you are exercising will neither save nor cleanse your souls nor +your lives. + +Again, note that we have here set forth most strikingly the other great +truth that, side by side, and as closely synchronous as the flash and +the peal, as soon as the consciousness of sin and the aversion from it +spring in a man's heart, the seraph's wings are set in motion. Remember +that beautiful old story in the historical books, of how the erring +king, brought to sanity and repentance by Nathan's apologue, put all +his acknowledgments in these words, 'I have sinned against the Lord'; +and how the confession was not out of his lips, nor had died in its +vibration in the atmosphere, before the prophet, with divine authority, +replied with equal brevity and completeness, and as if the two sayings +were parts of one sentence, '_And_ the Lord hath made to pass the +iniquity of thy sin.' That is all. Simultaneous are the two things. To +confess is to be forgiven, and the moment that the consciousness of sin +rises in the heart, that moment does the heavenly messenger come to +still and soothe. + +Still further, notice how the cleansing comes as a divine gift. It is +purifying, much more than pardon, that is set forth in the symbolical +incident before us. The seraph is the divine messenger, and he brings a +coal from the altar, and lays that upon the prophet's lips, which is +but the symbolical way of saying that the man who is conscious of his +own evil will find in himself a blessed despair of being his own +healer, and that he has to turn to the divine source, the vision of +which has kindled the consciousness, to find there that which will take +away the evil. The Lord is 'He that healeth us.' + +But, further, the cleansing is by fire. By which, as I suppose, in the +present context, and at Isaiah's stage of religious knowledge and +experience, we are to understand that great thought that God burns away +our sins, as you put a piece of foul clay into the fire, and the stain +melts from the surface like a dissipating cloud as the heat finds its +way into the substance. 'He will baptize with the Holy Ghost and with +fire'--a fire that quickens. A new impulse will be granted, which will +become the life of the sinful man's life, and will emancipate him from +the power of his own darkness and evil. + +Now, let us remember that _we_ have the fulness of all that was +shadowed to the prophet in this vision, and that the reality of every +one of these emblems is gathered together--if I may so say--not with +confusion, but with abundance and opulence in Jesus Christ Himself. Is +He not the seraph? Is He not Himself the burning coal? Is He not the +altar from which it is taken? All that is needed to make the foulest +clean is given in Christ's great work. Brethren, we shall never +understand the deepest secret of Christ and of Christianity until we +learn and hold fast by the conviction that the central work of Jesus is +to deal with man's sin; and that whatever else Christianity is, it is +first and foremost God's way of redeeming the world, and making it +possible for the unholy to dwell with His holy self. + +III. Lastly, and only a word, the third stage here is--the purged +spirit is ready for service. + +God did not bid the prophet go on His mission till the prophet had +voluntarily accepted the mission. He said, 'Who will go for us?' He +wants no pressed men in His army. He does not work with reluctant +servants. There is, first, the yielding of the will, and then there is +the enduement with the privilege of service. The prophet, having passed +through the preceding experiences, had thereby received a quick ear to +hear God's calling for volunteers. And we shall not hear Him asking +'Who will go?' unless we have, in our measure, passed through similar +experiences. It will be a test of having done so, of our having been +purged from our evil, if, when other people think that it is only Eli +speaking, we know that it is the Lord that has called us, and say, +'Here am I.' + +For such experiences as I have been describing do influence the will, +and mould the heart, and make it a delight to do God's commandments, +and to execute His purpose, and to be the ministers of His great Word. +Some of us are willing to say that we have learned God's holiness; that +we have seen and confessed our sins; that we have received pardon and +cleansing. Have these experiences made you ready for any service? Have +they made your will flexible--made you dethrone yourself, and enthrone +the King whom the prophet saw? If they have, they are genuine; if they +have not, they are not. Submission of will; glorying in being the +instrument of the divine purpose; ears sharpened to catch His lowest +whisper; eyes that, like those of a dog fixed on his master, watch for +the faintest indication from his guiding eye--these are the infallible +tests and signs of having had lips and heart touched with the live coal +that burns away our uncleanness. + +So, friends, would that I could flash upon every conscience that +vision! But you can do so for yourselves. Let me beseech you to bring +yourselves honestly into that solemn light of the character of God, and +to ask yourselves, 'How can two walk together except they be agreed?' +Do not put away such thoughts with any shallow, easy-going talk about +how God is good and will not be hard upon a poor fellow that has tried +to do his best. God is good; God is love. But divine goodness and love +cannot find a way by which the unclean shall dwell with the clean. What +then? This then--Jesus Christ has come. We may be made clean if we +trust in Him, and forsake our sins. He will touch the heart and lips +with the fire of His own Spirit, and then it will be possible to dwell +with the everlasting burnings of that flaming fire which is a holy God. +Blessed are they that have seen the vision; blessed they that have felt +it disclosing their own sins; blessed they whose hearts have been +purged. Blessed most of all they who, educated and trained through +these experiences, have taken this as the motto of their lives, 'Here +am I; send me.' + + + + +SHILOAH AND EUPHRATES + +Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly +... the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and +many.' ISAIAH viii. 6, 7. + + +The kingdom of Judah was threatened with a great danger in an alliance +between Israel and Damascus. The cowardly King Ahaz, instead of +listening to Isaiah's strong assurances and relying on the help of God, +made what he thought a master-stroke of policy in invoking the help of +the formidable Assyrian power. That ambitious military monarchy was +eager to find an excuse for meddling in the politics of Syria, and +nothing loath, marched an army down on the backs of the invaders, which +very soon compelled them to hasten to Judah in order to defend their +own land. But, as is always the case, the help invoked was his ruin. +Like all conquering powers, once having got its foot inside the door, +Assyria soon followed bodily. First Damascus and Israel were ravaged +and subdued, and then Judah. That kingdom only purchased the privilege +of being devoured last. Like the Spaniards in Mexico, the Saxons in +England, the English in a hundred Indian territories, the allies that +came to help remained to conquer, and Judah fell, as we all know. + +This is the simple original application of these words. They are a +declaration that in seeking for help from others Judah was forsaking +God, and that the helper would become ruler, and the ruler an +oppressive tyrant. + +The waters of Shiloah that go softly stand as an emblem of the Davidic +monarchy as God meant it to be, and, since that monarchy was itself a +prophecy, they therefore represent the kingdom of God or the Messianic +King. The 'waters strong and many' are those of the Euphrates, which +swells and overflows and carries havoc, and are taken as the emblem of +the wasting sweep of the Assyrian king, whose capital stood on its +banks. + +But while thus there is a plain piece of political history in the +words, they are also the statement of general principles which apply to +every individual soul and its relations to the kingdom, the gentle +kingdom, of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. + + +I. The Gentle Kingdom. + +That little brooklet slipping quietly along; what a striking image of +the Kingdom of Jesus Christ! + +It suggests the character of the King, the 'meek and lowly in heart.' +It suggests the manner of His rule as wielded in gentleness and +exercising no compulsion but that of love. It suggests the blessed +results of His reign under the image of the fertility, freshness, and +beauty which spring up wherever 'the river cometh.' That kingdom we are +all summoned to enter. + + +II. The Rejection of the Kingdom. + +Strange and awful fact that men do turn away from it and Him. + +In what does rejection consist? + +In not trusting in His power to help and deliver. + +In seeking help from other sources. This rejection is often unconscious +on the part of men who are guilty of it. + + +III. The Allies who are preferred to the gentle King. + +The crowd of worldly things. + +What is to be noticed is that at first the preference seems to answer +and be all right. + + +IV. The Allies becoming Tyrants. + +The swift Euphrates in spate. That is what the rejecters have chosen +for themselves. Better to have lived by Shiloah than to have built +their houses by the side of such a raging stream. Mark how this is a +divine retribution indeed, but a natural process too. + +(a) If Christ does not rule us, a mob of tyrants will. + +Our own passions. Our own evil habits. The fascinating sins around us. + +(b) They soon cease to seem helpers, and become tyrants. + +How quickly the pleasure of sin disappears--like some bird that loses +its gay plumage as it grows old. + +How stern becomes the necessity to obey; how great the difficulty of +breaking off evil habits! So a man becomes the slave of his own lusts, +of his indulged tastes, which rise above all restraints and carry away +all before them, like the Euphrates in flood. Fertility is turned to +barrenness; a foul deposit of mud overlays the soil; houses on the sand +are washed away; corpses float on the tawny wave. The soul that rejects +Christ's gentle sway is harried and laid waste by a mob of base-born +tyrants. We have to make our choice--either Christ or these; either a +service which is freedom, or an apparent freedom which is slavery; +either a worship which exalts, or a worship which embrutes. 'If the Son +make you free, ye shall be free indeed.' + +'There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God.' It +is peaceful to pitch our tents beside its calm flow, whereon shall go +no hostile fleets, and whence we shall but pass to the city above, in +the midst of the street whereof the 'river of water of life, clear as +crystal, proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.' + + + + +THE KINGDOM AND THE KING + +'The people that walked in darkness hare seen a great light: they that +dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light +shined. 3. Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: +they joy before Thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men +rejoice when they divide the spoil. 4. For Thou hast broken the yoke of +His burden, and the staff of His shoulder, the rod of His oppressor, as +in the day of Midian. 5. For every battle of the warrior is with +confused noise, and garments rolled in blood: but this shall be with +burning and fuel of fire. 6. For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son +is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name +shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting +Father, The Prince of Peace. 7. Of the increase of His government and +peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon His +kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with +justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts +will perform this.'--ISAIAH ix. 2-7. + + +The darker the cloud, the brighter is the rainbow. This prophecy has +for its historical background the calamitous reign of the weak and +wicked Ahaz, during which the heart of the nation was bowed, like a +forest before the blast, by the dread of foreign invasion and conquest. +The prophet predicts a day of gloom and anguish, and then, out of the +midst of his threatenings, bursts this glorious vision, sudden as +sunrise. With consummate poetic art, the consequences of Messiah's rule +are set forth before He Himself is brought into view. + +I. Image is heaped on image to tell the blessedness of that reign (vs. +2-5). Each trait of the glowing description is appropriate to the +condition of Israel under Ahaz; but each has a meaning far beyond that +limited application. Isaiah may, or may not, have been aware of 'what' +or 'what time' his words portrayed in their deepest, that is, their +true meaning, but if we believe in supernatural prediction which, +though it may have found its point of attachment in the circumstances +of the present, was none the less the voice of the Spirit of God, we +shall not make, as is often done now, the prophet's construction of his +words the rule for their interpretation. What the prophecy was +discerned to point to by its utterer or his contemporaries, is one +thing; quite another is what God meant by it. + +First we have the picture of the nation groping in a darkness that +might be felt, the emblem of ignorance, sin, and sorrow, and inhabiting +a land over which, like a pall, death cast its shadow. On that dismal +gloom shines all at once a 'great light,' the emblem of knowledge, +purity, and joy. The daily mercy of the dawn has a gospel in it to a +heart that believes in God; for it proclaims the divine will that all +who sit in darkness shall be enlightened, and that every night but +prepares the way for the freshness and stir of a new morning. The great +prophecy of these verses in its indefiniteness goes far beyond its +immediate occasion in the state of Judah under Ahaz. As surely as the +dawn floods all lands, so surely shall all who walk in darkness see the +great light; and wherever is a 'land of the shadow of death,' there +shall the light shine. It is 'the light of the world.' + +Verse 3 gives another phase of blessing. Israel is conceived of as +dwindled in number by deportation and war. But the process of +depopulation is arrested and reversed, and numerical increase, which is +always a prominent feature in Messianic predictions, is predicted. That +increase follows the dawning of the light, for men will flock to the +'brightness of its rising.' _We_ know that the increase comes from the +attractive power of the Cross, drawing men of many tongues to it; and +we have a right to bring the interpretation, which the world's history +gives, into our understanding of the prophecy. That enlarged nation is +to have abounding joy. + +Undoubtedly, the rendering 'To it thou hast increased the joy' is +correct, as that of the Authorized Version (based upon the Hebrew text) +is clearly one of several cases in which the partial similarity in +spelling and identity in sound of the Hebrew words for 'not' and 'to +it,' have led to a mistaken reading. The joy is described in words +which dance and sing, like the gladness of which they tell. The mirth +of the harvest-field, when labour is crowned with success, and the +sterner joy of the victors as they part the booty, with which mingles +the consciousness of foes overcome and dangers averted, are blended in +this gladness. We have the joy of reaping a harvest of which we have +not sowed the seed. Christ has done that; we have but to enjoy the +results of His toil. We have to divide the spoil of a victory which we +have not won. He has bound the strong man, and we share the benefits of +His overcoming the world. + +That last image of conquerors dividing the spoil leads naturally to the +picture in verse 4 of emancipation from bondage, as the result of a +victory like Gideon's with his handful. Who the Gideon of this new +triumph is, the prophet will not yet say. The 'yoke of his burden' and +'the rod of his oppressor' recall Egypt and the taskmasters. + +Verse 5 gives the reason for the deliverance of the slaves; namely, the +utter destruction of the armour and weapons of their enemy. The Revised +Version is right in its rendering, though it may be doubtful whether +its margin is not better than its text, since not only are 'boot' and +'booted' as probable renderings of the doubtful words as 'armour' and +'armed man,' but the picture of the warrior striding into battle with +his heavy boots is more graphic than the more generalised description +in the Revised Version's text. In any case, the whole accoutrements of +the oppressor are heaped into a pile and set on fire; and, as they +blaze up, the freed slaves exult in their liberty. The blood-drenched +cloaks have been stripped from the corpses and tossed on the heap, and, +saturated as they are, they burn. So complete is the victory that even +the weapons of the conquered are destroyed. Our conquering King has +been manifested, that He might annihilate the powers by which evil +holds us bound. His victory is not by halves. 'He taketh from him all +his armour wherein he trusted.' + +II. Now we are ready to ask, And who is to do all this? The guarantee +for its accomplishment is the person of the conquering Messiah. The +hopes of Israel did not, and those of the world do not, rest on +tendencies, principles, laws of progress, advance of civilisation, or +the like abstractions or impersonalities, but on a living Person, in +whom all principles which make for righteousness and blessedness for +individuals and communities are incarnated, and whose vital action +works perpetually in mankind. + +In this prophecy the prophet is plainly speaking greater things than he +knew. We do not get to the meaning if we only ask ourselves what did he +understand by his words, or what did his hearers gather from them? They +and he would gather the certainty of the coming of Messiah with +wondrous attributes of power and divine gifts, by whose reign light, +gladness, liberty would belong to the oppressed nation. But the depth +of the prophecy needed the history of the Incarnation for its +disclosure. If this is not a God-given prediction of the entrance into +human form of the divine, it is something very like miraculous that, +somehow or other, words should have been spoken, without any such +reference, which fit so closely to the supernatural fact of Christ's +incarnation. + +The many attempts to translate verse 6 so as to get rid of the +application of 'Mighty God,' 'Everlasting Father,' to Messiah, cannot +here be enumerated or adequately discussed. I must be content with +pointing out the significance of the august fourfold name of the victor +King. It seems best to take the two first titles as a compound name, +and so to recognise four such compounds. + +There is a certain connection between the first and second of these +which respectively lay stress on wisdom of plan and victorious energy +of accomplishment, while the third and fourth are also connected, in +that the former gathers into one great and tender name what Messiah is +to His people, and the latter points to the character of His dominion +throughout the whole earth. 'A wonder of a counsellor,' as the words +may be rendered, not only suggests His giving wholesome direction to +His people, but, still more, the mystery of the wisdom which guides His +plans. Truly, Jesus purposes wonders in the depth of His redeeming +design. He intends to do great things, and to reach them by a road +which none would have imagined. The counsel to save a world, and that +by dying for it, is the miracle of miracles. 'Who hath been His +counsellor in that overwhelming wonder?' He needs no teacher; He is +Himself the teacher of all truth. All may have His direction, and they +who follow it will not walk in darkness. + +'The mighty God.' Chapter x. 21 absolutely forbids taking this as +anything lower than the divine name. The prophet conceives of Messiah +as the earthly representative of divinity, as having God with and in +Him as no other man has. We are not to force upon the prophet the full +new Testament doctrine of the oneness of the incarnate Word with the +Father, which would be an anachronism. But we are not to fall into the +opposite error, and refuse to see in these words, so startling from the +lips of a rigid monotheist, a real prophecy of a divine Messiah, dimly +as the utterer may have perceived the figure which he painted. Note, +too, that the word 'mighty' implies victorious energy in battle. It is +often applied to human heroes, and here carries warlike connotations, +kindred with the previous picture of conflict and victory. Thus +strength as of God, and, in some profound way, strength which is +divine, will be the hand obeying the brain that counsels wonder, and +all His plans shall be effected by it. + +But these are not all His qualities. He is 'the Father of Eternity'--a +name in which tender care and immortal life are marvellously blended. +This King will be in reality what, in old days, monarchs often called +themselves and seldom were,--the Father of His people, with all the +attributes of that sacred name, such as guidance, love, providing for +His children's wants. Nor can Christians forget that Jesus is the +source of life to them, and that the name has thus a deeper meaning. +Further, He is possessed of eternity. If He is so closely related to +God as the former name implies, that predicate is not wonderful. Dying +men need and have an undying Christ. He is 'the same yesterday, and +to-day, and for ever.' + +The whole series of names culminates in 'the Prince of Peace,' which He +is by virtue of the characteristics expressed in the foregoing names. +The name pierces to the heart of Christ's work. For the individual He +brings peace with God, peace in the else discordant inner nature, peace +amid storms of calamity--the peace of submission, of fellowship with +God, of self-control, of received forgiveness and sanctifying. For +nations and civic communities He brings peace which will one day hush +the tumult of war, and burn chariots and all warlike implements in the +fire. The vision tarries, because Christ's followers have not been true +to their Master's mission, but it comes, though its march is slow. We +can hasten its arrival. + +Verses 7 and 8 declare the perpetuity of Messiah's kingdom, His Davidic +descent, and those characteristics of His reign, which guarantee its +perpetuity. 'Judgment' which He exercises, and 'righteousness' which He +both exercises and bestows, are the pillars on which His throne stands; +and these are eternal, and it never will totter nor sink, as earthly +thrones must do. The very life-blood of prophecy, as of religion, is +the conviction that righteousness outlasts sin, and will survive 'the +wreck of matter and the crash of worlds.' + +The great guarantee for these glowing anticipations is that the 'zeal +of the Lord of hosts' will accomplish them. _Zeal_, or rather +_jealousy_, is love stirred to action by opposition. It tolerates no +unfaithfulness in the object of its love, and flames up against all +antagonism to the object. 'He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of +Mine eye.' So the subjects of that Messiah may be sure that a wall of +fire is round about them, which to foes without is terror and +destruction, and to dwellers within its circuit glows with lambent +light, and rays out beneficent warmth. + + + + +LIGHT OR FIRE? + +'And the Light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a +flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one +day.'--ISAIAH x. 17. + + +With grand poetry the prophet pictures the Assyrian power as a forest +consumed like thistles and briers by the fire of God. The text suggests +solemn truths about the divine Nature and its manifestations. + +I. The Essential Character of God. + +Light and Holiness are substantially parallel. Light symbolises purity, +but also knowledge and joy. Holiness is Separation from Creatures, but +chiefly from their Evils. + +II. The Different Attitudes which Men assume to that Character. + +'Light of _Israel_': '_His_ Holy One.' + +God becomes ours, and we have an interest in that radiant Personality +if we choose to claim it by faith, love, and obedience. We are free to +accept God as ours or to reject Him. + +III. The Opposite Aspects which that Character accordingly assumes. + +(a) The self-same divine Character has two effects according to the +character of the beholder. + +To those who respond to God's love it is--heaven. To those who are +indifferent or alienated it may be pain, and will harm them if they see +it and do not yield to it. + +God's holiness is not retributive justice but moral perfectness, which +to a good man will be joy, and to a bad man, intolerable. + +The light which is gladsome to a healthy eye is agony to a diseased one. + +(b) All the manifestations and operations of that divine Character have +a twofold aspect. Christ is either a stone of stumbling or a sure +foundation. Men are either the better or the worse for Him. The Gospel +is the savour of life unto life or of death unto death. The tremendous +'either--or.' The Cross rejected harms the moral nature, hardens +conscience, deepens condemnation. + +All divine operations are necessarily on the side of God's lovers and +against those who love Him not. They are contrary to Him, therefore He +is so to them. 'With the froward Thou wilt show Thyself froward.' + +The final Judgment will be either rapture or despair, like the coming +of a bridegroom, or the fiery rain that burnt up Sodom. + +The very dew of Heavenly Bliss would be corroding poison to a godless +spirit. + + + + +THE SUCKER FROM THE FELLED OAK + +'And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a +Branch shall grow out of his roots: 2. And the Spirit of the Lord shall +rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of +counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; +3. And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: +and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove +after the hearing of his ears: 4. But with righteousness shall he judge +the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he +shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of +his lips shall he slay the wicked. 5. And righteousness shall be the +girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. 6. The +wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down +with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; +and a little child shall lead them. 7. And the cow and the bear shall +feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat +straw like the ox. 8. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of +the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice's +den. 9. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for +the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters +cover the sea. 10. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, +which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles +seek: and his rest shall be glorious.'--ISAIAH xi. 1-10. + + +The hopeless fall of Assyria is magnificently pictured in the close of +chapter x., as the felling of the cedars of Lebanon by the axe swung by +Jehovah's own hand. A cedar once cut down puts out no new shoots; and +so the Assyrian power, when it falls, will fall for ever. The metaphor +is carried on with surpassing beauty in the first part of this +prophecy, which contrasts the indestructible vitality of the Davidic +monarchy with the irremediable destruction fated for its formidable +antagonist. The one is a cedar, the stump of which rots slowly, but +never recovers. The other is an oak, which, every woodman knows, will +put out new growth from the 'stool.' But instead of a crowd of little +suckers, the prophet sees but one shoot, and that rising to more than +the original height and fruitfulness of the tree. The prophecy is +distinctly that of One Person, in whom the Davidic monarchy is +concentrated, and all its decadence more than recovered. + +Isaiah does not bring the rise of the Messiah into chronological +connection with the fall of Assyria; for he contemplates a period of +decay for the Israelitish monarchy, and it was the very burden of his +message as to Assyria that it should pass away without harming that +monarchy. The contrast is not intended to suggest continuity in time. +The period of fulfilment is entirely undetermined. + +The first point in the prophecy is the descent of the Messiah from the +royal stock. That is more than Isaiah's previous Messianic prophecies +had told. He is to come at a time when the fortunes of David's house +were at their worst. There is to be nothing left but the stump of the +tree, and out of it is to come a 'shoot,' slender and insignificant, +and in strange contrast with the girth of the truncated bole, stately +even in its mutilation. We do not talk of a growth from the stump as +being a 'branch'; and 'sprout' would better convey Isaiah's meaning. +From the top of the stump, a shoot; from the roots half buried in the +ground, an outgrowth,--these two images mean but one person, a +descendant of David, coming at a time of humiliation and obscurity. But +this lowly shoot will 'bear fruit,' which presupposes its growth. + +The King-Messiah thus brought on the scene is then described in regard +to His character (v. 2), the nature of His rule (vs. 3-5), the +universal harmony and peace which He will diffuse through nature (vs. +6-9), and the gathering of all mankind under His dominion. There is +much in the prophetic ideal of the Messiah which finds no place in this +prophecy. The gentler aspects of His reign are not here, nor the deeper +characteristics of His 'spirit,' nor the chiefest blessings in His +gift. The suffering Messiah is not yet the theme of the prophet. + +The main point as to the character of the Messiah which this prophecy +sets forth is that, whatever He was to be, He was to be by reason of +the resting on Him of the Spirit of Jehovah. The directness, fulness, +and continuousness of His inspiration are emphatically proclaimed in +that word 'shall rest,' which can scarcely fail to recall John's +witness, 'I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven; +and it abode upon Him.' The humanity on which the Divine Spirit +uninterruptedly abides, ungrieved and unrestrained, must be free from +the stains which so often drive that heavenly visitant from our +breasts. The white-breasted Dove of God cannot brood over foulness. +There has never been but one manhood capable of receiving and retaining +the whole fulness of the Spirit of God. + +The gifts of that Spirit, which become qualities of the Messiah in whom +He dwells, are arranged (if we may use so cold a word) in three pairs; +so that, if we include the introductory designation, we have a +sevenfold characterisation of the Spirit, recalling the seven lamps +before the throne and the seven eyes of the Lamb in the Apocalypse, and +symbolising by the number the completeness and sacredness of that +inspiration. The resulting character of the Messiah is a fair picture +of one who realises the very ideal of a strong and righteous ruler of +men. 'Wisdom and understanding' refer mainly to the clearness of +intellectual and moral insight; 'counsel and might,' to the qualities +which give sound practical direction and vigour to follow, and carry +through, the decisions of practical wisdom; while 'the knowledge and +fear of the Lord' define religion by its two parts of acquaintance with +God founded on love, and reverential awe which prompts to obedience. +The fulfilment, and far more than fulfilment, of this ideal is in +Jesus, in whom were 'hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,' to +whom no circumstances of difficulty ever brought the shadow of +perplexity, who always saw clearly before Him the path to tread, and +had always 'might' to tread it, however rough, who lived all His days +in unbroken fellowship with the Father and in lowly obedience. + +The prophet saw not all the wonders of perfect human character which +that indwelling Spirit would bring to realisation in Him; but what he +saw was indispensable to a perfect King, and was, at all events, an arc +of the mighty circle of perfection, which has now been revealed in the +life of Jesus. The possibilities of humanity under the influence of the +Divine Spirit are revealed here no less than the actuality of the +Messiah's character. What Jesus is, He gives it to His subjects to +become by the dwelling in them of the spirit of life which was in Him. + +The rule of the King is accordant with His character. It is described +in verses 3-5. The first characteristic named may be understood in +different ways. Accord-to some commentators, who deserve respectful +consideration, it means, 'He shall draw His breath in the fear of +Jehovah'; that is, that that fear has become, as it were, His very +life-breath. But the meaning of 'breathing' is doubtful; and the phrase +seems rather to express, as the Revised Version puts it, 'His delight +shall be in the fear of the Lord.' That might mean that those who fear +Jehovah shall be His delight, and this would free the expression from +any shade of tautology, when compared with the previous clause, and +would afford a natural transition to the description of His rule. It +might, on the other hand, continue the description of His personal +character, and describe the inward cheerfulness of His obedience, like +'I delight to do Thy will.' In any case, the 'fear of the Lord' is +represented as a sweet-smelling fragrance; and, if we adopt the former +explanation, then it is almost a divine characteristic which is here +attributed to the Messiah; for it is God to whom the fear of Him in +men's hearts is 'an odour of a sweet smell.' + +Then follow the features of His rule. His unerring judgment pierces +through the seen and heard. That is the quality of a monarch after the +antique pattern, when kings were judges. It does not appear that the +prophet rose to the height of perceiving the divine nature of the +Messiah; but we cannot but remember how far the reality transcends the +prophecy, since He whose 'eyes are as a flame of fire' knows what is in +man, and the earliest prayers of the Church were addressed to Jesus as +'Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men.' + +The relation of Messiah to two classes is next set forth. The oppressed +and the meek shall have Him for their defender and avenger,--a striking +contrast to the oppressive monarchs whom Isaiah had seen. We remember +who said 'Blessed are the poor in spirit,' 'Blessed are the meek.' The +King Himself has taught us to deepen the meaning of the words of the +prophet, and to find in them the expression of the law of His kingdom +by which its blessings belong to those who know their need and come +with humble hearts. But the same acts which are for the poor are +against the oppressors. The emendation which reads 'tyrant' (_arits_) +for 'earth' (_erets_) brings the two clauses descriptive of the +punitive acts into parallelism, and is probably to be preferred. The +same pillar was light to Israel and darkness to the Egyptians. Christ +is the savour of life unto life and of death unto death. But what is +His instrument of destruction? 'The rod of His mouth' or 'the breath of +His lips.' And who is He whose bare word thus has power to kill and +make alive? Is not this a divine prerogative? and does it not belong in +the fullest sense to Him whose voice rebuked fevers, storms, and +demons, and pierced the dull, cold ear of death? Further, +righteousness, the absolute conformity of character and act to the +standard in the will of God, and faithfulness, the inflexible +constancy, which makes a character consistent with itself, and so +reliable, are represented by a striking figure as being twined together +to make the girdle, which holds the vestments in place, and girds up +the whole frame for effort. This righteous King 'shall not fail nor be +discouraged.' He is to be reckoned on to the uttermost, or, as the New +Testament puts it, He is 'the faithful and true witness.' This is the +strong Son of God, who gathered all His powers together to run with +patience the race set before Him, and to whom all may turn with the +confidence that He is faithful 'as a Son over His own house,' and will +inviolably keep the promise of His word and of His past acts. + +We pass from the picture of the character and rule of the King over men +to that fair vision of Paradise regained, which celebrates the +universal restoration of peace between man and the animals. The picture +is not to be taken as a mere allegory, as if 'lions' and 'wolves' and +'snakes' meant bad men; but it falls into line with other hints in +Scripture, which trace the hostility between man and the lower +creatures to sin, and shadow a future when 'the beasts of the field +shall be at peace with thee.' The psalm which sings of man's dominion +over the creatures is to be one day fulfilled; and the Epistle to the +Hebrews teaches that it is already fulfilled in Christ, who will raise +His brethren, for whom He tasted death, to partake in His dominion. The +present order of things is transient; and if earth is to be, as some +shadowy hints seem to suggest, the scene of the future glories of +redeemed humanity, it may be the theatre of a fulfilment of such +visions as this. But we cannot dogmatise on a subject of which we know +so little, nor be sure of the extent to which symbolism enters into +this sweet picture. Enough that there surely comes a time when the King +of men and Lord of nature shall bring back peace between both, and +restore 'the fair music that all creatures made To their great Lord.' + +Verse 10 begins an entirely new section, which describes the relations +of Messiah's kingdom to the surrounding peoples. The picture preceding +closed with the vision of the earth filled with the knowledge of the +Lord, and this verse proclaims the universality of Messiah's kingdom. +By 'the root of Jesse' is meant, not the root from which Jesse sprang, +but, in accordance with verse 1, the sprout from the house of Jesse. +Just as in that verse the sprout was prophesied of as growing up to be +fruitbearing, so here the lowly sucker shoots to a height which makes +it conspicuous from afar, and becomes, like some tall mast, a sign for +the nations. The contrast between the obscure beginning and the +conspicuous destiny of Messiah is the point of the prophecy. 'I, if I +be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.' Strange +elevation for a king is a cross! But it is because He has died for men +that He has the right to reign over them, and that they 'shall seek' to +Him. 'His resting-place shall be glorious.' + +The seat of His dominion is also the seat of His repose. The beneficent +activity just described is wielded from a calm, central palace, and +does not break the King's tranquillity. That is a paradox, except to +those who know that Jesus Christ, sitting in undisturbed rest at the +right hand of God, thence works with and for His servants. His repose +is full of active energy; His active energy is full of repose. And that +place of calm abode is 'glorious' or, more emphatically and literally, +'glory. He shall dwell in the blaze of the uncreated glory of God,--a +prediction which is only fulfilled in its true meaning by Christ's +ascension and session at the right hand of God, in the glory which He +had with the Father before the world was, and into which He has borne +that lowly manhood which He drew from the cut-down stem of Jesse. + + + + +THE WELL-SPRING OF SALVATION + +'Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. +ISAIAH xii. 3. + + +There are two events separated from each other by more than fifteen +hundred years which have a bearing upon this prophecy: the one supplied +the occasion for its utterance, the other claimed to be its +interpretation and its fulfilment. The first of these is that scene +familiar to us all, where the Israelites in the wilderness murmured for +want of water, and the law-giver, being at his wits' end what to do +with his troublesome charges, took his anxieties to God, and got for an +answer the command to take with him the elders of Israel and his +miracle-working rod, and to go to the rock, 'and the Lord shall stand +upon the rock before thee and them, and the water shall flow forth.' It +was not the rock, nor the rod, nor Moses and the elders, but the +presence of God that brought the refreshing draught. And that that +incident was in Isaiah's mind when he wrote our text is very clear to +anybody who will observe that it occurs in the middle of a song of +praise, which corresponds to the Israelites' song at the Red Sea after +the destruction of Pharaoh, and is part of a great prophecy in which he +describes God's future blessings and mercies under images constantly +drawn from the Egyptian bondage and the Exodus in the desert. Now, that +interpretation, or rather that application, of the words of my text, +was very familiar to the Jews long, long before the New Testament was +thought about. For, as many of you will know, there came in the course +of time a number of ceremonies to be added to a feast established by +Moses himself--the Feast of Tabernacles. That was a feast in which the +whole body of the Israelitish people dwelt for a week in leafy booths, +in order to remind them of the time when they were wanderers in the +wilderness; and as is usually the case, the ritual of the celebration +developed a number of additional symbolical observances which were +tacked on to it in the course of centuries. Amongst these there was +this very memorable one: that on each of the days of the Feast of +Tabernacles, at a given point in the ceremonial, the priests went from +the temple, winding down the rocky path on the temple mountain, to the +Pool of Siloam in the valley below, and there in their golden vases +they drew the cool sparkling water, which they bore up, and amidst the +blare of trumpets and the clash of cymbals poured it on the altar, +whilst the people chanted the words of my text, 'With joy shall ye draw +water out of the wells of salvation.' + +That ceremonial had been going on for eight hundred years from Isaiah's +time; and once more the period came round when it was to be performed; +and on the seven days of the feast, punctually at the appointed time, +the procession wound down the rocky slopes, drew the water in the +golden vases, bore it up to the temple, and poured it upon the altar; +and on the last great day of the feast, the same ceremonial went on up +to a given point; and just as the last rites of the chant of our text +were dying on the ears, there was a little stir amidst the crowd, which +parted to make way for him, and a youngish man, of mean appearance and +rustic dress, stepped forward, and there, before all the gathered +multitudes and the priests standing with their empty urns, symbol of +the impotence of their system, 'on the last day, that great day of the +feast, Jesus stood and cried, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me +and drink.' Brethren, such a commentary, at such a time, from such a +commentator, may well absolve me from the necessity of enforcing the +evangelistic bearing of the words of my text. And so, then, with that +understanding of the deepest meaning of these words that we have to +look at, I ask you to take them in the simplest possible way, and to +consider three points: the Well of Salvation, the Act of Drawing the +Water, the Gladness of those that draw. 'With _joy_ shall _ye_ draw +water out of the fountains of salvation.' + +Now, with regard to the first point, let me remind you to begin with, +that the idea of the word here is not that which we attach to a well, +but that which we attach to a spring. It does not describe the source +of salvation as being a mere reservoir, still less as being a created +or manufactured thing; but there lies in it the deep idea of a source +from which the water wells up by its own inward energy. Then, when we +have got that explanation, and the deep, full, pregnant meaning of the +word salvation as a thing past, a thing present, a thing future, a +thing which negatively delivers a man from all sin and sorrow, and a +thing which positively endows a man with beauty, happiness, and +holiness--when we have got that, then the question next cries aloud for +answer--this well-spring of salvation, is--what? Who? And the first +answer and the last answer is GOD--GOD HIMSELF. It is no mere bit of +drapery of the prophet's imagery, this well-spring of salvation; it is +something much more substantial, much deeper than that. You remember +the old psalm, 'With Thee is the fountain of life: in Thy light shall +we see light'; and what David and John after him called life, Isaiah +and Paul after him calls salvation. And you remember too, no doubt, the +indictment of another of the prophets, laying hold of the same metaphor +in order to point to the folly and the suicide of all godless living: +'My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the +fountain of living waters, and they have hewn out for themselves broken +cisterns.' They were manufactured articles, and because they were made +they could be cracked, but the fountain, because it rises by its own +inherent energy, springing up into everlasting life, is all-sufficient. +God Himself is the well-spring of salvation. + +If I had time to enlarge upon this idea, I might remind you how nobly +and blessedly that principle is confirmed when we think of this great +salvation, past, present, and future, negative and positive, +all-sufficient and complete, as having its origin in His deep nature, +as having its process in His own finished work, and as being in its +essence the communication of Himself. That last thing I should like to +say a word or two about. If there is a man or a woman that thinks of +salvation as if it were merely a shutting up of some material hell, or +the dodging round a corner so as to escape some external consequence of +transgression, let him and her hear this: the possession of God is +salvation, that and nothing else. To have Him within me, that is to be +saved; to have His life in His dear Son made the foundation of my life, +to have my whole being penetrated and filled with God, that is the +essence of the salvation that is in Jesus Christ. And because it comes +unmotived, uncaused, self-originated, springing up from the depths of +His own heart; because it is all effected by His own mighty work who +has trodden the winepress alone, and, single-handed, has wrought the +salvation of the race; and because its essence and heart is the +communication of God Himself, and the bestowing upon us the +participation in a divine nature, therefore the depth of the thought, +_God Himself_ is the well-fountain of salvation. + +But there is still another step to take. If these things which I have +only just been able to glance at in the most superficial, and perhaps, +therefore, confused manner, in any measure commend themselves to your +judgments and your consciences, let me ask you to go with me one step +further, and to figure to yourselves the significance and the +strangeness of that moment to which I have already referred, when a man +stood up in the temple court, and, with distinct allusion to the whole +of the multitude of Old Testament sayings, in which God and the +communication of God's own energy were represented as being the +fountain of salvation and the salvation from the fountain, and said, +'If any man thirst, let him come unto Me.' Why, what a thing--let us +put it into plain, vulgar English--what a thing for a man to say--'If +any man thirst.' Who art Thou that dost thus plant Thyself opposite the +race, sure that Thou hast no needs like them, but, contrariwise, canst +refresh and satiate the thirsty lips of them all? Who art Thou that +dost proclaim Thyself as sufficient for the fruition of the mind that +yearns for truth and thirsts for certitude, of the parched heart that +wearies and cracks for want of love, of the will that longs to be +rightly and lovingly commanded? Oh, dear brethren, not only the Titanic +presumption of proposing oneself as enough for a single soul, but the +inconceivable madness of proposing oneself as enough for all the race +in all generations to the end of time, except on one hypothesis, marks +this utterance of Him who has also said, 'I am meek and lowly of +heart.' Strange lowliness! singular meekness! Who was He? Who is this +that steps into the place that only a God can fill, and says, 'I can do +it all. If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink'? + +Dear brethren, some of us can, thank God, answer that question as I +pray that every one of you may be able to answer it, 'Thou art the King +of Glory, O Christ; Thou art the everlasting son of the Father. With +Thee is the fountain of life; Thou Thyself art the living water.' + +But I think there is a still further step to be taken. It is not only +that our Lord Jesus Christ, in His nature, in His person, is the +communicator of the divine life to man, just as--if you will let me +take such a metaphor--just as up in the hills sometimes you will find +some little tarn or loch all shut in; but having trickling from it a +thread of limpid life, and, wherever it flows, the water of the loch +goes; only, the one is lake and the other is river, and the latter is +the medium of communication of the former to the thirsty pastures of +the wilderness. And not only so, but--if I might venture to build upon +a word of the context--there seems to be another consideration there. +The words which precede my text are a quotation from a song of the +Israelites in their former Exodus: 'The Lord Jehovah is my strength and +my song; He also is become my salvation.' Now, if our Bible has been +correct--and I do not enter upon that question--in emphasising the +difference between _is_ and _is become_, mark where it takes us. It +takes us to this, that there was some single, definite, historical act +wherein God _became_ in an eminent manner and in reality what He had +always been in purpose, intent, and idea. Then that to which my text +originally alludes, to which it looks back, is the great deliverance +wrought by the banks of the Red Sea. It was because Pharaoh and his +hosts were drowned in it that Miriam and her musical sisters, with +their timbrel and dance, not only said, 'The Lord is my strength,' but +'He _has become_ my strength'--there where the corpses are floating +yet. What answers to that in the matter with which we are concerned? +Brethren, it is not enough to say that God is the fountain of +salvation, it is not enough to say that the Incarnate Christ is the +medium of salvation. Will you take the other step with us, and say that +the Cross of Christ is the realisation of the divine intention of +salvation? Then He, who from everlasting was the strength and song of +all the strong and the songful, _is become_ the salvation of all the +lost, and the fountain is 'opened for sin and for uncleanness.' A +definite, historical act, the manifestation of Jesus Christ, is the +bringing to man of the salvation of God. So much, then, for that first +point to which I desired to ask your attention. + +And now let me say a word or two as to the second. I wish to speak +about this process of drawing from the fountain. That metaphor, without +any further explanation, might very naturally suggest more idea of +human effort than in reality belongs to it. Men have said: 'Yes; no +doubt God is the fountain of salvation; no doubt Christ is the river of +salvation; no doubt His death is the opening of the fountain for sin +and for uncleanness; but how am I to bring myself into contact and +connection with it?' And there have been all sorts of answers. Every +kind of pump has been resorted to. Go up to the Agricultural Hall and +you will see no end of contrivances for bringing water to the surface. +There are not so many there as men have found out for themselves to +bring the water of salvation to their lips, and the effect has always +been the same. There has been something wrong with the valves; the pump +has not worked properly; there has been something wrong with the crank; +the pipe has not gone down to the water; and there has been nothing but +a great jingling of empty buckets, and aching and wearied elbows, and +what the woman said to Christ has been true all round, 'Sir, thou hast +nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.' Ay! thank God, it _is_ +deep; and if we let our Lord be His own interpreter, we have only to +put together three sayings of His in order to come to the true meaning +of this metaphor. My text says, 'With joy ye shall draw water'; and +Christ, sitting at the well of Samaria--what a strange combination of +the weakness and the weariness of manhood and the strength and +self-consciousness of Divinity was there!--wearied with His journey, +said, 'If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to +thee, Give Me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of Him and He would +have given thee living water.' So, then, drawing is asking. That is +step number one. + +Take another word of the Master's that I have already quoted for other +purposes, 'If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.' So, +then, drawing, or asking, or coming are all equivalent. That is step +number two. + +And, then, take another word. 'He that cometh unto Me shall never +hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.' So, then, +drawing, asking, coming, all melt into the one simple word--believing. +Trust in Him, and thou hast come, thou hast asked, thou hast drawn, +thou dost possess. + +But whilst I would lay the foundation thus broad, thus simple, do not +forget, dear brethren, what I was saying about a definite historical +act. You will hear people say, 'Oh, I trust in Christ!' What do you +trust in Christ? You will hear people say, 'Oh, I look to the goodness +of God.' Be it so. God forbid I should say a word to prevent that; but +what I would insist upon is that a mere vague regard to a vague Christ +is not the faith that is equivalent to drawing from the fountain of +salvation. There must be a further object in a faith that saves. It +must lay hold of the definite historical act in which Christ has become +the salvation of the world. + +Do not take it upon my words, take it upon His own. He once said to His +fellow-countrymen in His lifetime, 'I am the living bread'; and many of +our modern teachers would go that length heartily. Was that where +Christ stopped? By no means. Was His Gospel a gospel of incarnation +only? Certainly not. 'I am the living bread that came down from +heaven.' Anything more? Yes; this more, 'and the bread which I will +give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. He that +eateth Me he shall live by Me.' 'Well,' say some people, 'that means +following His example, accepting His teaching, being loyal to His +Person, absorbing His Spirit.' Yes, it means all that; but is that all +it means? Take His own commentary: 'He that eateth My flesh and +drinketh My blood, hath eternal life.' Yes, brethren, a Christ +incarnate, blessed be God! A Christ crucified, blessed be God! And not +the one but _both_ must be the basis of our faith and our hope. + +Now, will you let me say one thing about this matter of drawing the +water? It is an act of faith in a whole Jesus, and eminently in the +mighty act and sacrifice of His Cross. But to go back again to the +context: 'He also is become _my_ salvation. 'That is what I desire, God +helping me, to lay on the hearts of all my hearers--that a definite act +of faith in Christ crucified is not enough unless it is a personal act, +unless it is what our old Puritan forefathers used to call +'appropriating faith.' Never mind about the somewhat dry and technical +phraseology; the thing is what I insist upon--'_my_ salvation.' O +brother! what does it matter though all Niagara were roaring past your +door; you might die of thirst all the same unless you put your own lips +to it. Down on your knees like Gideon's men; it is safest there; that +is the only attitude in which a man can drink of this fountain. Down on +your knees and put your lips to it--your very own lips--and drink for +your own soul's salvation. Christ died for the world. Yes; but the +world for which Christ died is made up of individuals who were in His +heart. It is Paul's words that I would beseech you to make your own: +'The Son of God, who loved _me_ and gave Himself for _me_.' Every one +of you is entitled to say that, if you will. You remember that verse +filled with adoring contemplation that we sometimes sing, one word in +which seems to me to be coloured by the too sombre doctrine of the +epoch from which it came:-- + + 'My soul looks back to see + The burden Thou didst bear, + When hanging on the accursed tree, + And _knows_ her guilt was there.' + +'He also is my strength and my song. He is become my salvation; +therefore, in joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.' + +Now, I have left myself no time to do more than say one word about that +last point, the gladness of the water-drawers. It is a pretty picture +in our text, full of the atmosphere and spirit of Eastern life: the +cheery talk and the ringing laughter round the village well, where the +shepherds with their flocks linger all day long, and the maidens from +their tents come--a kind of rude Exchange in the antique world; and, +says our prophet, 'As the dwellers in the land at their village +springs, so ye, the weary travellers at "the eye of the desert," will +draw with gladness.' So we have this joy. + +Dear brethren, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is meant for something better +than to make us glad, but it is meant to make us glad too, and he is +but a very poor Christian who has not found that it is the joy and +rejoicing of his heart. We need not put too much emphasis and stress +upon that side of the truth; but we need not either suppress it or +disregard it in our modern high-flown disinterestedness. There are joys +worth calling so which only come from possessing this fountain of +salvation. How shall I enumerate them? The best way, I think, will be +to quote passages. + +There is the gladness of forgiven sin and a quieted conscience: 'Make +me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which Thou hast broken may +rejoice.' There is the joy of a conscious possession of God: 'Blessed +are the people that know the joyful sound; they shall walk, O Lord, in +the light of Thy countenance. In Thy name shall they rejoice all the +day.' There is the joy of fellowship and communion with Jesus Christ +and His full presence: 'I will see you again; and your hearts shall +rejoice, and your joy no man taketh away from you.' There is the joy of +willing obedience: 'I delight to do Thy will.' 'It is joy to the just +to do judgment.' There is the joy of a bright hope of an inheritance +'incorruptible,' 'wherein ye greatly rejoice,' and there is a joy +which, like that Greek fire they talk about, burns brighter under +water, and glows as the darkness deepens--a joy which is independent of +circumstances, and can say, 'Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, +neither shall fruit be in the vines, yet I will rejoice in the Lord.' + +And all that, brother and friend, may be yours and mine; and then what +this same prophet says may also be true: 'The ransomed of the Lord +shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their +heads'--that is for the pilgrimage; 'They shall obtain joy and +gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away'--that is for the +home. There is another prophecy in this same book of Isaiah: 'Ho, every +one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters'; that was the voice of the +Christ in prophecy. There is a saying spoken in the temple courts: 'If +any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink'; that was the voice of +the Christ upon earth. There is a saying at the end of +Scripture--almost the last words that the Seer in Patmos heard: +'Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely'; that was +the voice of the Christ from the throne. And the triple invitation +comes to every soul of man in the world, and to thee, and thee, and +thee, my brother. Answer, answer as the Samaritan woman did: 'Sir, give +me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither' any more to draw +of the broken cisterns. + + + + +THE HARVEST OF A GODLESS LIFE + +'Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not +been mindful of the Rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant +pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange slips: In the day shalt +thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy +seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief +and of desperate sorrow.'--ISAIAH xvii. 10, 11. + + +The original application of these words is to Judah's alliance with +Damascus, which Isaiah was dead against. He saw that it would only +precipitate the Assyrian invasion, as in fact it did. Judah had +forsaken God, and because they had done so, they had gone to seek for +themselves delights--alliance with Damascus. The image of planting a +garden of pleasures, and 'vine slips of a stranger' refers to sensuous +idolatry as well as to the entangling alliance. Then follows a +contemptuous description of the rapid growth of this alliance and of +the care with which Israel cultivated it. 'In a day thou makest thy +plant to grow' (or fencest it), and next morning it was in blossom, so +sedulously had they nursed and fostered it. Then comes the smiting +contrast of what it was all for--'A harvest heap in the day of sickness +and incurable pain.' + +Now we may take this in a more general way as containing large truths +which affect the life of every one of us. + +I. The Sin of a Godless Life. + +(a) Notice the Sin charged. It is merely negative--_forgettest_. There +is no charge of positive hostility or of any overt act. This +forgetfulness is most natural and easy to be fallen into. The constant +pressure of the world. It indicates alienation of heart from God. + +It is most common among us, far more so than active infidelity, far +more so than gross sin, far more so than conscious hostility. + +(b) The implied Criminality of it. He is the 'Rock of thy strength' and +the 'God of thy salvation.' Rock is the grand Old Testament name of +God, expressing in a pregnant metaphor both what He is in Himself and +what in relation to those who trust Him. It speaks of stability, +elevation, massiveness, and of defence and security. The parallel title +sets Him forth as the Giver of salvation; and both names set in clear +light the sinful ingratitude of forgetting God, and force home the +question: 'Do ye thus requite the Lord, oh foolish people and unwise?' + +(c) The implied Absurdity of it. What a contrast between the safe +'munitions of rocks' and the unsheltered security of these Damascene +gardens! What fools to leave the heights and come down into the plain! +Think of the contrast between the sufficiency of God and the emptiness +of the substitutes. Forgetfulness of Him and preference of creatures +cannot be put into language which does not convict it of absurdity. + +II. The Busy Effort and Apparent Success of a Godless Life. + +(a) If a man loses his hold on God and has not Him to stay himself on, +he is driven to painful efforts to make up the loss. God is needed by +every soul. If the soul is not satisfied in Him, then there are hungry +desires. This is the explanation of the feverish activity of much of +our life. + +(b) Such work is far harder than the work of serving God. It takes a +great deal of toil to make that garden grow. The world is a hard +taskmaster. God's service is easy. He sets us in Eden to till and dress +it, but when we forget Him, the ground is cursed, and bears thorns and +thistles, and sweat drips from our brows. + +Men take more pains to damn themselves than to save themselves. There +is nothing more wearying than the pursuit of pleasure. 'Pleasant +plants'--that is a hopeless kind of gardening. There is nothing more +degrading. + +'Ye lust and desire to have,'--what a contrast is in, Ask and have! We +might live even as the lilies or the ravens, or with only this +difference, that we laboured, but were as uncaring and as peaceful as +they. + +God is _given_. The world has to be _bought_. Its terms are 'Nothing +for nothing.' + +(c) Such work has sometimes quick, present success. + +'In the day.' It is hard for men to labour towards far-off unseen good. +We like to have what will grow up in a night, like Jonah's gourd. So +these present satisfactions in a worldly life appeal to worldly, +sensuous natures. And it is hard to set over against these a plant +which grows slowly, and only bears fruit in the next world. + +III. The End of it all. + +'A harvest heap in the day of grief.' This clearly points on to a +solemn ending--the day of judgment. + +(a) How poor the fruit will be that a God-forgetting man will take out +of life! There is but _one heap_ from all the long struggle. He has +'sowed much and brought home little.' What shall we take with us out of +our busy years as their net result? A very small sack will be large +enough to hold the harvest that many of us have reaped. + +(b) All this God-forgetting life of pleasure-seeking and idolatry is +bringing on a terrible, inevitable consummation. + +'Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.' + +No doubt there is often a harvest of grief and desperate sorrow +springing, even in this life, from forgetting God. For it is only they +who set their hopes on Him that are never disappointed, and only they +who have chosen Him for their portion who can always say, 'I have a +goodly heritage.' But the real harvest is not reaped till death has +separated the time of sowing from that of ingathering. The sower shall +reap; i.e. every man shall inherit the consequences of his deeds. 'They +that have planted it shall eat it.' + +(c) That harvest home will be a day of sadness to some. These are +terrible words--'grief and desperate sorrow,' or 'pain and incurable +sickness.' We dare not dilate on this. But if we trust in Christ and +sow to the Spirit, we shall then 'rejoice before God as with the joy of +harvest,' and 'return with joy, bringing our sheaves with us.' + + + + +'IN THIS MOUNTAIN' + +'In this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast +of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of +marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. 7. And He will destroy in +this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the +veil that is spread over all nations. 8. He will swallow up death in +victory.'--ISAIAH xxv. 6-8. + + +A poet's imagination and a prophet's clear vision of the goal to which +God will lead humanity are both at their highest in this great song of +the future, whose winged words make music even in a translation. No +doubt it starts from the comparatively small fact of the restoration of +the exiled nation to its own land. But it soars far beyond that. It +sees all mankind associated with them in sharing their blessings. It is +the vision of God's ideal for humanity. That makes it the more +remarkable that the prophet, with this wide outlook, should insist with +such emphasis on the fact that it has a local centre. That phrase 'in +this mountain' is three times repeated in the hymn; two of the +instances occurring in the verses of my text have lying side by side +with them the expressions 'all people' and 'all nations,' as if to +bring together the local origin, and the universal extent, of the +blessings promised. + +The sweet waters that are to pour through the world well up from a +spring opened 'in this mountain.' The beams that are to lighten every +land stream out from a light blazing there. The world's hopes for that +golden age which poets have sung, and towards which earnest social +reformers have worked, and of the coming of which this prophet was +sure, rest on a definite fact, done in a definite place, at a definite +time. Isaiah knew the place, but what was to be done, or when it was to +be done, he knew not. You and I ought to be wiser. History has taught +us that Jesus Christ fulfils the visioned good that inspired the +prophet's brilliant words. We might say, with allowable licence, that +'this mountain,' in which the Lord does the great things that this song +magnifies, is not so much Zion as Calvary. + +Brethren, in these days, when so many voices are proclaiming so many +short cuts to the Millennium, this clear declaration of the source of +the world's hope is worth pondering. For us all, individually, this +localisation of the origin of the universal good of mankind is an offer +of blessings to us if we will go thither, where the provision for the +world's good is stored--'In this mountain'; therefore, to seek it +anywhere else is to seek it in vain. + +Now, I wish, under the impression of that conviction, to put before you +just these three thoughts: where the world's food comes from; where the +unveiling which gives light to the world comes from; and where the life +which destroys death for the world comes from--'In this mountain.' + +I. Where does the world's food come from? + +Physiologists can tell, by studying the dentition--the system of the +teeth--and the digestive apparatus of an animal, what it is meant to +live upon, whether vegetables or flesh, or a mingled diet of both. And +you can tell, if you will, by studying yourself, what, or whom, you are +meant to live upon. The poet said, 'We live by admiration, hope, and +love.' But he did not say on what these faculties, which truly nourish +man's spirit, are to fix and fasten. He tells of the appetites; he does +not tell of their food. My text does: 'In this mountain shall the Lord +make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the +less well refined.' Friends, look at these hearts of yours with their +yearnings, with their passionate desires, with their clamant needs. +Will any human love--the purest, the sweetest, the most unselfish, the +most utter in its surrender--satisfy the heart-hunger of the poorest of +us? No! Look at the capacities of grasping thought and truth in our +spirits, which are ever seek, seek, seeking for absolutely certain +foundations on which we may build the whole structure of our beliefs. +You have to go deeper down than the sand of man's thinkings and +teachings before you can reach what will bear without shifting the +foundations of a life's credence and confidence. Look at these +tumultuous wills of ours that fancy they crave to be independent, and +really crave an absolute master whom it is blessedness to obey. You +will find none such beneath the stars. The very elements of our being, +our heart, will, mind, desires, passions, longings, all with one voice +proclaim that the only food for a man is God. + +Jesus Christ brings the food that we need. Remember His own adaptation +of this great vision of my text in more than one parable; such as the +supper that was provided, and to which all men were invited, and, 'with +one consent,' declined the invitation. Remember His own utterance,' I +am the Bread of God which came down from heaven to give life to the +world.' Remembering such words, let me plead with you to listen to the +voice of warning as well as of invitation, which sounds from Cradle and +Cross and Throne. 'Why will ye spend your money for that which is not +bread'--you know it is not--'and your labour for that which satisfieth +not?'--you know it does not. Turn to Him, 'eat, and your souls shall +live.' 'In this mountain is prepared a feast... for all nations.' + +Notice that although it does not appear on the surface, and to English +readers, this world's festival, in which every want is met, and every +appetite satisfied, is a feast on a sacrifice. That touches the deepest +need, about which I shall have a word or two to say presently. But in +the meantime let me just press this upon you, that the Christ who died +on the Cross is to be lived on by us; and that it is His sacrifice that +is to be the nourishment of our spirits. + +Would that the earnest men, who are trying to cure the world's evils +and to still the world's wants, and are leaving Jesus Christ and His +religion out of their programme, would take thought and ask themselves +whether there is not something more in the hunger of humanity than +their ovens can ever bake bread for! They are spinning ropes of sand, +if they are trying to lift the world clear of its miseries and of its +hunger, and are not presenting Jesus Christ. I hope I am no bigot; I +know that I sympathise earnestly with all these other schemes for +helping mankind, but this I am bound to say here--all of them put +together will not reach the need of the case, unless they start from, +and are subsidiary to, and develop out of, the presenting of the primal +supply for the universal want, Christ, who alone is able to still the +hunger of men's hearts. Education will do much, but university degrees +and the highest culture will not satisfy a hungry heart. Fitting +environment, as it is fashionable to call it, will do a great deal, but +nothing outside of a man will staunch his evils or still the hunger +that coils and grips in his heart. Competent wealth is a good-there 1s +no need to say that in Manchester-but millionaires have been known to +be miserable. A heart at rest in the love of husband, wife, parent, +child, is a blessing earnestly to be sought and thankfully to be +treasured by us all; but there is more than that wanted. Put a man in +the most favourable circumstances; give him competent worldly means; do +all that modern philosophers who leave religion out of the question are +trying to do; put in practice your most advanced Socialistic schemes, +and you will still have a man with a hungry heart. He may not know what +he wants; very often he will entirely mistake what that is, but he will +be restless for want of an unknown good. Here is the only thing that +will still his heart: 'The bread which I give is My flesh, which I will +give for the life of the world.' + +Brother and sister, this is not a matter only for social reformers, and +to be dealt with as bearing upon wide movements that influence +multitudes. It comes home to you and me. Some of you do not in the +least degree know what I am talking about when I speak of the hunger of +men's hearts; for you have lost your appetites, as children that eat +too many sweets have no desire for their wholesome meals. You have lost +your appetite by feeding upon garbage, and you say you are quite +content. Yes, at present; but deep down there lies in your hearts a +need which will awake and speak out some day; and you will find that +the husks which the swine did eat are scarcely wholesome nutriment for +a man. And there are some of you that turn away with disgust, and I am +glad of it, from these low, gross, sensuous delights; and are trying to +satisfy yourselves with education, culture, refinement, art, science, +domestic love, wealth, gratified ambition, or the like. There are +tribes of degraded Indians that in times of famine eat clay. There is a +little nourishment in it, and it distends their stomachs, and gives +them the feeling of having had a meal. And that is like what some of +you do. Dear friends, will you listen to this?--'Why do ye spend your +money for that which is not bread?' Will you listen to this?--'I am the +Bread of Life,' Will you listen to this?--'In this mountain will the +Lord make unto all people a feast of fat things.' + +II. Where does the unveiling that gives light to the world come from? + +My text, as I have already remarked, emphatically repeats 'in this +mountain' in its next clause. 'He will destroy in this mountain the +face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread +over all nations.' + +Now, of course, the pathetic picture that is implied here, of a dark +pall that lies over the whole world, suggests the idea of mourning, but +still more emphatically, I think, that of obscuration and gloom. The +veil prevents vision and shuts out light, and that is the picture of +humanity as it presents itself before this prophet--a world of men +entangled in the folds of a dark pall that lay over their heads, and +swathed them round about, and prevented them from seeing; shut them up +in darkness and entangled their feet, so that they stumbled in the +gloom. It is a pathetic picture, but it does not go beyond the +realities of the case. For, with all our light on other matters, with +all our freedom of action, with all our frequent forgetfulness of the +fact that we are thus encompassed, it remains true that, apart from the +emancipation and illumination that are effected by Jesus Christ, this +is the picture of mankind as they are. And you are beneath that veil, +and swathed, obstructively as regards light and liberty, by its heavy +folds, unless Christ has freed you. + +But we must go a step further than that, I think; and although one does +not wish to force too much meaning on to a poetic metaphor, still I +cannot help supposing that that universal pall, as I called it, which +is cast over all nations, has a very definite and a very tragic +meaning. There is a universal fact of human experience which answers to +the figure, and that is sin. That is the black thing whose ebon folds +hamper us, and darken us, and shut out the visions of God and +blessedness, and all the glorious blue above us. The heavy, dark mist +settles down on the plains, though the sky above is undimmed by it, and +the sun is blazing in the zenith. Not one beam can penetrate through +the wet, chill obstruction, and men stumble about in the fog with lamps +and torches, and all the while a hundred feet up it is brightness and +day. Or, if at some points the obstruction is thinned and the sun does +come through, it is shorn of all its gracious beams and power to warm +and cheer, and looks but like a copper-coloured, livid, angry ball. So +the 'veil that is spread over all nations, 'that awful fact of +universal sinfulness, shuts out God--who is our light and our joy--from +us, and no other lights or joys are more than twinkling tapers in the +mist. Or it makes us see Him as men in a fog see the sun--shorn of His +graciousness, threatening, wrathful, unlovely. + +Brethren, the fact of universal sinfulness is the outstanding fact of +humanity. Jesus Christ deals with it by His death, which is God's +sacrifice and the world's atonement. That Lamb of God has borne away +the world's sins, and my sins and thy sins are there. By the fact of +His death He has rent the veil from the top to the bottom, and the +light comes in, unhindered by the terrible solemn fact that all of us +have sinned and come short of the glory of God. By His life He +communicates to each of us, if we will trust our poor sinful souls to +Him, a new power of living which is triumphant over temptation, and +gives the victory over sin if we will be true to Him. And so the last +shreds of the veil, like the torn clouds of a spent thunderstorm, are +parted into filmy rags and float away below the horizon, leaving the +untarnished heavens and the flaming sunshine; and 'we with unveiled +faces' can lift them up to be irradiated by the light. 'In this +mountain will the Lord destroy the covering that is spread over all +nations.' + +The weak point of all these schemes and methods to which I have already +referred for helping humanity out of the slough, and making men +happier, is that they underestimate the fact of sin. If a man comes to +them and says, 'I have broken God's law. What am I to do? I have a +power within me that impels me now to evil. How am I to get rid of it?' +they have no adequate answer. There is only one remedy that deals +radically with the fact of human transgression; only one power that +will deliver each of us, if we will, from the penalty, the guilt, the +power of sin; and that is the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary, and its +result, the inspiration of the spirit of life that was in Jesus Christ, +breathed into us from the Throne itself. Thus, and thus only, is the +veil done away in Christ. + +III. Lastly, where does the life that destroys death come from? + +'He will swallow up death in victory,' or, as probably the word more +correctly means, 'He will swallow up death _for ever_.' None of the +other panaceas for the world's evils that I have been speaking of even +attempt to deal with that 'Shadow feared of Man' that sits at the end +of all our paths. Jesus Christ has dealt with it. Like the warrior of +Judah who went down into a pit and slew a lion, He has gone down into +the lair of the dreadful thing, and has come up leaving Death dead on +the threshold. + +By His death Christ has so altered that grim fact, which awaits us all, +that to those who will trust their souls to Him it ceases to be death, +even though the physical fact remains unaltered. For what is death? Is +it simply the separation of soul from body, the cessation of corporeal +existence? Surely not. We have to add to that all the spiritual +tremors, all the dreads of passing into the unknown, and leaving this +familiar order of things, and all the other reluctances and +half-conscious feelings which make the difference between the death of +a man and the death of a dog. And all these are swept clean away, if we +believe that Jesus died, and died as our Redeemer and our Saviour. So, +unconsciously and instinctively, the New Testament writers will seldom +condescend to call the physical fact by the ugly old name. It has +changed its character; it is 'a sleep' now; it is 'an exodus,' a 'going +out' from the land of Egypt into a land of peace. It is a plucking up +of the tent-pegs, according to another of the words which the writers +employ for death, in preparation for entering, when the 'tabernacle is +dissolved,' into 'a house not made with hands,' a statelier edifice, +'eternal in the heavens.' To die in Christ is not to die, but becomes a +mere change of condition and of place, to be with Him, which is far +'better.' So an Apostle who was coming within measurable distance of +his own martyrdom, even whilst the headsman's block was all but in his +sight, said: 'He hath abolished death,' the physical fact remaining +still. + +By His resurrection Jesus Christ has established immortality as a +certainty for men. I can understand a man, who has persuaded himself +that when he dies he is done with, dressing his limbs to die without +dread if without hope. But that is a poor victory over death, which, +even in the act of getting rid of the fear of it, invests it with +supreme and ultimate power over humanity. Surely, surely, to believe +that the grave is a blind alley, with no exit at the other end,--to +believe that, however it may minister to a quiet departure, is no +victory over the grave. But to die believing, on the other hand, that +it is only a short tunnel through which we pass, and come out into +fairer lands on the other side of the mountains, is to conquer that +last foe even while it seems to conquer us. + +Jesus Christ, who died that we might never die, lives that we may +always live. For His immortal life will give to each of us, if we join +ourselves to Him by simple faith and lowly obedience, an immortal life +that shall persist through, and be increased by, the article of bodily +death. And when we pass into the higher realm of fulness of joy, +then--as Paul quotes the words of my text--'shall be brought to pass +the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.' + +Dear brethren, gather all these thoughts together. Do they not plead +with you to cast yourselves on Jesus Christ, and to turn to Him alone? +He will give you the food of your souls; if you will not sit at His +table you will starve. He will strip you of the covering that is cast +over you, as over us all; if you will not let Him unwind its folds from +your limbs, then like the clothes of a drowning man, they will sink +you. He will give you immortal life, which laughs at death, and you +will be able to take up the great song, 'O Death, where is thy sting; O +grave, where is thy victory?... Thanks be to God which giveth us the +victory.' 'In this mountain' and in this mountain only, are the food, +the illumination, the life of the world. I beseech you, do not turn +away from them, lest you stumble on the dark mountains, where are +starvation and gloom and death, but rather join that happy company of +pilgrims who sing as they march, 'Come! let us go up to the mountain of +the Lord. He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths.' + + + + +THE FEAST ON THE SACRIFICE + +And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a +feast.' ISAIAH xxv. 6. + + +There is here a reference to Sinai, where a feast followed the vision +of God. It was the sign of covenant, harmony, and relationship, and was +furnished by a sacrifice. + +I. The General Ideas contained in this Image of a Feast. + +We meet it all through Scripture; it culminates in Christ's parables +and in the 'Marriage Supper of the Lamb.' + +In the image are suggested:-- + +Free familiarity of access, fellowship, and communion with Him. + +Abundant Supply of all wants and desires. + +Festal Joy. + +Family Intercommunion. + +II. The Feast follows on Sacrifice. We find that usage of a feast +following a sacrifice existing in many races and religions. It seems to +witness to a widespread consciousness of sin as disturbing our +relations with God. These could be set right only by sacrifice, which +therefore must precede all joyful communion with Him. + +The New Testament accepts that truth and clears it from the admixture +of heathenism. + +God provides the Sacrifice. + +It is not brought by man. There is no need for our efforts--no +atonement to be found by us. The sacrifice is not meant to turn aside +God's wrath. + +Communion is possible through Christ. + +In Him God is revealed. + +Objective hindrances are taken away. + +Subjective ones are removed. + +Dark fears--indifference--dislike of fellowship--Sin--these make +communion with God impossible. + +At Sinai the elders 'saw God, and did eat and drink' Here the end of +the preceding chapter shows the 'elders' gazing on the glory of +Jehovah's reign in Zion. + +III. The Feast consists of a Sacrifice. + +Christ is the food of our souls, He and His work are meant to nourish +our whole being. He is the object for all our nature. + +The Sacrifice must be incorporated with us. It is not enough that it be +offered, it must also be partaken of. + +Now the Sacrifice is eaten by faith, and by occupation with it of each +part of our being, according to its own proper action. Through love, +obedience, hope, desire, we may all feed on Jesus. + +The Lord's Supper presents the same thoughts, under similar symbols, as +Isaiah expressed in his prophecy. + +Symbolically we feast on the sacrifice when we eat the Bread which is +the Body broken for us. But the true eating of the true sacrifice is by +faith. _Crede et manducasti_--Believe, and thou hast eaten. + + + + +THE VEIL OVER ALL NATIONS + +'He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over +all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations.'--ISAIAH xxv. +7. + + +The previous chapter closes with a prediction of the reign of Jehovah +in Mount Zion 'before His elders' in Glory. The allusion apparently is +to the elders being summoned up to the Mount and seeing the Glory, 'as +the body of heaven in its clearness.' The veil in this verse is +probably a similar allusion to that which covered Moses' face. It will +then be an emblem of that which obscures for 'all nations the face of +God.' And what is that but sin? + +I. Sin veils God from men's sight. + +It is not the necessary inadequacy of the finite mind to conceive of +the Infinite that most tragically hides God from us. That inadequacy is +compatible with true and sufficient knowledge of Him. Nor is it 'the +veils of flesh and sense,' as we often hear it said, that hide Him. But +it is our sinful moral nature that darkens His face and dulls our eyes. +'Knowledge' of God, being knowledge of a Person, is not merely an +intellectual process. It is much more truly acquaintance than +comprehension; and as such, requires, as all acquaintance does, some +foundation of sympathy and appreciation. + +Every sin darkens the witness to God in ourselves, In a pure nature, +conscience would perfectly reveal God; but we all know too sadly and +intimately how it is gradually silenced, and fails to discriminate +between what pleases and what displeases God. In a pure nature, the +obedient Will would perfectly reveal God and the man's dependence on +Him. We all know how sin weakens that. + +Every sin diminishes our power of seeing Him in His external +Revelation. Every sin ruffles the surface of the soul, which is a +mirror reflecting the light that streams from Creation, from +Providence, from History. A mass of black rock flung into a still lake +shatters the images of the girdling woods and the overarching sky. + +Every sin bribes us to forget God. It becomes our interest, as we +fancy, to shut Him out of our thoughts. Adam's impulse is to carry his +guilty secret with him into hiding among the trees of the garden. We +cannot shake off His presence, but we can--and when we have sinned, we +have but too good reason to exercise the power--we can dismiss the +thought of Him. 'They did not _like_ to retain God in their knowledge.' + +Individual sins may seem of small moment, but an opaque veil can be +woven out of very fine thread. + +II. To veil God from our sight is fatal. + +We imagine that to forget Him leaves us undisturbed in following aims +disapproved by Him, and we spend effort to secure that false peace by +fierce absorption in other pursuits, and impatient shaking off of all +that might wake our sleeping consciousness of Him. + +But what unconscious self-murder that is, which we take such pains to +achieve! To know God is life eternal; to lose Him from our sight is to +condemn all that is best in our nature, all that is most conducive to +blessedness, tranquillity, and strenuousness in our lives, to languish +and die. Every creature separated from God is cut off from the fountain +of life, and loses the life it drew from the fountain, of whatever kind +that life is. And that in man which is most of kin with God languishes +most when so cut off. And when we have blocked Him out from our field +of vision, all that remains for us to look at suffers degradation, and +becomes phantasmal, poor, unworthy to detain, and impotent to satisfy, +our hungry vision. + +III. The Veil is done away in Christ. + +He shows us God, instead of our own false conceptions of Him, which are +but distorted refractions of His true likeness. Only within the limits +of Christ's revelation is there knowledge of God, as distinguished from +guesses, doubtful inferences, partial glimpses. Elsewhere, the greatest +certitude as to Him is a 'peradventure'; Jesus alone says 'Verily, +verily.' + +Jesus makes us able to see God. + +Jesus makes us delight in seeing Him. + +All dread of the 'steady whole of the Judge's face' is changed to the +loving heart's joy in seeing its Beloved. + +IV. The Veil is wholly removed hereafter. + +The prophecy from which the text is taken is obviously not yet +fulfilled. It waits for the perfect condition of redeemed manhood in +another life. But even then, the chief reason why the Christian is +warranted in cherishing an unpresumptuous hope that he will know even +as he is known is not that then he will have dropped the veil of flesh +and sense, but that he will have dropped the thicker, more stifling +covering of sin, and, being perfectly like God, will be able perfectly +to gaze on Him, and, perfectly gazing on Him, will grow ever more +perfectly like Him. + +The choice for each of us is whether the veil will thicken till it +darkens the Face altogether, and that is death; or whether it will thin +away till the last filmy remnant is gone, and 'we shall be like Him, +for we shall see Him as He is.' + + + + +THE SONG OF TWO CITIES + +'In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a +strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. 2. Open +ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may +enter in. 3. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed +on Thee; because he trusteth in Thee. A. Trust ye in the Lord for ever: +for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength: 5. For He bringeth +down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, He layeth it low; He +layeth it low, even to the ground He bringeth it even to the dust. 6. +The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps +of the needy. 7. The way of the just is uprightness: Thou, most +upright, dost weigh the path of the Just. 8. Yea, in the way of Thy +judgments, O Lord, have we waited for Thee; the desire of our soul is +to Thy name, and to the remembrance of Thee. 9. With my soul have I +desired Thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek +Thee early: for when Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of +the world will learn righteousness. 10. Let favour be shewed to the +wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness +will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the +Lord.'--ISAIAH xxvi. 1-10.' + + +'This song' is to be interpreted as a song, not with the cold-blooded +accuracy proper to a scientific treatise. The logic of emotion is as +sound as that of cool intellect, but it has its own laws and links of +connection. First, the song sets in sharp contrast the two cities, +describing, in verses 1-4, the city of God, its strength defences, +conditions of citizenship, and the peace which reigns within its walls; +and in verses 5 and 6 the fall and utter ruin of the robber city, its +antagonist Jerusalem, on its rocky peninsula, supplies the form of +Isaiah's thought; but it is only a symbol of the true city of God, the +stable, invisible, but most real, polity and order of things to which +men, even while wandering lonely and pilgrims, do come, if they will. +It is possible even here and now to have our citizenship in the +heavens, and to feel that we belong to a great community beyond the sea +of time, though our feet have never trodden its golden pavements, nor +our eyes seen its happy glories. + +In one aspect, it is ideal, but in truth it is more real than the +intrusive and false things of this fleeting present, which call +themselves realities. 'The things which are' are the things above. The +things here are but shows and shadows. + +The city's walls are salvation. There is no need to name the architect +of these fortifications. One hand only can pile their strength. God +appoints salvation in lieu of all visible defences. Whom He purposes to +save are saved. Whom He wills to keep safe are kept safe. They who can +shelter behind that strong defence need no other. Weak, sense-governed +hearts may crave something more palpable, but they do not really need +it. A parapet on an Alpine road gives no real security, but only +satisfies imagination. The sky needs no pillars to hold it up. + +Then an unknown voice breaks in upon the song, calling on unnamed +attendants to fling wide the gates. The city is conceived of as empty; +its destined inhabitants must have certain qualifications. They must be +righteous, and must 'keep faithfulness' being true to the God who is +'faithful and true' in all His relations. None but the righteous can +dwell in conscious citizenship with the Unseen while here, and none but +the righteous can enter through the gates into the city. That +requirement is founded in the very nature of the case, and is as +emphatically proclaimed by the gospel as by the prophet. But the gospel +tells more articulately than he was enlightened to do, how +righteousness is to be won. The last vision of the Apocalypse, which is +so like this song in its central idea, tells us of the fall of Babylon, +of the descent to earth of the New Jerusalem, and leaves as its last +message the great saying, 'Blessed are they that wash their robes that +they may ... enter in through the gate into the city.' + +Our song gives some hint of similar thoughts by passing from the +description of the qualifications for entrance to the celebration of +the security which comes from trust. The safety which is realised +within the walls of the strong city is akin to the 'perfect peace' in +which he who trusts is kept; and the juxtaposition of the two +representations is equivalent to the teaching that trust, which is +precisely the same as the New Testament faith, is the condition of +entrance. We know that faith makes righteous, because it opens the +heart to receive God's gift of righteousness; but that effect of faith +is implied rather than stated here, where security and peace are the +main ideas. As some fugitives from the storm of war sit in security +behind the battlements of a fortress, and scarcely hear the din of +conflict in the open field below, the heart, which has taken refuge by +trust in God, is kept in peace so deep that it passes description, and +the singer is fain to give a notion of its completeness by calling it +'peace, peace.' The mind which trusts is steadied thereby, as light +things lashed to a firm stay are kept steadfast, however the ship toss. +The only way to get and keep fixedness of temper and spirit amid change +and earthquake is to hold on to God, and then we may be stable with +stability derived from the foundations of His throne to which we cling. + +Therefore the song breaks into triumphant fervour of summons to all who +hear it, to 'trust in Jab Jehovah for ever,' Such settled, perpetual +trust is the only attitude corresponding to His mighty name, and to the +realities found in His character. He is the 'Bock of Ages' the grand +figure which Moses learned beneath the cliffs of Sinai and wove into +his last song, and which tells us of the unchanging strength that makes +a sure hiding-place for all generations, and the ample space which will +hold all the souls of men, and be for a shadow from the heat, a covert +from the tempest, a shelter from the foe, and a home for the homeless, +with many a springing fountain in its clefts. + +The great act of judgment which the song celebrates is now (vs. 5, 6) +brought into contrast with the blessed picture of the city, and by the +introductory 'for' is stated as the reason for eternal trust. The +language, as it were, leaps and dances in jubilation, heaping together +brief emotional and synonymous clauses. So low is the once proud city +brought, that the feet of the poor tread it down. These 'poor' and +'needy' are the true Israel, the suffering saints, who had known how +cruel the sway of the fallen robber city was; and now they march across +its site; and its broken columns and ruined palaces strew the ground +below their feet. 'The righteous nation' of the one picture are 'the +poor and needy' of the other. No doubt the prophecy has had partial +accomplishments more than once or twice, when the oppressed church has +triumphed, and some hoary iniquity been levelled at a blow, or toppled +over by slow decay. But the complete accomplishment is yet future, and +not to be realised till that last act, when all antagonism shall be +ended, and the net result of the weary history of the world be found to +be just these two pictures of Isaiah's--the strong city of God with its +happy inhabitants, and the everlasting desolations of the fallen city +of confusion. + +The triumphant hurry of the song pauses for a moment to gaze upon the +crash, and in verse 7 gathers its lessons into a kind of proverbial +saying, which is perhaps best translated 'The path of the just is +smooth (or "plain"); Thou levellest smooth the path of the just.' To +render 'upright' instead of 'smooth' seems to make the statement almost +an identical proposition, and is tame. What is meant is, that, in the +light of the end, the path which often seemed rough is vindicated. The +judgment has showed that the righteous man's course had no unnecessary +difficulties. The goal explains the road. The good man's path is +smooth, not because of its own nature, but because God makes it so. We +are to look for the clearing of our road, not to ourselves, nor to +circumstances, but to Him; and even when it is engineered through rocks +and roughnesses, to believe that He will make the rough places plain, +or give us shoes of iron and brass to encounter them. Trust that when +the journey is over the road will be explained, and that this +reflection, which breaks the current of the swift song of the prophet, +will be the abiding, happy conviction of heaven. + +Lastly, the song looks back and tells how the poor and needy, in whose +name the prophet speaks, had filled the dreary past, while the tyranny +of the fallen city lasted, with yearning for the judgment which has now +come at last. Verses 8 and 9 breathe the very spirit of patient longing +and meek hope. There is a certain tone of triumph in that 'Yea,' as if +the singer would point to the great judgment now accomplished, as +vindicating the long, weary hours of hope deferred. That for which 'the +poor and needy' wait is the coming 'in the path of Thy judgments.' The +attitude of expectance is as much the duty and support of Christians as +of Israel. We have a greater future clearer before us than they had. +The world needs God's coming in judgment more than ever; and it says +little for either the love to God or the benevolence towards man of +average Christians, that they should know so little of that yearning of +soul which breathes through so much of the Old Testament. For the glory +of God and the good of men, we should have the desire of our souls +turned to His manifestation of Himself in His righteous judgments. It +was no personal end which bred the prophet's yearning. True, the +'night' round him was dreary enough, and sorrow lay black on his people +and himself; but it was God's 'name' and 'memorial' that was uppermost +in his desires. That is to say, the chief object of the devout soul's +longings should be the glory of God's revealed character. And the +deepest reason for wishing that He would flash forth from His +hiding-place in judgments, is because such an apocalypse is the only +way by which wilfully blind eyes can be made to see, and wilfully +unrighteous hearts can be made to practise righteousness. + +Isaiah believed in the wholesome effect of terror. His confidence in +the power of judgments to teach the obstinate corresponds to the Old +Testament point of view, and contains a truth for all points of view; +but it is not the whole truth. We know only too well that sorrows and +judgments do not work infallibly, and that men 'being often reproved, +harden their necks.' We know, too, more clearly than any prophet of old +could know, that the last arrow in God's quiver is not some unheard-of +awfulness of judgment, but an unspeakable gift of love, and that if +that 'favour shown to the wicked' in the life and death of God's Son +does not lead him to 'learn righteousness,' nothing else will. + +But while this is true, the prophet's aspirations are founded on the +facts of human nature too, and judgments do sometimes startle those +whom kindness had failed to touch. It is an awful thought that human +nature may so steel itself against the whole armoury of divine weapons +as that favour and severity are equally blunted, and the heart remains +unpierced by either. It is an awful thought that there may be induced +such truculent obstinacy of love of evil that, even when in 'a land of +uprightness,' a man shall choose evil, and forcibly shut his eyes, that +he may not see the majesty of the Lord, which he does not wish to see +because it condemns his choice, and threatens to burn up him and his +work together. A blasted tree when all the woods are green, a fleece +dry when all around is rejoicing in the dew, a window dark when the +whole city is illuminated, one black sheep amid the white flock, or +anything else anomalous and alone in its evil, is less tragic than the +sight, so common, of a man so sold to sin that the presence of good +only makes him angry and restless. It is possible to dwell amidst the +full light of Christian truth, and in a society moulded by its +precepts, and to be unblessed, unsoftened thereby. If not softened, +then hardened; and the wicked who in the land of uprightness deals +wrongfully is all the worse for the light which he hated because it +showed him the sinfulness of the sin which he obstinately loved and +would keep. + + + + +OUR STRONG CITY + +'In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a +strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open ye +the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter +in.'--ISAIAH xxvi 1-2. + + +What day is 'that day'? The answer carries us back a couple of +chapters, to the great picture drawn by the prophet of a world-wide +judgment, which is followed by a burst of song from the ransomed people +of Jehovah, like Miriam's chant by the shores of the Red Sea. The 'city +of confusion,' the centre of the power hostile to God and man, falls; +and its fall is welcomed by a chorus of praises. The words of my text +are the beginning of one of these songs. Whether or not there were any +historical event which floated before the prophet's mind is wholly +uncertain. If there were a smaller judgment upon some city of the +enemy, it passes in his view into a world-wide judgment; and my text is +purely ideal, imaginative, and apocalyptic. Its nearest ally is the +similar vision of the Book of the Revelation, where, when Babylon sank +with a splash like a millstone in the stream, the ransomed people +raised their praises. + +So, then, whatever may have been the immediate horizon of the prophet, +and though, there may have stood on it some historical event, the city +which he sees falling is other than any material Babylon, and the +strong city in which he rejoices is other than the material Jerusalem, +though it may have suggested the metaphor of my text. The song fits our +lips quite as closely as it did the lips from which it first sprang, +thrilling with triumph: 'We have a strong city; salvation will God +appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates, that the righteous +nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.' + +There are three things, then, here: the city, its defences, its +citizens. + +I. The City. + +Now, no doubt the prophet was thinking of the literal Jerusalem; but +the city is ideal, as is shown by the bulwarks which defend, and by the +qualifications which permit entrance. And so we must pass beyond the +literalities of Palestine, and, as I think, must not apply the symbol +to any visible institution or organisation if we are to come to the +depth and greatness of the meaning of these words. No church which is +organised amongst men can be the New Testament representation of this +strong city. And if the explanation is to be looked for in that +direction at all, it can only be the invisible aggregate of ransomed +souls which is regarded as being the Zion of the prophecy. + +But perhaps even that is too definite and hard. And we are rather to +think of the unseen but existent order of things or polity to which men +here on earth may belong, and which will one day, after shocks and +convulsions that shatter all which is merely institutional and human, +be manifested still more gloriously. + +The central thought that was moving in the prophet's mind is that of +the indestructible vitality of the true Israel, and the order which it +represented, of which Jerusalem on its rock was but to him a symbol. +And thus for us the lesson is that, apart altogether from the existing +and visible order of things in which we dwell, there is a polity to +which we may belong, for 'ye are come unto Mount Zion, the city of the +living God,' and that that order is indestructible. Convulsions come, +every Babylon falls, all human institutions change and pass. 'The +kingdoms old' are 'cast into another mould.' But persistent through +them all, and at the last, high above them all, will stand the stable +polity of Heaven, '_the_ city which hath _the_ foundations.' + +_There_ is a lesson for us, brethren, in times of fluctuation, of +change of opinion, of shaking of institutions, and of new social, +economical, and political questions, threatening day by day to +reorganise society. 'We have a strong city'; and whatever may come--and +much destructive will come, and much that is venerable and antique, +rooted in men's prejudices, and having survived through and oppressed +the centuries, will have to go; but God's polity, His form of human +society of which the perfect ideal and antitype, so to speak, lies +concealed in the heavens, is everlasting. Therefore, whatsoever +changes, whatsoever ancient and venerable things come to be regarded as +of no account, howsoever the nations, like clay in the hands of the +potter, may have to assume new forms, as certainly they will, yet the +foundation of God standeth sure. And for Christian men in revolutionary +epochs, whether these revolutions affect the forms in which truth is +grasped, or whether they affect the moulds into which society is run, +the only worthy temper is the calm, triumphant expectation that through +all the dust, contradiction, and distraction, the fair city of God will +be brought nearer and made more manifest to man. Isaiah, or whoever was +the writer of these great words of my text, stayed his own and his +people's hearts in a time of confusion and distress, by the thought +that it was only Babylon that could fall, and that Jerusalem was the +possessor of a charmed, immortal life. + +This strong city, the order of human society which God has appointed, +and which exists, though it be hidden in the heavens, will be +manifested one day when, like the fair vision of the goddess rising +from amidst the ocean's foam, and shedding peace and beauty over the +charmed waves, there will emerge from all the wild confusion and +tossing billows of the sea of the peoples the fair form of the 'Bride, +the Lamb's wife.' There shall be an apocalypse of the city, and whether +the old words which catch up the spirit of my text, and speak of that +Holy City as 'descending from heaven' upon earth, at the close of the +history of the world, are to be taken, as perhaps they are, as +expressive of the truth that a renewed earth is to be the dwelling of +the ransomed or no, this at least is clear, that the city shall be +revealed, and when Babylon is swept away, Zion shall stand. + +To this city--existent, immortal, and waiting to be revealed--you and I +may belong to-day. 'We _have_ a strong city.' You may lay hold of life +either by the side of it which is transient and trivial and +contemptible, or by the side of it which goes down through all the +mutable and is rooted in eternity. As in some seaweed, far out in the +depths of the ocean, the tiny frond that floats upon the billow goes +down and down and down, by filaments that bind it to the basal rock, so +the most insignificant act of our fleeting days has a hold upon +eternity, and life in all its moments may be knit to the permanent. We +may unite our lives with the surface of time or with the centre of +eternity. Though we dwell in tabernacles, we may still be 'come to +Mount Zion,' and all life be awful, noble, solemn, religions, because +it is all connected with the unseen city across the seas. It is for us +to determine to which of these orders--the perishable, noisy and +intrusive and persistent in its appeals, or the calm, silent, most +real, eternal order beyond the stars--our petty lives shall attach +themselves. + +II. Now note, secondly, the defences. + +'Salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.' This 'evangelical +prophet,' as he has been called, is distinguished, not only by the +clearness of his anticipations of Jesus Christ and His work, but by the +fulness and depth which he attaches to that word 'salvation.' He all +but anticipates the New Testament completeness and fulness of meaning, +and lifts it from all merely material associations of earthly or +transitory deliverance, into the sphere in which we are accustomed to +regard it as especially moving. By 'salvation' he means and we mean, +not only negative but positive blessings. Negatively it includes the +removal of every conceivable or endurable evil, 'all the ills that +flesh is heir to,' whether they be evils of sin or evils of sorrow; +and, positively, the investiture with every possible good that humanity +is capable of, whether it be good of goodness, or good of happiness. +This is what the prophet tells us is the wall and bulwark of his +ideal-real city. + +Mark the eloquent omission of the name of the builder of the wall. +'God' is a supplement. Salvation 'will _He_ appoint for walls and +bulwarks.' No need to say who it is that flings such a fortification +around the city. There is only one hand that can trace the lines of +such walls; only one hand that can pile their stones; only one that can +lay them, as the walls of Jericho were laid, in the blood of His +first-born Son. 'Salvation will He appoint for walls and bulwarks.' +That is to say in a highly imaginative and picturesque form, that the +defense of the City is God Himself; and it is substantially a parallel +with other words which speak about Him as being 'a wall of fire round +about it and the glory in the midst of it.' The fact of salvation is +the wall and the bulwark. And the consciousness of the fact and the +sense of possessing it, is for our poor hearts, one of our best +defenses against both the evil of sin and the evil of sorrow. For +nothing so robs temptation of its power, so lightens the pressure of +calamities, and draws the poison from the fangs of sin and sorrow, as +the assurance that the loving purpose of God to save grasps and keeps +us. They who shelter behind that wall, feel that between them and sin, +and them and sorrow, there rises the inexpugnable defense of an +Almighty purpose and power to save, lie safe whatever betides. There is +no need of other defenses. Zion + + 'Needs no bulwarks, + No towers along the steep.' + +God Himself is the shield and none other is required. + +So, brethren, let us walk by the faith that is always confident, though +it depends on an unseen hand. It is a grand thing to be able to stand, +as it were, in the open, a mark for all 'the slings and arrows of +outrageous fortune' and yet to feel that around us there are walls most +real, though invisible, which permit no harm to come to us. Our feeble +sense-bound souls much prefer a visible wall. We, like a handrail on +the stair. Though it does not at all guard the descent, it keeps our +heads from getting dizzy. It is hard for us, as some travellers may +have to do, to walk with steady foot and unthrobbing heart along a +narrow ledge of rock with beetling precipice above us and black depths +beneath, and we would like a little bit of a wall of some sort, for +imagination if not for reality, between us and the sheer descent. But +it is blessed to learn that naked we are clothed, solitary we have a +Companion, and unarmed we have our defenceless heads covered with the +shadow of the great wing, which, though sense sees it not, faith knows +is there. A servant of God is never without a friend, and when most +unsheltered + + 'From marge to blue marge + The whole sky grows his targe, + With sun's self for visible boss,' + +beneath which he lies safe. + +'Salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks,' and if we realise, +as we ought to do, His purpose to keep us safe, and His power to keep +us safe, and the actual operation of His hand keeping us safe at every +moment, we shall not ask that these defences shall be supplemented by +the poor feeble earthworks that sense can throw up. + +III. Lastly, note the citizens. + +Our text is part of a 'song,' and is not to be interpreted in the +cold-blooded fashion that might suit prose. A voice, coming from whom +we know not, breaks in upon the first strain with a command, addressed +to whom we know not--'Open ye the gates'--the city thus far being +supposed to be empty--'that the righteous nation which keepeth the +truth may enter in.' The central idea there is just this, 'Thy people +shall be all righteous.' The one qualification for entrance into the +city is absolute purity. + +Now, brethren, that is true in regard to our present imperfect +denizenship within the city; and it is true in regard to men's passing +into it in its perfect and final form. As to the former, there is +nothing that you Christian people need more to have dinned into you +than this, that your continuance in the state of a redeemed man, with +all the security and blessing that attach thereto, depends upon your +continuing to be righteous. Every sin, every flaw, every dropping +beneath our own standard in conscience of what we ought to be, has for +its inevitable result that we are robbed for the time being of +consciousness of the walls of the city being about us and of our being +citizens thereof. 'Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? And who +shall stand in His holy place?' The New Testament, as emphatically as +the old psalm, answers,' He that hath clean hands and a pure heart.' +'Let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous.' +There is no way by which Christian men here on earth can pass into and +keep within the city of the living God, except they possess personal +purity, righteousness of life, and cleanness of heart. + +They used to say that Venice glass was so made that any poison poured +into it shivered the vessel. Any drop of sin poured into your cup of +communion with God, shatters the cup and spills the wine. Whosoever +thinks himself a citizen of that great city, if he falls into +transgression, and soils the cleanness of his hands, and ruffles the +calm of his pure heart by self-willed sinfulness, will wake to find +himself not within the battlements, but lying wounded, robbed, +solitary, in the pitiless desert. My brother, it is 'the righteous +nation' that 'enters in,' even here on earth. + +I do not need to remind you how, admittedly by us all, that is the case +in regard to the final form of the city of our God, into which nothing +shall enter 'that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or +maketh a lie.' Heaven can only be entered into hereafter by, as here +and now it can only enter into, those who are pure of heart. All else +there would shrivel as foul things born In the darkness do in the +light, and be consumed in the fire. None but the pure can enter and see +God. + +'The nation which keepeth the truth'--that does not mean adherence to +any revelation, or true creed, or the like. The word which is employed +means, not truth of thought, but truth of character; and might, +perhaps, be better represented by the more familiar word in such a +connection, 'faithfulness.' A man who is true to God, keeping up a +faithful relation to Him who is faithful to us, he, and only he, will +pass into, and abide in, the city. + +Now, brethren, so far our text carries us, but no further; unless, +perhaps, there may be a hint of something yet deeper in the next clause +of this song. If any one asks, How does the nation become righteous? +the answer may lie in the immediately following exhortation--'Trust ye +in the Lord for ever.' But whether that be so or not, if we want an +answer to the questions, How can my stained feet be cleansed so as to +be fit to tread the crystal pavements? how can my foul garments be so +purged as not to be a blot and an eyesore, beside the white, lustrous +robes that sweep along them and gather no defilement there? the only +answer that I know of is to be found by turning to the final visions of +the New Testament, where the spirit of this whole section of our +prophet is reproduced. Again, Babylon falls amidst the songs of saints; +and then, down upon all the dust and confusion of the crash of ruin, +the seer beholds the Lamb's wife, the new Jerusalem, descending from +above. To his happy eyes its glories are unveiled, its golden streets, +its open gates, its walls of precious stones, its flashing river, its +peaceful inhabitants, its light streaming from the throne of God and of +the Lamb. And when that vision passes, his last message to us is, +'Blessed are they that wash their robes that they may enter through the +gates into the city.' None but those who wash their garments, and make +them white in the blood of the Lamb, can, living, come unto the city of +the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem; or, dying, can pass through the +iron gate that opens to them of its own accord, and find themselves as +day breaks in the street of the Jerusalem which is above. + + + + +THE INHABITANT OF THE ROCK + +'Thou wilt keep him In perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: +because he trusteth in Thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the +Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.'--ISAIAH xxvi. 3-4. + + +There is an obvious parallel between these verses and the two preceding +ones. The safety which was there set forth as the result of dwelling in +the strong city is here presented as the consequence of trust. The +emblem of the fortified place passes into that of the Rock of Ages. +There is the further resemblance in form, that, just as in the two +preceding verses we had the triumphant declaration of security followed +by a summons to some unknown persons to 'open the gates,' so here we +have the triumphant declaration of perfect peace, followed by a summons +to all to 'trust in the Lord for ever.' If we may suppose the +invocation of the preceding verses to be addressed to the watchers at +the gate of the strong city, it is perhaps not too fanciful to suppose +that the invitation in my text is the watcher's answer, pointing the +way by which men may pass into the city. + +Whether that be so or no, at all events I take it as by no means +accidental that, immediately upon the statement of the Old Testament +law that righteousness alone admits to the presence of God, there +follows so clear and emphatic an anticipation of the great New +Testament Gospel that faith is the condition of righteousness, and that +immediately after hearing that only 'the righteous nation which keepeth +the truth' can enter there, we hear the merciful call, 'Trust ye in the +Lord for ever.' So, then, I think we have in the words before us, +though not formally yet really, very large teaching as to the nature, +the object, the blessed effects, and the universal duty of that trust +in the Lord which makes the very nexus between man and God, according +to the teaching of the New Testament. + +I. First, then, I desire to notice in a sentence the insight into the +true nature of trust or faith given by the word employed here. + +Now the literal meaning of the expression here rendered 'to trust' is +to lean upon anything. As we say, trust is reliance. As a weak man +might stay his faltering, tottering steps upon some strong staff, or +might lean upon the outstretched arm of a friend, so we, conscious of +our weakness, aware of our faltering feet, and realising the roughness +of the road, and the smallness of our strength, may lay the whole +weight of ourselves upon the loving strength of Jehovah. + +And that is the trust of the Old Testament, the faith of the New--the +simple act of reliance, going out of myself to find the basis of my +being, forsaking myself to touch and rest upon the ground of my +security, passing from my own weakness and laying my trembling hand +into the strong hand of God, like some weak-handed youth on a coach-box +who turns to a stronger beside him and says: 'Take thou the reins, for +I am feeble to direct or to restrain.' Trust is reliance, and reliance +is always blessedness. + +II. Notice, secondly, the steadfast peacefulness of trust. + +Now there are difficulties about the rendering and precise significance +of the first verse of my text with which I do not need to trouble you. +The Authorised Version, and still more perhaps the Revised Version, +give substantially, as I take it, the prophet's meaning; and the margin +of the Revised Version is still more literal and accurate than the +text, 'A steadfast mind Thou keepest in perfect peace, because it +trusteth in Thee.' If this, then, be the true meaning of the words, you +observe that it is the steadfast mind, steadfast because it trusts, +which God keeps In the deep peace that is expressed by the +reduplication of the word. + +And if we break up that complex thought into its elements, it just +comes to this, first, that trust makes steadfastness. Most men's lives +are blown about by winds of circumstance, directed by gusts of passion, +shaped by accidents, and are fragmentary and jerky, like some ship at +sea with nobody at the helm, heading here and there, as the force of +the wind or the flow of the current may carry them. If my life is to be +steadied, there must not only be a strong hand at the tiller, but some +outward object which shall be for me the point of aim and the point of +rest. No man can steady his life except by clinging to a holdfast +without himself. Some of us look for that stay in the fluctuations and +fleetingnesses of creatures; and some of us are wiser and saner, and +look for it in the steadfastness of the unchanging God. The men who do +the former are the sport of circumstances, and the slaves of their own +natures, and there is no consistency in noble aim and effort throughout +their lives, corresponding to their circumstances, relations, and +nature. Only they who stay themselves upon God, and get down through +all the superficial shifting strata of drift and gravel, to the +base-rock, are steadfast and solid. + +My brother, if you desire to govern yourself, you must let God govern +you. If you desire to be firm, you must draw your firmness from the +unchangingness of that divine nature which you grasp. How can a willow +be stiffened into an iron pillar? Only--if I might use such a violent +metaphor--when it receives into its substance the iron particles that +it draws from the soil in which it is rooted. How can a bit of +thistledown be kept motionless amidst the tempest? Only by being glued +to something that is fixed. What do men do with light things on deck +when the ship is pitching? Lash them to a fixed point. Lash yourselves +to God by simple trust, and then you will partake of His serene +immutability in such fashion as it is possible for the creature to +participate in the attributes of the Creator. + +And then, still further, the steadfast mind--steadfast because it +trusts--is rewarded in that it is kept by God. It is no mere mistake in +the order of his thought which leads this prophet to allege that it is +the steadfast mind which God keeps. For, though it is true, on the one +hand, that the real fixity and solidity of a human character come more +surely and fully through trust in God than by any other means, on the +other hand it is true that, in order to receive the full blessed +effects of trust into our characters and lives, we must persistently +and doggedly keep on in the attitude of confidence. If a man holds out +to God a tremulous hand with a shaking cup in it, which Le sometimes +presents and sometimes twitches back, it is not to be expected that God +will pour the treasure of His grace into such a vessel, with the risk +of most of it being spilt upon the ground. There must be a steadfast +waiting if there is to be a continual flow. + +It is the mind that cleaves to God which God keeps. I suppose that +there was floating before Paul's thoughts some remembrance of this +great passage of the evangelical prophet when he uttered his words, +which ring so strikingly with so many echoes of them, when he said, +'The peace of God which passeth understanding shall keep your hearts +and minds in Christ Jesus.' It is the steadfast mind that is kept in +perfect peace. If we 'keep ourselves,' by that divine help which is +always waiting to be given,' in the' faith and 'love of God,' He will +keep us in the hour of temptation, will keep us from falling, and will +garrison our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. + +And then, still further, this faithful, steadfast heart and mind, kept +by God, is a mind filled with deepest peace. There is something very +beautiful in the prophet's abandoning the attempt to find any adjective +of quality which adequately characterises the peace of which he has +been speaking. He falls back upon the expedient which is the confession +of the impotence of human speech worthily to portray its subject when +he simply says, 'Thou shalt keep in peace, peace ... because he +trusteth in Thee.' The reduplication expresses the depth, the +completeness of the tranquillity which flows into the heart, Such +continuity, wave after wave, or rather ripple after ripple, is possible +even for us. For, dear brethren, the possession of this deep, unbroken +peace does not depend on the absence of conflict, on distraction, +trouble, or sorrow, but on the presence of God. If we are in touch with +Him, then our troubled days may be calm, and beneath all the surface +tumult there may be a centre of rest. The garrison in some high +hill-fortress looks down upon the open where the enemy's ranks are +crawling like insects across the grass, and scarcely hears the noise of +the tumult, and no arrow can reach the lofty hold. So, up in God we may +dwell at rest whate'er betide. Strange that we should prefer to live +down amongst the unwalled villages, which every spoiler can harry and +burn, when we might climb, and by the might and the magic of trust in +the Lord bring round about ourselves a wall of fire which shall consume +the poison out of the evil, even whilst it permits the sorrow to do its +beneficent work upon us! + +III. Note again the worthiness of the divine Name to evoke, and the +power of the divine character to reward, the trust. + +We pass to the last words of _my_ text:--'In the Lord Jehovah is +everlasting strength.' + +Now I suppose we all know that the words feebly rendered in the +Authorised Version 'everlasting strength' are literally 'the Rock of +Ages'; and that this verse is the source of that hallowed figure which, +by one of the greatest of our English hymns, is made familiar and +immortal to all English-speaking people. + +But there is another peculiarity about the words on which I dwell for a +moment, and that is, that here we have, for one of the only two times +in which the expression occurs in Scripture, the great name of Jehovah +reduplicated. 'In Jab Jehovah is the Rock of Ages.' In the former verse +the prophet had given up in despair the attempt to characterise the +peace which God gave, and fallen back upon the expedient of naming it +twice over. In this verse, with similar eloquence of reticence, he +abandons the attempt to describe or characterise that great Name, and +in adoration, contents himself with twice taking it upon his lips, in +order to _impress_ what he cannot _express_, the majesty and the +sufficiency of that name. + +What, then, is the force of that name? We do not need, I suppose, to do +more than simply remind you that there are two great thoughts +communicated by that self-revelation of God which lies in it. +_Jehovah_, in its literal grammatical signification, puts emphasis upon +the absolute, underived, and therefore unlimited, unconditioned, +unchangeable, eternal being of God. 'I AM THAT I AM.' Men and creatures +are what they are made, are what they become, and some time or other +cease to be what they were. But God is what He is, and is because He +is. He is the Source, the Motive, the Law, the Sustenance of His own +Being; and changeless and eternal He is for ever. In that name is the +Rock of Ages. + +That mighty name, by its place in the history of Revelation, conveys to +us still further thoughts, for it is the name of the God who entered +into covenant with His ancient people, and remains bound by His +covenant to bless us. That Is to say, He hath not left us in darkness +as to the methods and purpose of His dealings with us, or as to the +attitude of His heart towards us. He has bound Himself by solemn words, +and by deeds as revealing as words. So we can reckon on God. To use a +vulgarism which is stripped of its vulgarity if employed reverently, as +I would do it--we know where to have Him. He has given us the elements +to calculate His orbit; and we are sure that the calculation will come +right. So, because the name flashes upon men the thought of an absolute +Being, eternal, and all-sufficient, and self-modified, and changeless, +and because it reveals to us the very inmost heart of the mystery, and +makes it possible for us to forecast the movements of this great Sun of +our heavens, therefore in the name '_Jab Jehovah_ is the Bock of Ages.' + +The metaphor needs no expansion. We understand that it conveys the idea +of unchangeable defence. As the cliffs tower above the river that +swirls at their base, and takes centuries to eat the faintest line upon +their shining surface, so the changeless God rises above the stream of +time, of which the brief breakers are human lives, 'sparkling, +bursting, borne away.' They who fasten themselves to that Rock are safe +in its unchangeable strength, God the Unchangeable is the amulet +against any change, that is not growth, in the lives of those who trust +Him. Some of us may recall some great precipice rising above the +foliage, which stands to-day as it did when we were boys, unwasted in +its silent strength, while generations of leaves have opened and +withered at its base, and we have passed from childhood to age. Thus, +unaffected by the transiency that changes all beneath, God rises, the +Bock of Ages in whom we may trust. 'The conies are a feeble folk, but +they make their houses in the rocks.' So our weakness may house itself +there and be at rest. + +IV. Lastly, note the summons to trust. + +We know not whose voice it is that is heard in the last words of my +text, but we know to whose ears it is addressed. It is to all. 'Trust +ye in the Lord for ever.' + +Surely, surely the blessed effects of trust, of which we have been +speaking, have a voice of merciful invitation summoning us to exercise +it. The promise of peace appeals to the deepest, though often neglected +and misunderstood, longings of the human heart. Inly we sigh for that +repose.' O dear brethren, if it is true that into our agitated and +struggling lives there may steal, and in them there may abide, this +priceless blessing of a great tranquillity, surely nothing else should +be needed to woo us to accept the conditions and put forth the trust. +It is strange that we should turn away, as we are all tempted to do, +from that rest in God, and try to find repose in what was only meant +for stimulus, and is altogether incapable of imparting rest. Storms +live in the lower regions of the atmosphere; get up higher and there is +peace. Waves dash and break on the surface region of the ocean; get +down deeper, nearer the heart of things, and again there is peace. + +Surely the name of the Bock of Ages is an invitation to us to put our +trust in Him. If a man knew God as He is, he could not choose but trust +Him. It is because we have blackened His face with our own doubts, and +darkened His character with the mists that rise from our own sinful +hearts, that we have made that bright Sun in the heavens, which ought +to fall upon our hearts with healing in its beams, into a lurid ball of +fire that shines threatening through the dim obscurity of our misty +hearts. But if we knew Him we should love Him, and if we would only +listen to His own self-revelation, we should find that He draws us to +Himself by the manifestation of Himself, as the sun binds all the +planets to his mass and his flame by the eradiation of his own mystic +energies. + +The summons is a summons to a faith corresponding to that upon which it +is built. 'Trust ye in the Lora for ever, for in the Lord is the +strength that endures for ever.' Our continual faith is the only fit +response to His unchanging faithfulness. Build rock upon rock. + +The summons is a summons addressed to us all. 'Trust ye'--whoever ye +are--'in the Lord for ever.' You and I, dear friends, hear the summons +in a yet more beseeching and tender voice than was audible to the +prophet, for our faith has a nobler object, and may have a mightier +operation, seeing that its object is 'the Lamb of God that taketh away +the sin of the world'; and its operation, to bring to us peace with God +through our Lord Jesus Christ. When from the Cross there comes to all +our hearts the merciful invitation, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, +and thou shalt be saved,' why should not we each answer, + + 'Rock of Ages, cleft for me, + Let me hide myself in Thee'? + + + + +THE GRASP THAT BRINGS PEACE + +'Let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; yea, +let him make peace with Me.'--ISAIAH xxvii. 5. + + +Lyrical emotion makes the prophet's language obscure by reason of its +swift transitions from one mood of feeling to another. But the main +drift here is discernible. God is guarding Israel, His vineyard, and +before Him its foes are weak as 'thorns and briers,' whose end is to be +burned. With daring anthropomorphism, the prophet puts into God's mouth +a longing for the enemies to measure their strength against His, a +warrior's eagerness for the fight. But at once this martial tone gives +place to the tender invitation of the text, and the infinite divine +willingness to be reconciled to the enemy speaks wooingly and offers +conditions of peace. All this has universal application to our +relations to God. + +I. The Hostility. + +That our relations with God are 'strained,' and that men are 'enemies +of God,' is often repelled as exaggeration, if not as directly false. +And, no doubt, the Scripture representation has often been so handled +as to become caricature rather than portraiture. Scripture does not +deny the lingering presence in men of goodness, partial and defective, +nor does it assert that conscious antagonism to God is active in +godless men. But it does assert that 'God is not in all their +thoughts,' and that their wills are 'not subject to the law of God.' +And in such a case as man's relations to God, indifference and +forgetfulness cannot but rest upon divergence of will and contrast of +character. Why do men 'not like to retain God in their knowledge, 'but +because they feel that the thought of Him would spoil the feast, like +the skeleton in the banqueting chamber? Beneath the apparent +indifference lie opposition of will, meeting God's 'Thou shalt' with +man's 'I will not'; opposition of moral nature, impurity shrinking from +perfect purity; opposition of affection, the warmth of human love being +diverted to other objects than God. + +II. The entreating Love that is not turned aside by hostility. + +The antagonism is wholly on man's part. + +True, man's opposition necessarily turns certain sides of the divine +character to present a hostile front to him. Not only God's physical +attributes, if we may so call them, but the moral attributes which +guide the energies of these, namely, His holiness and His +righteousness, and the acts of His sovereignty which flow from these, +must be in opposition to the man who has set himself in opposition to +God. 'The face of the Lord is against them that do evil.' If it were +not, He would not be God. + +But still, God's love enfolds all men in its close and tender clasp. As +the context says, in close connection with the threat to burn the +briers and thorns, 'Fury is not in Me.' Man's hostility does not rouse +God's. He wars against the sin because He still loves the sinner. His +love 'must come with a rod,' but, at the same time, it comes 'with the +spirit of meekness.' It gives its enemy all that it can; but it cannot +give all that it would. + +He stoops to sue for our amity. It is the creditor who exhausts +beseechings on His debtor, so much does He wish to 'agree with His +adversary quickly.' The tender pleading of the Apostle was but a faint +echo of the marvellous condescension of God, when he, 'in God's stead, +besought: 'Be ye reconciled to God.' + +III. The grasp which ends alienation. + +The word for 'strength' here means a stronghold or fortified place, +which serves as an asylum or refuge. There may be some mingling of an +allusion to the fugitive's taking hold of the horns of the altar, and +so being safe from the vengeance of his pursuers. If we may take this +double metaphor as implied in the text, it vividly illustrates the +essence of the faith which brings us into peace with God. That faith is +the flight of the soul to God, and, in another aspect, it is the +clinging of the soul to Him. How much more these two metaphors tell of +the real nature of faith than many a theological treatise! They speak +of the urgency of the peril from which it seeks deliverance. A fugitive +with the hot breath of the avenger of blood panting behind him, and +almost feeling the spear-point in his back, would not let the grass +grow under his feet. They speak of the energetic clutch of faith, as +that of the man gripping the horns of the altar. They suggest that +faith is something much more vital than intellectual assent or +credence, namely, an act of the whole man realising his need and +casting himself on God. + +And they set in clear light what is the connection between faith and +salvation. It is not the hand that grasps the altar that secures +safety, but the altar itself. It is not the flight to the fortress, but +the massive walls themselves, which keeps those who hunt after the +fugitive at bay. It is not my faith, but the God on whom my faith +fastens, that brings peace to my conscience. + +IV. The peace that this grasp brings. + +In Christ God has 'put away all His wrath, and turned Himself from the +fierceness of His anger.' And He was in Christ, reconciling the world +to Himself. It is a one-sided warfare that men wage with Him, and when +we abandon our opposition to Him, the war is ended. We might say that +God, clasped by faith and trusted in and loved, is the asylum from God +opposed and feared. His moral nature must be against evil, but faith +unites us to Jesus, and, by union with Him, we receive the germ of a +nature which has no affinity with evil, and which God wholly delights +in and loves. To those who live by the life, and growingly bear the +image of His Son, the divine Nature turns a face all bright and +favouring, and His moral and physical attributes are all enlisted on +their side. The fortress looks grim to outsiders gazing up at its +strong walls and frowning battlements, but to dwellers within, these +give security, and in its inmost centre is a garden, with flowers and a +springing fountain, whither the noise of fighting never penetrates. We +have but to cease to be against Him, and to grasp the facts of His love +as revealed in the Cross of Christ, the sacrifice who taketh away the +sin of the world, and we are at peace with God. Being at peace with +Him, the discords of our natures warring against themselves are attuned +into harmony, and we are at peace within. And when God and we are at +one, and we are at one with ourselves, then all things will be on our +side, and will work together for good. To such a man the ancient +promise will be fulfilled: 'Thou shalt be in league with the stones of +the field, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee.' + + + + +THE JUDGMENT OF DRUNKARDS AND MOCKERS + +'Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious +beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of +them that are overcome with wine! 2. Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and +strong one, which, as a tempest of hail, and a destroying storm, as a +flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with +the hand. 3. The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be +trodden under feet: 4. And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of +the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before +the summer; which when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet +in his hand he eateth it up. 5. In that day shall the Lord of hosts be +for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of +His people. 6. And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in +judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate. 7. +But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out +of the way: the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, +they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong +drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment. 8. For all tables +are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean. 9. +Whom shall He teach knowledge? and whom shall He make to understand +doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the +breasts. 10. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; +line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: 11. +For with stammering lips, and another tongue, will He speak to this +people. 12. To whom He said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause +the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear. +13. But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, +precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, +and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be +broken, and snared, and taken.'--ISAIAH xxviii. 1-13. + + +This prophecy probably falls in the first years of Hezekiah, when +Samaria still stood, and the storm of war was gathering black in the +north. The portion included in the text predicts the fall of Samaria +(verses 1-6) and then turns to Judah, which is guilty of the same sins +as the northern capital, and adds to them mockery of the prophet's +message. Isaiah speaks with fiery indignation and sharp sarcasm. His +words are aflame with loathing of the moral corruption of both +kingdoms, and he fastens on the one common vice of drunkenness--not as +if it were the only sin, but because it shows in the grossest form the +rottenness underlying the apparent beauty. + +I. The woe on Samaria (verses 1-6). Travellers are unanimous in their +raptures over the fertility and beauty of the valley in which Samaria +stood, perched on its sunny, fruitful hill, amid its vineyards. The +situation of the city naturally suggests the figure which regards it as +a sparkling coronet or flowery wreath, twined round the brows of the +hill; and that poetical metaphor is the more natural, since revellers +were wont to twist garlands in their hair, when they reclined at their +orgies. The city is 'the crown of pride'--that is, the object of +boasting and foolish confidence--and is also 'the fading flower of his +sparkling ornament'; that is, the flower which is the ornament of +Ephraim, but is destined to fade. + +The picture of the city passes into that of the drunken debauch, where +the chief men of Samaria sprawl, 'smitten down' by wine, and with the +innocent flowers on their hot temples drooping in the fumes of the +feast. But bright and sunny as the valley is, glittering in the light +as the city sits on her hill, careless and confident as the revellers +are, a black cloud lies on the horizon, and one of the terrible sudden +storms which such lands know comes driving up the valley. 'The Lord +hath a mighty and strong one'--the conqueror from the north, who is +God's instrument, though he knows it not. + +The swift, sudden, irresistible onslaught of the Assyrian is described, +in harmony with the figure of the flowery coronal, as a tempest which +beats down the flowers and flings the sodden crown to the ground. The +word rendered 'tempest' is graphic, meaning literally a 'downpour.' +First comes hail, which batters the flowers to shreds; then the effect +of the storm is described as 'destruction,' and then the hurrying words +turn back to paint the downpour of rain, 'mighty' from its force in +falling, and 'overflowing' from its abundance, which soon sets all the +fields swimming with flood water. What chance has a poor twist of +flowers in such a storm? Its beauty will be marred, and all the petals +beaten off, and nothing remains but that it should be trampled into +mud. The rush of the prophet's denunciation is swift and irresistible +as the assault it describes, and it flashes from one metaphor to +another without pause. The fertility of the valley of Samaria shapes +the figures. As the picture of the flowery chaplet, so that which +follows of the early fig, is full of local colour. A fig in June is a +delicacy, which is sure to be plucked and eaten as soon as seen. Such a +dainty, desirable morsel will Samaria be, as sweet and as little +satisfying to the all-devouring hunger of the Assyrian. + +But storms sweep the air clear, and everything will not go down before +this one. The flower fadeth, but there is a chaplet of beauty which men +may wreathe round their heads, which shall bloom for ever. All sensuous +enjoyment has its limits in time, as well as in nobleness and +exquisiteness; but when it is all done with, the beauty and festal +ornament which truly crowns humanity shall smell sweet and blossom. The +prophecy had regard simply to the issue of the historical disaster to +which it pointed, and it meant that, after the storm of Assyrian +conquest, there would still be, for the servants of God, the residue of +the people, both in Israel and in Judah, a fuller possession of the +blessings which descend on the men who make God their portion. But the +principle involved is for ever true. The sweeping away of the +perishable does draw true hearts nearer to God. + +So the two halves of this prophecy give us eternal truths as to the +certain destruction awaiting the joys of sense, and the permanence of +the beauty and strength which belong to those who take God for their +portion. + +Drunkenness seems to have been a national sin in Israel; for Micah +rebukes it as vehemently as Isaiah, and it is a clear bit of Christian +duty in England to-day to 'set the trumpet to thy mouth and show the +people' this sin. But the lessons of the prophecy are wider than the +specific form of evil denounced. All setting of affection and seeking +of satisfaction in that which, in all the pride of its beauty, is 'a +fading flower,' is madness and sin. Into every life thus turned to the +perishable will come the crash of the destroying storm, the mutterings +of which might reach the ears of the feasters, if they were not drunk +with the fumes of their deceiving delights. Only one kind of life has +its roots in that which abides, and is safe from tempest and change. +Amaranthine flowers bloom only in heaven, and must be brought thence, +if they are to garland earthly foreheads. If we take God for ours, then +whatever tempests may howl, and whatever fragile though fragrant joys +may be swept away, we shall find in Him all that the world 'fails to +give to its votaries. He is 'a crown of glory' and 'a diadem of +beauty.' Our humanity is never so fair as when it is made beautiful by +the possession of Him. All that sense vainly seeks in earth, faith +finds in God. Not only beauty, but 'a spirit of judgment,' in its +narrower sense and in its widest, is breathed into those to whom God is +'the master light of all their seeing'; and, yet more, He is strength +to all who have to fight. Thus the close union of trustful souls with +God, the actual inspiration of these, and the perfecting of their +nature from communion with God, are taught us in the great words, which +tell how beauty, justice, and strength are all given in the gift of +Jehovah Himself to His people. + +II. The prophet turns to Judah (vs. 7-13), and charges them with the +same disgusting debauchery. His language is vehement in its loathing, +and describes the filthy orgies of those who should have been the +guides of the people with almost painful realism. Note how the words +'reel' and 'stagger' are repeated, and also the words 'wine' and +'strong drink.' We see the priests' and prophets' unsteady gait, and +then they 'stumble' or fall. There they lie amid the filth, like hogs +in a sty. It is very coarse language, but fine words are the Devil's +veils for coarse sins; and it is needful sometimes to call spades +spades, and not to be ashamed to tell men plainly how ugly are the +vices which they are not ashamed to commit. No doubt some of the +drunken priests and false prophets in Jerusalem thought Isaiah +extremely vulgar and indelicate, in talking about staggering teachers +and tables swimming in 'vomit.' But he had to speak out. So deep was +the corruption that the officials were tipsy even when engaged in their +official duties, the prophets reeled while they were seeing visions; +the judges could not sit upright even when pronouncing judgment. + +Verses 9 and 10 are generally taken as a sarcastic quotation of the +drunkards' scoffs at the prophet. They might be put in inverted commas. +Their meaning is, 'Does he take us grave and reverend seigniors, +priests and prophets, to be babies just weaned, that he pesters us with +these monotonous petty preachings, fit only for the nursery, which he +calls his "message"?' In verse 10, the original for 'precept upon +precept,' etc., is a series of short words, which may be taken as +reproducing the 'babbling tones of the drunken mockers.' + +The loose livers of all generations talk in the same fashion about the +stern morality which rebukes their vice. They call it weak, +commonplace, fit for children, and they pretend that they despise it. +They are much too enlightened for such antiquated teaching. Old women +and children may take it in, but men of the world, who have seen life, +and know what is what, are not to be fooled so. 'What will this babbler +say?' was asked by the wise men of Athens, who were but repeating the +scoffs of the prophets and priests of Jerusalem, and the same jeers are +bitter in the mouth of many a profligate man to-day. It is the fate of +all strict morality to be accounted childish by the people whom it +inconveniently condemns. + +In verse 11 and onwards the prophet speaks. He catches up the mockers' +words, and retorts them. They have scoffed at his message as if it were +stammering speech. They shall hear another kind of stammerers when the +fierce invaders' harsh and unintelligible language commands them. The +reason why these foreign voices would have authority, was the national +disregard of God's voice. 'Ye would not hear' Him when, by His prophet, +He spoke gracious invitations to rest, and to give the nation rest, in +obedience and trust. Therefore they shall hear the battle-cry of the +conqueror, and have to obey orders spoken in a barbarous tongue. + +Of course, the language meant is the Assyrian, which, though cognate +with Hebrew, is so unlike as to be unintelligible to the people. But is +not the threat the statement of a great truth always being fulfilled +towards the disobedient? If we will not listen to that loving Voice +which calls us to rest, we shall be forced to listen to the harsh and +strident tones of conquering enemies who command us to slavish toil. If +we will not be guided by His eye and voice, we shall be governed by +whip and bridle. Our choice is either to hearken to the divine call, +which is loving and gentle, and invites to deep repose springing from +faith, or to have to hear the voice of the taskmasters. The monotony of +despised moral and religious teaching shall give place to a more +terrible monotony, even that of continuous judgments. + +'The mills of God grind slowly.' Bit by bit, with gradual steps, with +dismal persistence, like the slow drops on the rock, the judgments of +God trickle out on the mocking heart. It takes a long time for a child +to learn a pageful when he gets his lesson a sentence at a time. So +slowly do His chastisements fall on men who have despised the +continuous messages of His love. The word of the Lord, which was +laughed at when it clothed itself in a prophet's speech, will be heard +in more formidable shape, when it is wrapped in the long-drawn-out +miseries of years of bondage. The warning is as needful for us as for +these drunken priests and scornful rulers. The principle embodied is +true in this day as it was then, and we too have to choose between +serving God in gladness, hearkening to the voice of His word, and so +finding rest to our souls, and serving the world, the flesh, and the +devil, and so experiencing the perpetual dropping of the fiery rain of +His judgments. + + + + +A CROWN OP PRIDE OR A CROWN OF GLORY + +'The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under +feet; 4. And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat +valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the +summer; which when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in +his hand he eateth it up. 5. In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for +a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his +people.'--ISAIAH xxviii. 3-5. + + +The reference is probably to Samaria as a chief city of Israel. The +image is suggested by the situation of Samaria, high on a hill-side, +crowning the valley, and by the rich vegetation and bright flowers +which makes it even now one of the few lovely scenes in Palestine; and +by the luxurious riot and sensual excess that were always +characteristic of the northern kingdom. + +The destruction of Samaria and of the kingdom, then, is here +prophesied--the garland will fade, the hail will batter all its +drooping flowerets, and it shall be trodden under foot. Look at that +withered wreath that gleamed yesterday on some fair head, to-day flung +into the ashpit or kicked about the street. That is a modern rendering +of the prophet's imagery. But the reference goes further than merely to +the city: the whole state of the nation is expressed by the symbol, as +doomed to quick decay, fading in itself, and further smitten down by +divine judgments. + +There is a contrasted picture, that of 'the residue of the people' to +whom there is an amaranthine crown, a festal diadem glorious and +beautiful, which can never fade, even God Himself. To them who love Him +He is an ornament, and His presence is the consecration of the true +joyful feast. They who are crowned by Him are crowned, not for idle +revelry, but for strenuous toil ('sit in judgment') and for brave +purpose ('turn the battle to the gate,') and their coronation day is +ever the day when earthly garlands are withered, whether it be the +crises and convulsions of nations and institutions, or times of +personal trial, or 'in the hour of death or in the day of judgment.' + +Expanding then these thoughts, we have-- + +I. All godless joys are but fading chaplets. + +Of course the first application of such words is to purely sensuous +delights. + +Men who seek to make life a mere revel and banquet. + +Nothing is so short-lived as gratification of appetite. It is not +merely that each act lasts but for a moment, but also that past +gratifications leave no sort of solace to the appetite behind them; +whereas past acquirements or deeds of goodness are a perpetual joy as +well as the foundation of the present. There is something essentially +isolated in each act of sensuous delight. No man can by so willing +recall the taste of eaten food, nor slake his thirst by remembrance of +former draughts, or cool himself by thinking of 'frosty Caucasus.' But +each such gratification is done when it is done, and there is an end of +its power to gratify. + +Further, the power of enjoyment wanes, though the lust for it waxes. +Hence each act has less and less power of satisfying. + +One sees _blase_ young men of twenty-five. It was a man of under +thirty-five who wrote, 'Man delights not me, no, nor woman neither.' It +was a used-up _roue_ that was represented as saying, 'Vanity of +vanities, all is vanity.' It was of sensuous 'pleasures' that poor +Burns wrote,-- + + 'Like the snowfall in the river, + A moment white,--then melts for ever.' + +When a people is given over to such excess, late or soon the fate of +Samaria comes upon them. Think of the French Revolution or of the fall +of Rome, and learn that the prophet was announcing a law for all +nations, in his fiery denunciation, and one which holds good to-day as +ever. + +But we may generalise more widely. Every godless life is essentially +transitory; of course, all life is so in one view. But suppose two men, +working side by side at the same occupation, passing through the same +circumstances. So far as physical changes go, these men are the same. +Both lose much. Both leave behind much. Both cease to be interested in +much that was dear to them. Both die at last, and leave it all. Is +there any difference? The transitoriness is the same, and the eternal +consequences are eternal alike in both; and yet there is a very solemn +sense in which the one man's life has utterly perished, and the other's +abides. Suppose a man, educated to be a first-rate man of business, +dies. Which of his trained faculties will he have scope for in that new +order of things? Or a student, or a lawyer, or a statesman? + +Oh, it is not our natural mortality that makes these thoughts so awful; +but it is the thought that the man who is doing these things is +immortal. The head which wears the fading wreath will live for ever. +'What will ye do in the end?' + +II. Godly life brings unfading joys. + +Communion with God yields abiding joys. The law of change remains the +same. The law of death remains the same. But the motives which direct +and impel the godly man are beyond the reach of change. + +The habits which he contracts are for heaven as well as for earth. The +treasures which he amasses will always be his. + +His life in its essence and his work are one in all worlds. What a +grand continuity, then, knits into one a godly life whether it is lived +on earth or in heaven! + +Communion with God gives beauty and ornament to the whole character. It +brings the true refining and perfecting of the soul. No doubt many +Christian men, as we see them, are but poor specimens of this effect of +godliness; still, it is an effect produced in proportion to the depth +and continuity of their communion. We might dwell on the effect on +Will, Affections, Understanding, produced by dwelling in God. It is +simple fact that the highest conceivable type of beauty is only reached +through communion with God. + +Communion with God gives power as well as gladness. The life of abiding +with God is also one of strenuous effort and real warfare. In the +context it is promised that God will be for strength to them that turn +the battle to the gate. + +The luxurious life of self-indulgence ends, as all selfish life must +do, in the vanishing of delights. The life of joy in God issues, as all +true joy does, in power for work and in power for conflict. + +'God doth anoint thee with His odorous oil, to wrestle, not to reign.' + +III. There will be a coronation day. + +'In that day,' the day when 'the crown of pride shall be trodden under +foot,' the people of God are crowned with the diadem of beauty which is +God Himself. That twofold work of that one day suggests-- + +The double aspect of trials and sorrows. + +The double aspect of death. + +The double aspect of final Judgment. + +'Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the +Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day.' + +To be crowned or discrowned 'in that day' is the alternative set before +each of us. Which of the two do we choose? + + + + +MAN'S CROWN AND GOD'S + +'In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a +diadem of beauty.'--ISAIAH xxviii. 5. + +'Thou shall also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord.'--ISAIAH +lxii 3. + + +Connection of first prophecy--destruction of Samaria. Its situation, +crowning the hill with its walls and towers, its fertile 'fat valley,' +the flagrant immorality and drunkenness of its inhabitants, and its +final ruin, are all presented in the highly imaginative picture of its +fall as being like the trampling under foot of a garland on a +reveller's head, the roses of which fade and droop amid the fumes of +the banqueting hall, and are then flung out on the highway. The +contrast presented is very striking and beautiful. When all that gross +and tumultuous beauty has faded and died, then God Himself will be a +crown of beauty to His people. + +The second text comes into remarkable line with this. The verbal +resemblance is not quite so strong in the original. The words for +_diadem_ and _crown_ are not the same; the word rendered _glory_ in the +second text is rendered _beauty_ in the first, but the two texts are +entirely one in meaning. The same metaphor, then, is used with +reference to what God is to the Church and what the Church is to God. +He is its crown, it is His. + +I. The Possession of God is the Coronation of Man. + +(a) Crowns were worn by guests at feasts. They who possess God sit at a +table perpetually spread with all which the soul can wish or want. +Contrast the perishable delights of sense and godless life with the +calm and immortal joys of communion with God; 'a crown that fadeth not +away' beside withered garlands. + +(b) Crowns were worn by kings. They who serve God are thereby invested +with rule over selves, over circumstances, over all externals. He alone +gives completeness to self-control. + +(c) Crowns were worn by priests. The highest honour and dignity of +man's nature is thereby reached. To have God is like a beam of sunshine +on a garden, which brings out the colours of all the flowers; contrast +with the same garden in the grey monotony of a cloudy twilight. + +II. The Coronation of Man in God is the Coronation of God in Man. + +That includes the following thoughts. + +The true glory of God is in the communication of Himself. What a +wonderful light that throws on divine character! It is equivalent to +'God is Love.' + +He who is glorified by God glorifies God, as showing the most wonderful +working of His power in making such a man out of such material, by an +alchemy that can convert base metal into fine gold; as showing the most +wonderful condescension of His love in taking to His heart man, into +whose flesh the rotting leprosy of sin has eaten. + +Such a man will glorify God by becoming a conscious herald of His +praise. He who has God in his heart will magnify Him by lip and life. +Redeemed men are 'secretaries of His praise' to men, and 'to +principalities and powers in heavenly places is made known by the +Church the manifold wisdom of God.' + +He who thus glorifies God is held in God's hand. + +'None shall pluck them out of My Father's hand.' + +All this will be perfected in heaven. Redeemed men lead the universal +chorus that thunders forth 'glory to Him that sitteth on the throne.' + +'He shall come to be glorified in His saints.' + +'Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee.' + + + + +THE FOUNDATION OF GOD + +'Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a +foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure +foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.'--ISAIAH xxviii. 16. + + +'Therefore thus saith the Lord.' Then these great words are God's +answer to something. And that something is the scornful defiance by the +rulers of Israel of the prophet's threatenings. By their deeds, whether +by their words or no, they said that they had made friends of their +enemies, and that so they were sure that, whatsoever came, they were +safe. To this contemptuous and false reliance God answers, not as we +might expect, first of all, by a repetition of the threatenings, but by +a majestic disclosure of the sure refuge which He has provided, set in +contrast to the flimsy and false ones, on which these men built their +truculent confidence; 'I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone.' And +then, after the exhibition of the great mercy which has been evoked by +the very blasphemy of the rulers, and not till then, does He reiterate +the threatenings of judgment, against which this foundation is laid, +that men may escape; God first declares the refuge, and then warns of +the tempest. + +Without entering at all upon the question, which for all believing and +simple souls is settled by the New Testament, of the Messianic +application of the words before us, I take it for granted. There may no +doubt be an allusion here to the great solid blocks which travellers +tell us may still be seen at the base of the encircling walls of the +Temple hill. A stone so gigantic and so firm God has laid for man to +build upon. + +I. Note, then, first, the foundation, which is Christ. + +There are many aspects of the great thought on which I cannot touch +even for a moment. For instance, let me remind you how, in a very deep +sense, Jesus Christ is the foundation of the whole of the divine +dealings with us; and how, in another aspect, historically, since the +day on which He appeared on earth, He has more and more manifestly and +completely been the foundation of the whole history of the world. But +passing these aspects, let us rather fix upon those which are more +immediately in the prophet's mind. + +Jesus Christ is the foundation laid for all men's security against +every tempest or assault. The context has portrayed the coming of a +tremendous storm and inundation, in view of which this foundation is +laid. The building reared on it then is, therefore, to be a refuge and +an asylum. Have not we all of us, like these scornful men in Jerusalem, +built our refuges on vain hopes, on creatural affections, on earthly +possessions, on this, that, and the other false thing, all of which are +to be swept away when the storm comes? And does there not come upon us +all the blast of the ordinary calamities to which flesh is heir, and +have we not all more or less consciousness of our own evil and +sinfulness; and does there not lie before every one of us at the end of +life that solemn last struggle, and beyond that, as we most of us +believe, a judgment for all that we have done in the body? 'I lay in +Zion for a foundation a stone.' Build upon that, and neither the +tempest of earthly calamities, changes, disappointments, sorrows, +losses, nor the scourge that is wielded because of our sins, nor the +last wild tempest that sweeps a man on the wings of its strong blast +from out of life into the dark region, nor the solemn final retribution +and judgment, shall ever touch us. And when the hail sweeps away the +refuge of lies, and the waters overflow the hiding-place, this +foundation stands sure-- + + And lo! from sin and grief and shame + I hide me, Jesus, in Thy name. + +Brethren, the one foundation on which building, we can build secure, +and safe as well as secure, is that foundation which is laid in the +incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension of the Son of God. The +foundation of all our security is Jesus Christ. + +We may look at the same thought under somewhat different aspects. He is +the foundation for all our thinking and opinions, for all our belief +and our knowledge. 'In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and +knowledge,' and whatsoever of solid fact men can grasp in their +thinkings in regard to all the most important facts and truths with +which they come into relation, is to be found in the life and death of +Jesus Christ, and in the truths which these reveal. He is the +foundation of all our knowledge of God, and of all our true knowledge +of ourselves, of all our true knowledge of duty, and all our true +knowledge of the relations between the present and the future, between +man and God. + +And in His life, in the history of His death and resurrection, is the +only foundation for any real knowledge of the awful mysteries that lie +beyond the grave. He is the Alpha from whom all truth must be deduced, +the Omega to which it all leads up. Certitude is in Him. Apart from Him +we are but groping amid peradventures. If we _know_ anything about God +it is due to Jesus Christ. If we _know_ anything about ourselves it is +due to Him. If we _know_ anything about what men ought to do, it is +because He has done all human duty. And if, into the mist and darkness +that wraps the future, there has ever travelled one clear beam of +insight, it is because He has died and risen again. If we have Him, and +ponder upon the principles that are involved in, and flow from, the +facts of His life and death, then we know; and 'the truth as it is in +Jesus' is the truth indeed. To possess Him is to hold the key to all +mysteries, and knowledge without Him is but knowledge of the husk, the +kernel being all unreached. That Stone is the foundation on which the +whole stately fabric of man's knowledge of the highest things must ever +be reared. + +He is the foundation of all restful love. A Czar of Russia, in the old +days, was mad enough to build a great palace upon the ice-blocks of the +Neva. And when the spring came, and the foundations melted, the house, +full of delights and luxury, sank beneath the river. We build upon +frozen water, and when the thaw comes, what we build sinks and is lost +to sight. Instead of love that twines round the creature and trails, +bleeding and bruised, along the ground when the prop is taken away, let +us turn our hearts to the warm, close, pure, perfect changeless love of +the undying Christ, and we shall build above the fear of change. The +dove's nest in the pine-tree falls in ruin when the axe is laid to the +root. Let us build our nests in the clefts of the rock and no hand will +ever reach them. Christ is the foundation on which we may build an +immortal love. + +He is the foundation for all noble and pure living. He is the fixed +pattern to which it may be conformed. Otherwise man's notions of what +is virtuous and good are much at the mercy of conventional variations +of opinion. This class, that community, this generation, that school, +all differ in their notions of what is true nobleness and goodness of +life. And we are left at the mercy of fluctuating standards unless we +take Christ in His recorded life as the one realised ideal of manhood, +the pattern of what we ought to be. We cannot find a fixed and +available model for conduct anywhere so useful, so complete, so capable +of application to all varieties of human life and disposition as we +find in Him, who was not this man or that man, in whom the manly and +the feminine, the gentle and the strong, the public and the private +graces were equally developed. In Christ there is no limitation or +taint. In Christ there is nothing narrow or belonging to a school. This +water has no taste of any of the rocks through which it flowed. You +cannot say of Jesus Christ that He is a Jew or a Gentile, that He is +man or woman, that He is of the ancient age or the modern type, that He +is cut after this pattern or that. All beauty and all grace are in Him, +and every man finds there the example that he needs. So, as the perfect +pattern, He is the foundation for all noble character. + +As the one sufficient motive for holy and beauteous living, He is the +foundation. 'If ye love Me, keep My commandments.' That is a new thing +in the world's morality, and that one motive, and that motive alone, +has power, as the spring sunshine has, to draw beauty from out the +little sheaths of green, and to tempt the radiance of the flowers to +unfold their lustre. They that find the reason and the motive for +goodness and purity in Christ's love to them, and their answering love +to Christ, will build a far fairer fabric of a life than any others, +let them toil at the building as they may. So, dear brethren, on this +foundation God has built His mercy to all generations, and on this +foundation you and I may build our safety, our love, our thinkings, our +obedience, and rest secure. + +II. Note next the tried preciousness of the foundation. + +The language of the text, 'a stone of proof,' as it reads in the +original, probably means a stone which has been tested and stood the +trial. And because it is thus a tested stone, it therefore is a +precious stone. There are two kinds of testing--the testing from the +assaults of enemies, and the testing by the building upon it of +friends. And both these methods of proof have been applied, and it has +stood the test. + +Think of all the assaults that have been made from this side and the +other against Christ and His gospel, and what has become of them all? +Travellers tell us how they often see some wandering tribes of savage +Arabs trying to move the great stones, for instance, of Baalbec--those +wonders of unfinished architecture. But what can a crowd of such +people, with all their crowbars and levers, do to the great stone +bedded there, where it has been for centuries? They cannot stir it one +hair's-breadth. And so, against Jesus Christ and His gospel there has +stormed for eighteen hundred years an assaulting crowd, varying in its +individuals and in its methods of attack, but the same in its purpose, +and the same in the fruitlessness of its effort. Century after century +they have said, as they are saying to-day, '_Now_ the final assault is +going to be delivered; it can never stand _this_.' And when the smoke +has cleared away there may be a little blackening upon the edge, but +there is not a chip off its bulk, and it stands in its bed where it +did; and of all the grand preparations for a shattering explosion, +nothing is left but a sulphurous smell, and a wreath of smoke, and both +are floating away down into the distance. Generation after generation +has attacked the gospel; generation after generation has been foiled; +and I do not need to be a prophet, or the son of a prophet, to be quite +sure of this, that all who to-day are trying to destroy men's faith in +the Incarnate Son of God, who died for them and rose again, will meet +the same fate. I can see the ancient and discredited systems of +unbelief, that have gone down into oblivion, rising from their seats, +as the prophet in his great vision saw the kings of the earth, to greet +the last comer who had fought against God and failed, with 'Art thou +also become weak as we? Art thou become like unto us?' The stone will +stand, whosoever tries to blow it up with his dynamite, or to pound it +with his hammers. + +But there is the other kind of testing. One proves the foundation by +building upon it. If the stone be soft, if it be slender, if it be +imperfectly bedded, it will crumble, it will shift, it will sink. But +this stone has borne all the weight that the world has laid upon it, +and borne it up. Did any man ever come to Jesus Christ with a sorrow +that He could not comfort, with a sin that He could not forgive, with a +soul that He could not save? And we may trust Him to the end. He is a +'tried stone.' 'This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved +him out of all his troubles,' has been the experience of nineteen +centuries. + +So, being tried, it is precious,--precious to God who laid it there at +a great and real cost to Himself--having given up 'His only begotten +Son'; precious, inasmuch as building upon it is the one safety from the +raging tempest and flood that would else engulf and destroy us. + +III. Note, next, the process of building. + +The metaphor seems to be abandoned in the last words of our text, but +it is only apparently so. 'He that believeth shall not make haste.' So, +then, we build by believing. The act of building is simple faith in +Jesus Christ. We _come_ to Him, as the Apostle Peter has it in his +quotation of this text--come to Him as unto a living stone, and the +coming and the building are both of them metaphors for the one simple +thing, trust in the Lord. The bond that unites men on earth with Christ +in Heaven, is the exercise of simple faith in Him. By it they come into +contact with Him, and receive from Him the security and the blessing +that He can bestow. Nothing else brings a man into living fellowship +with Him. When we trust in the Lord we, as it were, are bedded into +Him; and resting upon Him with all our weight, then we are safe. That +confidence involves the abandonment of all the 'refuges of lies.' There +must be utter self-distrust and forsaking and turning away from every +dependence upon anything else, if we are to trust ourselves to Jesus +Christ. But the figure of a foundation which gives security and +stability to the stones laid upon it, does not exhaust all the +blessedness of this building upon Christ. For when we really rest upon +Him, there comes from the foundation up through all the courses a vital +power. Thus Peter puts it: 'To whom, coming as unto a living stone, ye +also as living stones are built up.' We might illustrate this by the +supposition of some fortress perched upon a rock, and in the heart of +the rock a clear fountain, which is guided by some pipe or other into +the innermost rooms of the citadel. Thus, builded upon Christ, 'our +defence shall be the munitions of rocks, and our waters shall be sure.' +From Him, the foundation, there will rise into all the stones, built +upon Him, the power of His own endless life, and they, too, become +living stones. + +IV. So note, lastly, the quiet confidence of the builders. + +'He that believeth shall not _make haste._' The word is somewhat +obscure, and the LXX., which is followed by the New Testament, readers +it, 'Shall not be confounded or put to shame.' But the rendering of our +text seems to be accurate enough. 'He shall not make haste.' Remember +the picture of the context--a suddenly descending storm, a swiftly +rising and turbid flood, the lashing of the rain, the howling of the +wind. The men in the clay-built hovels on the flat have to take to +flight to some higher ground above the reach of the innundation, on +some sheltered rock out of the flashing of the rain and the force of +the tempest. He who is built upon the true foundation knows that his +house is above the water-level, and he does not need to be in a hurry. +He can remain quietly there till the flood subsides, knowing that it +will not rise high enough to drown or even disturb him. When all the +other buildings are gone, his stands. And he that thus dwells on high +may look out over the wild flood, washing and weltering to the horizon, +and feel that he is safe. So shall he not have to make haste, but may +wait calm and quiet, knowing that all is well. + +Dear friends, there is only one refuge for any of us--only one from the +little annoyances and from the great ones; from to-day's petty +troubles, and from the day of judgment; from the slight stings, if I +may so say, of little sorrows, cares, burdens, and from the poisoned +dart of the great serpent. There is only one refuge for any of us, to +build upon Jesus Christ, as we can do by simple faith. + +And oh! remember, He must either be the foundation on which we build, +or the stone of stumbling against which we stumble, and which one day +will fall upon us and grind us to powder. Do you make your choice; and +when God says, as He says to each of us: 'Behold! I lay in Zion a +foundation,' do you say, 'And, Lord, I build upon the foundation which +Thou hast laid.' + + + + +GOD'S STRANGE WORK + +'That He may do His work, His strange work; and bring to pass His act, +His strange act.'--ISAIAH xxviii. 21. + + +How the great events of one generation fall dead to another! There is +something very pathetic in the oblivion that swallows up +world-resounding deeds. Here the prophet selects two instances which to +him are solemn and singular examples of divine judgment, and we have +difficulty in finding out to what he refers. To him they seemed the +most luminous illustrations he could find of the principle which he is +proclaiming, and to us all the light is burned out of them. They are +the darkest portion of the verse. Several different events have been +suggested. But most probably the historical references here are to +David's slaughter of the Philistines (2 Sam. v., and I Chron. xiv.). +This is probable, but by no means certain. If so, the words are made +still more threatening by asserting that He will treat the Israelites +as if they were Philistines. But the point on which we should +concentrate attention is this remarkable expression, according to which +judgment is God's strange work. And that is made more emphatic by the +use of a word translated 'act,' which means service, and is almost +always used for work that is hard and heavy--a toil or a task. + +I. The work in which God delights. + +It is here implied that the opposite kind of activity is congenial to +Him. The text declares judgment to be an anomaly, out of His ordinary +course of action and foreign to His nature. + +We may pause for a moment on that great thought that God has a usual +course of action, which is usual because it is the spontaneous +expression and true mirror of His character. What He thus does shows +that character to His creatures, who cannot see Him but in the glass of +His works, and have to infer His nature, as they best may, from His +works. The Bible begins with His nature and thence interprets His work. + +The work in which God delights is the utterance of His love in blessing. + +The very essence of love is self-manifestation. + +The very being of God is love, and all being delights in its own +self-manifestation, in its own activity. + +How great the thought is that He is glad when we let Him satisfy His +nature by making us glad! + +The ordinary course of His government in the world is blessing. + +II. The Task in which He does not delight, or His Strange Work. + +The consequences of sin are God's work. The miseries consequent on sin +are self-inflicted, but they are also God's judgments on sin. We may +say that sin automatically works out its results, but its results +follow by the will of God on account of sin. + +That work is a necessity arising from the nature of God. It is foreign +to His heart but not to His nature. God is both 'the light of Israel' +for blessing, and 'a consuming fire.' The two opposite effects are +equally the result of the contact of God and man. Light pains a +diseased eye and gladdens a sound one. The sun seen through a mist +becomes like a ball of red-hot iron. The whole revelation of God +becomes a pain to an unloving soul. + +But God's very love compels Him to punish. + +Some modern notions of the love of God seem to strike out righteousness +from His nature altogether, and substitute for it a mere good nature +which is weakness, not love, and is cruelty, not kindness. + +There is nothing in the facts of the world or in the teachings of the +gospel which countenances the notion of a God whose fondness prevents +Him from scourging. + +What do you call it when a father spares the rod and spoils the child? + +Even this world is a very serious place for a man who sets himself +against its laws. Its punishments come down surely and not always +slowly. There is nothing in it to encourage the idea of impunity. + +That work is to Him an Unwelcome Necessity. Bold words. 'I have no +pleasure in the death of a sinner.' 'He doth not willingly inflict.' +The awful power of sin to divert the current of blessing. Christ's +tears over Jerusalem. How unwelcome that work is to them is shown by +the slowness of His judgments, by multiplied warnings. 'Rising up +early,' He tells men that He will smite, in order that He may never +need to smite. + +That work is a certainty. However reluctantly He smites, the blow +_will_ fall. + +III. The Strange Work of Redemption. + +The mightiest miracle. The revelation of God's deepest nature. The +wonder of the universe. + + + + +THE HUSBANDMAN AND HIS OPERATIONS + +'Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech. 24. Doth +the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of +his ground! 25. When lie hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not +cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the +principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their place? +26. For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him. +27. For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, +neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches +are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod. 28. Bread corn +is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with +the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen. 29. This also +cometh forth from the Lord of Hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and +excellent in working.'--ISAIAH xxviii. 23-29. + + +The prophet has been foretelling a destruction which he calls God's +_strange_ act. The Jews were incredulous, 'scornful men.' They did not +believe him; and the main reason for their incredulity was that a +divine destruction of the nation was so opposite to the divine +conservation of it as to amount to an impossibility. God had raised up +and watched over the people. He had planted it in the mountain of His +inheritance, and now was it going to be thrown down by the same hand +which had built it up? Impossible. + +The prophet's answer to that question is this parable of the +husbandman, who has to perform a great variety of operations. He +ploughs, but that is not all. He lays aside the plough when it has done +its work, and takes up the seed-basket, and, in different ways, sows +different seeds, scattering some broadcast, and dropping others +carefully, grain by grain, into their place--'dibbling' it in, as we +should say. But seedtime too, passes, and then he cuts down what he had +so carefully sown, and pulls up what he had so sedulously planted, and, +in different ways, breaks and bruises the grain. Is he inconsistent +because he ploughs in winter and reaps in harvest? Does his carrying +the seed-basket at one time make it impossible that he shall come with +flail and threshing-oxen at another? Are not all the various operations +co-operant to one end? Does not the end need them all? Is not one +purpose going steadily forward through ploughing, sowing, reaping, +threshing? Is not that like the work of the great Husbandman, who +changes His methods and preserves His plan through them all, who has +His 'time to sow' and His 'time to reap,' and who orders the affairs of +men and kingdoms, for the one purpose that He may gather His wheat into +His garner, and purge from it its chaff? + +This parable sets forth a philosophy of the divine operations very +beautiful and true, and none the less impressive for the simple garb in +which it is clothed. + +I. All things come from one steady, divine purpose. + +We may notice in passing how reverentially the prophet believes that +agriculture is taught by God. He would have said the same of +cotton-spinning or coal-mining. Think how striking a figure that is, of +all the world as God's farm, where He practises His husbandry to grow +the crops which He desires. + +What a picture the parable gives of sedulous and patient labour for a +far-off result! + +It insists on the thought of one steady divine purpose ever directing +the movements of the divine hand. + +That is the negation of the godless theory that the affairs of men are +merely the work of men, or are merely the result of impersonal causes. +The world is not a jungle where any or every plant springs of itself, +but it is cultivated ground which has an Owner who looks after it. + +It is the affirmation that God's action is regulated by a purpose which +is intelligent, unchanging, all-embracing to us because revealed. + +II. That steady purpose is man's highest good. + +The end of all the farmer's care is the ripening of the seed. God's +purpose is our moral, intellectual, and spiritual perfecting. + +Neither His own 'glory' nor man's 'happiness,' which are taken by +different schools of thought to be the divine aim in creation and +providence, is an object worthy of Him or adequate to explain the facts +of every man's experience, unless both are regarded as needing man's +perfecting, for their attainment. God's glory is to make men godlike. +Man's happiness cannot be secured without His holiness. + +God has larger and nobler designs for us than merely to make us happy. + +'This is the will of God concerning you, even your sanctification.' + +Nothing short of that end would be worthy of God, or would explain His +methods. + +III. That purpose needs great variety of processes. + +This is true about nations and about individuals. + +Different stages of growth need different treatment. + +The parable names three operations:-- + +Ploughing, which is preparation; + +Sowing, or casting in germinating principles; + +Threshing, which is effected by tribulation, a word which means driving +a 'tribulum' or threshing-sedge over ears of grain. + +So sorrow is indispensable for our perfecting. + +By it earthly affections are winnowed away, and our dependence on God +increased. A certain refinement of spirit results, like the pallor on +the face of a chronic invalid, which has a delicate beauty unattainted +by ruddy health. A capacity for sympathy, too, is often the result of +one's own trials. Rightly borne, they tend to bend or break the will, +and they teach how great it is to suffer and be strong. + +But sorrow is not enough; joy is indispensable too. The crop is +threshed in tribulation, but is grown mostly in sunshine. Calm, +uneventful hours, continuous possession of blessings, have a ministry +not less than afflictions have. The corn in the furrow, waving in the +western wind, and with golden sunlight among its golden stems, is +preparing for the loaf no less than when bound in bundles and lying on +the threshing-floor, or cut and bruised by sharp teeth of dray or heavy +hoofs of oxen, or blows of swinging flails. + +So do not suppose that sorrow is the only instrument for perfecting +character, and see that you do not miss the sanctifying and ripening +effect of your joyous hours. + +Again, different types of character require different modes of +treatment. In the parable, 'the fitches' are sown in one fashion, and +'the cummin' in another the 'wheat' and 'barley' in still another; and +similar variety marks the methods of separating the grain from the +husk, one kind of crop being threshed another having a wheel turned +upon it. Thus each of us gets the kind of joys and pains that will have +most effect on us. God knows where is the tenderest spot, and makes no +mistakes in His dealing. He sends us 'afflictions sorted, sorrows of +all sizes.' + +Let us see that we trust to His loving and wise adaptation of our +trials to our temperaments and needs. Let us see that we never let +clouds obscure the clearness of our perception, or, failing perception, +the serenity of our trust, that all things work together, and all work +for our highest good--our being made like our Lord. We should less +often complain of the mysteries of Providence if we had learned the +meaning of Isaiah's parable. + +IV. All the processes end in garnering the grain. + +There is a barn or storehouse for the ripened and threshed crops. The +farmer's toil and careful processes would be absurd and unintelligible +if, after them all, the crop, so sedulously ripened and cultivated and +cleansed, was left to rot where it fell. And no less certainly does the +discipline of this life cry aloud for heaven and a conscious personal +future life, if it is not to be all set down as grim irony or utterly +absurd. There must be a heaven if we are not to be put to intellectual +bewilderment. + +What was needed for growth here drops away there, as blossoms fall when +their work is done. Sunshine and rain are no more necessary when the +fields are cleared and the barn-yard is filled. Much in our nature, in +our earthly condition, in God's varying processes, will drop away. When +school-time is done the rod is burned. But nothing will perish that can +contribute to our perfecting. + +So let us ask Him to purge us with His fan in His hand now, lest we +should be found at last fruitless cumberers of the ground or chaff +which is rootless, and fit only to be swept out of the threshing-floor. + + + + +'QUIETNESS AND CONFIDENCE' + +'In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and confidence +shall be your strength.'--ISAIAH xxx. 15. + + +ISRAEL always felt the difficulty of sustaining itself on the height of +dependence on the unseen, spiritual power of God, and was ever +oscillating between alliances with the Northern and Southern powers, +linking itself with Assyria against Egypt, or with Egypt against +Assyria. The effect was that whichever was victorious it suffered; it +was the battleground for both, it was the prize of each in turn. The +prophet's warnings were political wisdom as truly as religious. + +Here Judah is exhorted to forsake the entangling dependence on Egypt, +and to trust wholly to God. They had gone away from Him in their fears. +They must come back by their faith. To them the great lesson was trust +in God. Through them to us the same lesson is read. The principle is +far wider than this one case. It is the one rule of life for us all. + +The two clauses of the text convey substantially the same idea. They +are in inverted parallelism. 'Returning and rest' correspond to +'quietness and confidence,' so as that 'rest' answers to 'quietness' +and 'returning' to 'confidence.' In the former clause we have the +action towards God and then its consequence. In the latter we have the +consequence and then the action. + +I. The returning. + +Men depart from God by speculative thought or by anxious care, or by +sin. + +To 'return' is just to trust. + +The parallel helps us here--'returning' is parallel with 'confidence.' +This confidence is to be exercised especially in relation to one's own +path in life and the outward trials and difficulties which we meet, but +its sphere extends far beyond these. It is a disposition of mind which +covers all things. The attitude of trust, the sense of dependence, the +assurance of God's help and love are in all life the secrets of peace +and power. + +Am I sinful? then trust. Am I bewildered and ignorant? then trust. Am I +anxious and harassed? then trust. + +Note the thought, that we come back to God by simple confidence, not by +preparing ourselves, not by our expiation, but only by trusting in Him. + +Of course the temptations to the opposite attitude are many and great. + +Note, too, that every want of confidence is a departure from God. We go +away from Him not only by open sin, not only by denial of Him, but by +forget-fulness, by want of faith. + +The _ground_ of this confidence is laid in our knowledge of Him, +especially in our knowledge of Jesus Christ. + +The _exercise_ of this confidence is treated as voluntary. Every man is +responsible for his faith. + +The _elements_ of this confidence are, as regards ourselves, our sense +of want in all its various aspects; and, as regards Him, our assurance +of His love, of His nearness to help. + +II. Confiding nearness to God brings quiet rest. + +'Rest' and 'being quiet' are treated here partly as consequences of +faith, partly as duties which we are bound to strive to achieve. + +1. See how confidence in God stills and quiets the soul. + +The very exercise of communion with Him brings peace and rest, inasmuch +as all things are then possessed which we can desire. There is a still +fruition which nothing can equal and nothing destroy. + +Trust in God brings rest from our own evil consciences. + +It brings rest from our own plans and purposes. + +Trust gives insight into the meaning of all this else unintelligible +world. + +It brings the calming and subduing of desires, which in their eagerness +torture, in their fruition trouble, and in their disappointment madden. + +It brings the gathering in of ourselves from all the disturbing +diffusion of ourselves through earthly trifles. + +2. Notice what this rest is not. + +It does not mean the absence of causes of disturbance. + +It does not mean the abnegation of forethought. + +It does not mean an indolent passiveness. + +3. Notice the duty of being thus quiet and resting. + +How much we fail in this respect. + +We have faith, but there seems some obstruction which stops it from +flowing refreshingly through our lives. + +We are bound to seek for its increased continuity and power in our +hearts and lives. + +III. Confidence and rest in God bring safety and strength. + +That is true in the lowest sense of 'saved,' and not less true in the +highest. The condition of all our salvation from temporal as well as +spiritual evils lies thus in the same thing--that we trust God. + +No harm comes to us when we trust, because then God is with us, and +works for us, and cares for us. So all departments of life are bound +together by the one law. Trust is the condition of being 'saved.' + +And not only so, but also trust is strength. God works _for_ us; yes, +but better than that, God works _in_ us and fits _us_ to work. + +What powers we might be in the world! Trust should make us strong. To +have confidence in God should bring us power to which all other power +is as nothing. He who can feel that his foot is on the rock, how firm +he should stand! + +Best gives strength. The rest of faith doubles our forces. To be freed +from anxious care makes a man much more likely to act vigorously and to +judge wisely. + +Stillness of soul, born of communion with God, makes us strong. + +Stillness of soul, born of deliverance from our fears, makes us strong. + +Here then is a golden chain--or shall we rather say a live +wire?--whereof one end is bound to the Throne and the other encircles +our poor hearts. Trust, so shall we be at rest and safe. Being at rest +and safe, we shall be strong. If we link ourselves with God by faith, +God will flash into us His mysterious energy, and His strength will be +made perfect in our weakness. + + + + +GOD'S WAITING AND MAN'S + +'And therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you, +and therefore will He be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you: for +the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are they that wait for +Him.'--ISAIAH xxx. 18. + + +God's waiting and man's--bold and beautiful, that He and we should be +represented as sharing the same attitude. + +I. God's waiting, + +1. The first thought is--why should He wait--why does He not act at +once? Because something in us hinders. We cannot enter into spiritual +blessings till we are made capable of them by faith. It would not be +for our good to receive some temporal blessings till sorrow has done +its work on us. The great thought here is that God has a right time for +help. He is 'a God of judgment,' _i.e._. discerns our moral condition +and shapes His dealings thereby. He never gives the wrong medicine. + +2. His waiting is full of work to fit us to receive His grace. It is +not a mere passive standing by, till the fit conditions are seen in us; +but He 'is exalted' while He waits, _i.e._. lifted up in the +manifestation of His might, and by His energy in preparing us for the +gifts that He has prepared for us. 'He that hath wrought us for the +self-same thing is God.' He who prepares a place for us is preparing us +for the place. He who has grace which He is ready to give us here, is +making us ready for His grace. The meaning of all God's work on us is +to form a character fit to possess His highest gifts. + +3. His waiting is very patient. The divine husbandman 'waiteth for the +precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it.' How wonderful that +in a very real sense He attends on our pleasure, as it were, and lets +us determine His time to work. + +4. That waiting is full of divine desire to help. It is not the waiting +of indifference, which says: 'If you will have it--well and good. If +not, it does not matter to Me.' But 'more than they that watch for the +morning,' God waits 'that He may be gracious unto you.' + +II. Man's waiting. + +Our attitude is to be in some real sense analogous to His. + +Its main elements are firm anticipation, patient expectation, steadfast +desire, self-discipline to fit us for the influx of God's grace. + +We are not to prescribe 'times and seasons which the Father hath put in +His own power.' The clock of Eternity ticks more slowly than our +short-pendulumed timepieces. 'If the vision tarry, wait for it.' We may +well wait for God when we know that He waits for us, and that, for the +most part, when He sees that we are waiting, He knows that His time is +come. + +But it is to be noted that the waiting desire to which He responds is +directed to something better and greater than any gifts from Him, even +to Himself, for it is they who 'wait for _Him_,' not only for His +benefits apart from Himself, however precious these may be, who are +blessed. + +The blessedness of such waiting, how it calms the heart, brings into +constant touch with God, detaches from the fever and the fret which +kill, opens our eyes to mark the meanings of our life's history, and +makes the divine gifts infinitely more precious when they do come. + +After all, the time of waiting is at the longest very short. And when +the perfect fruition is come, and we enter into the great spaces of +Eternity, it will seem as an handbreadth. + + 'Take it on trust a little while, + Thou soon shalt read the mystery right + In the full sunshine of His smile.' + + + + +THREE PICTURES OF ONE REALITY + +'As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending +also He will deliver it; and passing over He will preserve it'--ISAIAH +xxxi. 5. + + +The immediate occasion of this very remarkable promise is, of course, +the peril in which Jerusalem was placed by Sennacherib's invasion; and +the fulfilment of the promise was the destruction of his army before +its gates. But the promise here, like all God's promises, is eternal in +substance, and applies to a community only because it applies to each +member of that community. Jerusalem was saved, and that meant that +every house in Jerusalem was saved, and every man in it the separate +object of the divine protection So that all the histories of Scripture, +and all the histories of men in the world, are but transitory +illustrations of perennial principles, and every atom of the +consolation and triumph of this verse comes to each of us, as truly as +it did to the men that with tremulous heart began to take cheer, as +they listened to Isaiah. There is a wonderful saying in one of the +other prophets which carries that lesson, where, bringing down the +story of Jacob's struggle with the angel of Peniel to the encouragement +of the existing generation, he says,' He spake to _us_.' They were +hundreds of years after the patriarch, and yet had fallen heirs to all +that God had ever said to him So, from that point of view, I am not +spiritualising, or forcing the meaning of these words, when I bring +them direct into the lives of each one of ourselves. + +I. And, first, I would note the very striking and beautiful pictures +that are given in these verses. + +There are three of them, on each of which I must touch briefly. 'As +birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem.' The form of +the words in the original shows that it is the mother-bird that is +thought about. And the picture rises at once of her fluttering over the +nest, where the callow chickens are, unable to fly and to help +themselves. It is a kind of echo of the grand metaphor in the song that +is attributed to Moses, which speaks of the eagle fluttering over her +nest, and taking care of her young. Jerusalem was as a nest on which, +for long centuries, that infinite divine love had brooded. It was but a +poor brood that had been hatched out, but yet 'as birds flying' He had +watched over the city. Can you not almost see the mother-bird, made +bold by maternal love, swooping down upon the intruder that sought to +rob the nest, and spreading her broad pinion over the callow fledglings +that lie below? That is what God does with us. As I said, it is a poor +brood that is hatched out. That does not matter; still the Love bends +down and helps. Nobody but a prophet could have ventured on such a +metaphor as that, and nobody but Jesus Christ would have ventured to +mend it and say, 'As a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings,' +when there are hawks in the sky. So He, in all the past ages, was the +One that 'as birds flying ... defended' His people, and would have +gathered them under His wings, only they would not. + +Now, beautiful as this metaphor is, as it stands, it seems to me, like +some brilliant piece of colouring, to derive additional beauty from its +connection with the background upon which it stands out. For just a +verse before the prophet has given another emblem of what God is and +does, and if you will carry with you all those thoughts of tenderness +and maternal care and solicitude, and then connect them with that +verse, I think the thought of His tenderness will start up into new +beauty. For here is what precedes the text: 'Like as a lion, and the +young lion roaring on his prey when a multitude of shepherds is called +forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor bow +himself for the noise of them. So shall the Lord of hosts come down to +fight for Mount Zion.' Look at these two pictures side by side, on the +one hand the lion, with his paw on his prey, and the angry growl that +answers when the shepherds vainly try to drag it away from him. That is +God. Ay! but that is only an aspect of God. 'As birds flying, so the +Lord will defend Jerusalem.' We have to take that into account too. +This generation is very fond of talking about God's love; does it +believe in God's wrath? It is very fond of speaking about the +gentleness of Jesus; has it pondered that tremendous phrase, 'the wrath +of the Lamb'? The lion that growls, and the mother-bird that +hovers--God is like them both. That is the first picture that is here. + +The second one is not so obvious to English readers, but it is equally +striking, though I do not mean to dwell upon it. The word that is +translated in our text twice, 'defend' and 'defending'--'So will the +Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem, and defending will deliver'--means, +literally, 'shielding.' Thus we have the same general idea as that in +the previous metaphor of the mother-bird hovering above the nest: God +is like a shield held over us, and so flinging off front the broad and +burnished surface of the Almighty buckler, all the darts that any foe +can launch against as. 'Our God is a Sun and Shield.' I need not +enlarge on this familiar metaphor. + +But the third picture I wish to point to in more detail: 'Passing over, +He will deliver.' Now, the word that is there rendered 'passing over,' +is almost a technical word in the Old Testament, because it is that +employed in reference to the Passover. And so you see the swiftness of +genius with which the prophet changes his whole scene. We had the nest +and the mother-bird, we had the battlefield and the shield; now we are +swept away back to that night when the Destroying Angel stalked through +the land, and 'passed over' the doors on which the blood had been +sprinkled. And thus this God, who in one aspect may be likened to the +mother-bird hovering with her little breast full of tenderness, and +made brave by maternal love conquering natural timidity, and in another +aspect may be likened to the broad shield behind which a man stands +safe, may also be likened to that Destroying Angel that went through +Egypt, and smote wherever there were not the tokens of the blood on the +lintels, and 'passed over' wherever there were. Of course, the original +fulfilment of this third picture is the historical case of the army of +Sennacherib; outside the walls, widespread desolation; inside the +walls, an untroubled night of peace. That night in Egypt is paralleled, +in the old Jewish hymn that is still sung at the Passover, with the +other night when Sennacherib's men were slain; and the parallel is +based on our text. So, then, here is another illustration of what I +started with saying, that the past events of Scripture are transient +expressions of perennial principles and tendencies. For the Passover +night was not to be to the contemporaries of the prophet an event +receding ever further into the dim distance, but it was a present +event, and to be reproduced in that catastrophe when 'in the morning +when they arose, they were all dead corpses.' And the event is being +repeated to-day, and will be for each of us, if we will. + +So, then, there are these three pictures--the Nest and the Mother-bird, +the Battlefield and the Shield, Egypt and the Destroying Angel. + +II. We note the reality meant by these pictures. + +They mean the absolute promise from God of protection for His people +from _every_ evil. We are not to cut it down, not to say that it +applies absolutely in regard to the spiritual world, but that it does +not apply in regard to temporal things. Yes, it does entirely, only you +have to rise to the height of God's conception of what is good and what +is evil in regard to outward things, before you understand how +completely, and without qualification or deduction, this promise is +fulfilled to every man that puts his trust in Him. Of course, I do not +need to remind you, for your own lives will do so sufficiently, that +this hovering protector, this strong Shield, this Destroying Angel that +passes by our houses if the blood is on the threshold, does not +guarantee us any exemption from the common 'ills that flesh is heir +to.' We all know that well enough. But what does it guarantee? That all +the poison shall be wiped off the arrow, that all the evil shall be +taken out of the evil, that it will change its character, that if we +observe the conditions, the sharpest sorrow will come to us with this +written on it by the Father's hand, 'With My love to My child'; that +pain will be discipline, and discipline will be blessed. Ah! dear +friends! I am sure there are many of us that can set to our seals that +God is true in this matter, and that we have found that His rod does +blossom, and that our sorest sorrows have been our greatest mercies, +drawing us nearer to Him; 'Defending He will deliver, and passing over +He will preserve.' + +III. And now let me remind you of the way by which we can make the +reality of these pictures ours. + +You know that all the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament are +conditional, and that there are many of them that were never fulfilled, +and were spoken in order that they might not be fulfilled, if only the +people took warning. I wish folk would carry a little more consciously +in their minds that principle in interpreting them all, and in asking +about their fulfilment. Not only in regard to these ancient events, but +in regard to our individual experience, God's promises and threatenings +are conditional. + +Take that first metaphor of the hovering mother-bird. Listen to this +expansion of it in one of the psalms: 'He shall cover thee with His +feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust.' The word for _trust_ +here means to 'fly into a refuge.' Can you not see the picture? A +little brood round the parent bird, frightened by some beast of prey, +or hovering hawk in the sky, and fluttering under its wings, and all +safe and huddled together there close against the warm breast, and in +amongst the downy feathers. 'Under His wings shalt thou trust.' Put +thou thy trust in God, and God is to thee the hovering bird, the broad +shield, the Angel that 'passes over.' + +Take the other picture of the Passover night. Only by our individual +faith in Jesus Christ as our individual Saviour can we put the blood on +our door-posts so that the Destroying Angel shall pass by. So, if we +would have the sweetness of such words as these fulfilled in our daily +lives, however disturbed and troubled and sorrowful and solitary they +may be, the first condition is that under His wings shall we flee for +refuge, and we do so by trust in Him. + +But having thus fled thither, we must continue there, if we would +continue under His protection. Such continuance of safety because of +continuous faith is possible only by continued communion. Remember our +Lord's expansion of the metaphor in His lament: 'How often would I have +gathered thy children together as a hen gathereth her chickens under +her wings, and ye would not.' We can resist the drawing. We can get +away from the shelter of the wing. We can lift up our wills against +Him. And what becomes of the chicken that does _not_ run to the +mother's pinions when the hawk is hovering? That is what becomes of the +man that stops outside the refuge in Christ, or that by failure of his +faith departs from that refuge. 'Ye would not; therefore your house is +left unto you desolate.' That house, in the Jerusalem which God +'defends,' is _not_ defended. + +Another condition of divine protection is obedience. We need not expect +that God will take care of us, and preserve us, when we did not ask His +leave to get into the dangerous place that we find ourselves in. Many +of us do the converse of what the Apostle condemns, we begin 'in the +flesh,' and think we shall end 'in the Spirit'; which being translated +is, we do not ask God's leave to do certain things, to enter into +certain engagements or arrangements with other people, and the like, +and then we expect God to come and help us in or out of them. That is +by no means an uncommon form of delusion. You remember what Jesus +Christ said when the Devil tried to entice Him to do a thing of that +sort, by quoting Scripture to Him--'He shall give His angels charge +concerning Thee, to keep Thee in all Thy ways. Cast Thyself down. Trust +to the promise as a kind of parachute to keep Thee from falling bruised +on the stones of the Temple-court.' Christ's answer was: 'Thou shalt +not tempt the Lord thy God.' You will not get God's protection in ways +of your own choosing. + +And so, brethren, 'all things work together for good to them that +love,' to them that trust, to them that keep close, to them that obey. +And for such the old faithful promise will be faithful and new once +more, 'Because He hath set His love upon Me, therefore will I deliver +Him'--that will be the summing up of our lives; 'and I will set Him on +high because He hath known My Name,' that will be the meaning of our +deaths. + + + + +THE LORD'S FURNACE + +'The Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and His furnace in +Jerusalem.'--ISAIAH xxxi. 9. + + +This very remarkable characterisation of God stands here as a kind of +seal, set upon the preceding prophecy. It is the reason why that will +certainly be fulfilled. And what precedes is mainly a promise of a +deliverance for Israel, which was to be a destruction for Israel's +enemies. It is put in very graphic and remarkable metaphors: 'Like as a +lion roareth on his prey when a multitude of shepherds is called forth +against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself +for the noise of them: so shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight +for Mount Zion.' The enemies of Israel are picturesquely and poetically +represented as a crowd of shepherds vainly trying to scare a lion by +their shouts. He stands undaunted, with his strong paw on his prey, and +the boldest of them durst not venture to drag it from beneath his +claws. So, says Isaiah, with singularly daring imagery, God will put +all His strength into keeping fast hold of Israel, and no one can pluck +His people from His hands. + +Then, with a sudden and striking change of metaphor, the prophet passes +from a picture of the extreme of fierceness to one of the extreme of +tenderness. 'As birds flying'--mother birds fluttering over their +nests--'so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem,' hovering over it +and going from side to side to defend with His broad pinions, 'passing +over, He will preserve it.' These figures are next translated into the +plain promise of utter discomfiture and destruction, panic and flight +as the portion of the enemies of Israel, and the whole has this broad +seal set to it, that He who promises is 'the Lord, whose fire is in +Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem.' + +We shall not understand these great words if we regard them as only a +revelation of destructive and terrible power. They are that indeed, but +they are far more than that. It is the very beauty and completeness of +this emblem that has a double aspect, and is no less rich in joy and +blessing than pregnant with warning and terror. As Isaiah says in +another place, Jerusalem is 'Ariel,' which probably means 'the hearth +of God.' His presence in the city is as a fire for the comfort and +defence of the happy inhabitants, and at the same time for the +destruction of all evil and enemies. Far more truly than He dwelt in +the city of David does God dwell in the Church, and His presence is its +security. What, then, of instruction and hope may we gather from this +wonderful emblem? + +I. In the Church, God is present as a great reservoir of fervid love. + +Every language has taken fire as the symbol of love and emotion. We +speak so naturally of warm love, fervent feeling, glowing earnestness, +ardent enthusiasm and the like, that we are scarcely aware of using +figurative language. We do not usually ascribe emotion to God, but +surely the deepest and most sacred of the senses in which it is true +that fire is His emblem, is that He is love. His fire is in Zion. He +dwells in His Church, a storehouse of blazing love, heated seventy +times seven hotter than any creatural love, and pouring out its ardours +for the quickening and gladdening of all who walk in the light of that +fire, and thaw their coldness at its blaze. + +Then, if so, how comes it that so many Christian Churches are +ice-houses instead of furnaces? How comes it that they who profess to +live in the Zion where this fire flames are themselves so cold? If +God's blazing furnace is in Jerusalem, it should send the thermometer +up in all the houses of the city. But what a strange contradiction it +is for men to be in God's Church, the very focus and centre of His +burning love, and themselves to be almost down below zero in their +temperature! The Christian Church ought to be all aflame in all its +members, with the fire of love kindled and alight from God Himself. +Every community of Christian people ought to radiate warmth and light +which it has absorbed from its present God. Our love ought to answer +His, and, being caught and kindled from that mighty fire, should throw +back to its source some of the heat received, in fervours of reflected +love, and should pour the rest beneficently on all around. Love to God +and love to man are regarded in Christian morals as beams of the same +fire, only travelling in different directions. But what a miserable +contrast to such an ideal the reality in so many of our churches is! A +fiery furnace with its doors hung with icicles is no greater a +contradiction and anomaly than a Christian Church or a single soul, +which professes to have been touched by the infinite loving kindness of +God, and yet lives as cold and unmoved as we do. The 'Lord's fire is in +Zion.' Are there any tokens of that fire amongst us, in our own hearts +and in our collective temperature as Christian Churches? + +There is no religion worth calling so which has not warmth in it. We +hear a great deal from people against whom I do not wish to say a word, +about the danger of an 'emotional Christianity.' Agreed, if by that +they mean a Christianity which has no foundation for its emotion in +principle and intelligence; but not agreed if they mean to recommend a +Christianity which professes to accept truths that might kindle a soul +beneath the ribs of death and make the dumb sing, and yet is never +moved one hair's-breadth from its quiet phlegmaticism. There is no +religion without emotion. Of course it must be intelligent emotion, +built upon the acceptance of divine truth, and regulated and guided by +that, and so consolidated into principle, and it must be emotion which +works for its living, and impels to Christian conduct. These two +provisoes being attended to, then we can safely say that warmth is the +test of life, and the readings of the thermometer, which measure the +fervour, measure also the reality of our religion. A cold Christian is +a contradiction in terms. If the adjective is certainly applicable, I +am afraid the applicability of the noun is extremely doubtful. If there +is no fire, what is there? Cold is death. + +We want no flimsy, transitory, noisy, ignorant, hysterical agitation. +Smoke is not fire. If the temperature were higher, and the fire more +wisely fed, there would not be any. But we do want a more obvious and +powerful effect of their solemn, glorious, and heart-melting beliefs on +the affections and emotions of professing Christians, and that they may +be more mightily moved by love, to all heroisms and service and +enthusiasms and to consecration which shall in some measure answer to +the glowing heart of that fire of God which flames in Zion. + +II. God's revelation of Himself, and presence in His Church, are an +instrument of cleansing. + +Fire purifies. In our great cities now there are 'disinfecting ovens,' +where infected articles are taken, and exposed to a high temperature +which kills the germs of disease, so that tainted things come out sweet +and clean. That is what God's furnace in Zion is meant to do for us. +The true way of purifying is by fire. To purify by water, as John the +Baptist saw and said, is but a poor, cold way of getting outward +cleanliness. Water cleanses the surface, and becomes dirty in the +process. Fire cleanses within and throughout, and is not tainted +thereby. You plunge some foul thing into the flame, and, as you look, +the specks and spots melt out of it. Raise the temperature, and you +kill the poison germs. That is the way that God cleanses His people; +not by external application, but by getting up the heat. The fire of +His love, the fire of His spirit, is, as St. Bernard says, a blessed +fire, which 'consumes indeed, but does not hurt; which sweetly burns +and blessedly lays waste, and so puts forth the force and fire against +our vices, as to display the operation of the anointing oil upon our +souls.' The Hebrew captives were flung into the fiery furnace. What did +it burn? Only their bonds. They themselves lived and rejoiced in the +intense heat. So, if we have any real possession of the divine flame, +it will burn off our wrists the bands and chains of our old vices, and +we shall stand pure and clean, emancipated by the fire which will +consume only our sins, and be for our true selves as our native home, +where we walk at liberty and expatiate in the genial warmth. That is +the blessed and effectual way of purifying, which slays only the death +that we carry about with us in our sin, and makes us the more truly +living for its death. Cleansing is only possible if we are immersed in +the Holy Ghost and in fire, as some piece of foul clay, plunged into +the furnace, has all the stains melted out of it. For all sinful souls +seeking after cleansing, and finding that the 'damned spot' will not +'out' for all their washing, it is surely good news and tidings of +great joy that the Lord has His fire in Zion, and that its purifying +power will burn out all their sin. + +III. Further, there is suggested another thought: that God, in His +great revelation of Himself, by which He dwells in His Church, is a +power of transformation. + +Fire turns all which it seizes into fire. 'Behold how much wood is +kindled by how small a fire' (R.V.). The heap of green wood with the +sap in it needs but a tiny light pushed into the middle, and soon it is +all ablaze, transformed into ruddy brightness, and leaping heavenwards. +However heavy, wet, and obstinate may be the fuel, the fire can change +it into aspiring and brilliant flame. + +And so God, coming to us in His 'Spirit of burning,' turns us into His +own likeness, and makes us possessors of some spark of Himself. +Therefore it is a great promise, 'He shall baptize you in the Holy +Ghost, and in fire.' He shall plunge you into the life-giving furnace, +and so 'make His ministers like a flame of fire,' like the Lord whom +they serve. The seraphim who stand round the throne are 'burning' +spirits, and the purity which shines, the love which glows, the swift +life which flames in them, are all derived from that unkindled and +all-animating Fire who is their and our God. The transformation of all +the dwellers in Zion into miniature likenesses of this fire is the very +highest hope that springs from the solemn and blessed truth that the +Lord has His fire in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem. + +IV. But, further, this figure teaches that the same divine fire may +become destructive. + +The emblem of fire suggests a double operation, and the very felicity +of it as an emblem is that it has these two sides, and with equal +naturalness may stand for a power which quickens, and for one which +destroys. The difference in the effects springs not from differences in +the cause, but in the objects with which the fire plays. The same God +is the fire of life, the fire of love, of purifying and transformation +and glad energy to whosoever will put his trust in Him, and a fire of +destruction and anger unto whosoever resists Him. The alternative +stands before every soul of man, to be quickened by fire or consumed by +it. We may make the furnace of God our blessedness and the reservoir of +a far more joyful and noble life than ever we could have lived in our +coldness; or we may make it terror and destruction. There lie the two +possibilities before every one of us. We cannot stand apart from Him; +we have relations with Him, whether we will or no; He is something to +us. He is, and must be for all, a flaming fire. We can settle whether +it shall be a fire which is life-giving unto life, or a fire which is +death-giving unto death. + +Here are two buildings: the one the life of the man that lives apart +from God, and therefore has built only with wood, hay, and stubble; the +other the life of the man that lives with God and for Him, and so has +built with gold, silver, and precious stones. The day and the fire +come; and the fates of these two are opposite effects of the same +cause. The licking tongues surround the wretched hut, built of +combustibles, and up go wood and hay and stubble, in a smoking flare, +and disappear. The flames play round the gold and silver and precious +stones, and every leap of their light is answered by some facet of the +gems that flash in their brilliancy, and give back the radiance. + +You can settle which of these two is to be your fate. 'The Lord's fire +is in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem.' To those who, by faith in +that dear Lord who came to cast fire on earth,' have opened their +hearts, to the entrance of that searching, cleansing flame, and who +therefore burn with kindred and answering fervours, it is joy to know +that their 'God is a consuming fire,' for therein lies their hope of +daily purifying and ultimate assimilation. To those, on the other hand, +who have closed their hearts to the warmth of His redeeming love in +Christ, and the quickening of His baptism by fire, what can the +knowledge be but terror, what can contact with God in judgment be but +destruction? 'The day cometh, it burneth as a furnace; and all the +proud, and all that work wickedness, shall be as stubble, and the day +that cometh shall burn them up.' What will that day do for you? + + + + +THE HIDING-PLACE + +'And a man shall be as an 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.'--ISAIAH xxxii. 2. + + +We may well say, Of whom speaketh the prophet this? Here are distinctly +attributed to one of ourselves, if we take the words in their +simplicity and fulness, functions and powers which universal experience +has taught us not to look for in humanity. And there have been a great +many attempts--as it seems to me, altogether futile and baseless +ones--to break the force of these words as a distinct prophecy of Jesus +Christ. Surely the language is far too wide to have application to any +real or ideal Jewish monarch, except one whose kingdom is an +everlasting kingdom? Surely the experience of a hundred centuries might +teach men that there is _one_ man, and one alone, who is the refuge +from all dangers, the fruition of all desires, the rest and refreshment +in all toils. + +And I, for my part, have no hesitation in saying that the only +reference of these words which gives full value to their wealth of +blessing, is to regard them as a prophecy of _the_ man--Christ Jesus; +hiding in whom we are safe, 'coming' to whom we 'never thirst,' guarded +and blest by whom no weariness can befall us, and dwelling in whom this +weary world shall be full of refreshment and peace! + +I do not need to point out the exquisite beauty of the imagery or the +pathos and peace that breathe in the majestic rhythm of the words. +There is something more than poetical beauty or rhetorical +amplification of a single thought in those three clauses. The +'hiding-place' and 'covert' refer to one class of wants; the 'rivers of +water in a dry place' to yet another; and 'the shadow of a great rock +in a weary land' to yet a third. And, though they are tinged and dyed +in Eastern imagery, the realities of life in Western lands, and in all +ages, give them a deeper beauty than that of lovely imagery, and are +the true keys to understanding their meaning. We shall, perhaps, best +grasp the whole depth of that meaning according to the Messianic +reference which we give to the text, if we consider the sad and solemn +conception of man's life that underlies it; the enigmatical and +obstinate hope which it holds out in the teeth of all experience--'A +_man_ shall be a refuge'; and the solution of the riddle in the man +Christ Jesus. + +I. First, there underlies this prophecy a very sad but a very true +conception of human life. + +The three classes of promises have correlative with them three phases +of man's condition, three diverse aspects of his need and misery. The +'covert' and the 'hiding-place' imply tempest, storm, and danger; the +'river of water' implies drought and thirst; 'the shadow of a great +rock' implies lassitude and languor, fatigue and weariness. The view of +life that arises from the combination of these three bears upon its +front the signature of truth in the very fact that it is a sad view. + +For, I suppose, notwithstanding all that we may say concerning the +beauty and the blessedness scattered broadcast round about us; +notwithstanding that we believe, and hold as for our lives the happy +'faith that all which we behold is full of blessing,' it needs but a +very short experience of this life, and but a superficial examination +of our own histories and our own hearts, in order to come to the +conclusion that the world is full of strange and terrible sadness, that +every life has dark tracts and long stretches of sombre tint, and that +no representation is true to fact which dips its pencil only in light +and flings no shadows on the canvas. There is no depth in a Chinese +picture, because there is no shade. It is the wrinkles and marks of +tear and wear that make the expression in a _man's_ portrait. 'Life's +sternest painter "is" its best.' The gloomy thoughts which are charged +against Scripture are the true thoughts about man and the world as man +has made it. Not, indeed, that life needs to be so, but that by reason +of our own evil and departure from God there have come in as a +disturbing element the retributive consequences of our own godlessness, +and these have made danger where else were safety, thirst where else +were rivers of water, and weariness and lassitude where else were +strength and bounding hope. + +So then, look for a moment at these three points that come out of my +text, in order to lay the foundation for subsequent considerations. + +We live a life defenceless and exposed to many a storm and tempest. I +need but remind you of the adverse circumstances--the wild winds that +go sweeping across the flat level, the biting blasts that come down +from the snow-clad mountains of destiny that lie round the low plain +upon which we live. I need but remind you of the dangers that are +lodged for our spiritual life in the temptations to evil that are round +us. I need but remind you of that creeping and clinging consciousness +of being exposed to a divinely commissioned retribution and punishment, +which perverts the Name that ought to be the basis of all our +blessedness into a Name unwelcome and terrible, because threatening +judgment. I need but remind you how men's sins have made it needful +that when the mighty God, even the Lord, appears before them, 'it shall +be very tempestuous round about him.' Men fear and ought to fear 'the +blast of the breath of His nostrils,' which must burn up all that is +evil. And I need but remind you of that last wild wind of Death that +whirls the sin-faded leaves into dark corners where they lie and rot. + +My brother, you have not lived thus long without learning how +defenceless you are against the storm of adverse circumstances. You +have not lived thus long without learning that though, blessed be God! +there do come in all our lives long periods of halcyon rest, when +'birds of calm sit brooding on the charmed wave,' and the heavens above +are clear as sapphire, and the sea around is transparent as opal--yet +the little cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, may rise on the horizon, +and may thicken and blacken and grow greater and nearer till all the +sky is dark, and burst in lightning and rain and fierceness of wind, +till 'through the torn sail the wild tempest is streaming,' and the +white crests of the waves are like the mane of Death's pale horse +leaping upon the broken ship. We have all learnt in how profound a +sense, by reason of outward adverse circumstances and inward +temptations, by reason of the fears of a Justice which we know is +throned at the centre of the creation, by reason of a death which to us +is a terror, and by reason of that universal fear of 'after death the +judgment,' storm and tempest swoop upon our paths. God made the +sunshine, and we have made it a storm. God made life blessed and full +of safety and peace, and we have wrenched ourselves from Him and stand +defenceless amidst its dangers. + +Then, there is another aspect and conception of life which underlies +these words of my text. The image of the desert was before the +prophet's rapt vision. He saw the sand whirled into mad dancing columns +before the blast which swept across the unsheltered flat, with nothing, +for a day's march, to check its force. But the wilderness is not only +shelterless, it is waterless too--a place in which wild and ravening +thirst finds no refreshing draughts, and the tongue cleaves to the +blackening gums. + +'Rivers of water in a dry place'; and what is the prose fact of that? +That you and I live in the midst of a world which has no correspondence +with, nor power of satisfying, our truest and deepest selves--that we +bear about with us a whole set of longings and needs and weaknesses and +strengths and capacities, all of which, like the climbing tendrils of +some creeping plant, go feeling and putting out their green fingers to +lay hold of some prop and stay--that man is so made that for his rest +and blessedness he must have an external object round which his spirit +may cling, on which his desires may fasten and rest, by which his heart +may be blessed, which shall be authority for his will, peace for his +fears, sprinkling and cleansing for his conscience, light for his +understanding, shall be in complete correspondence with his inward +nature--be water for his thirst, and bread for his hunger. + +And as thus, on the very nature which each of us carries, there is +stamped the signature of dependence, and the necessity of finding an +external object on which to rest; and as, further, men will not be +tutored even by their own miseries or by the voice of their own wants, +and ever confound their wishes with their wants and their whims with +their needs, therefore it comes to pass that the appetite which was +only meant to direct us to God, and to be as a wholesome hunger in +order to secure our partaking with relish and delight of the divine +food that is provided for it, becomes unsatisfied, a torture, and +unslaked, a ravening madness; and men's needs become men's misery; and +men's hunger becomes men's famine; and men's thirst becomes men's +death. We do dwell in a dry land where no water is. + +All about us there are these creatures of God, bright and blessed and +beautiful, fit for their functions and meant to minister to our +gladness. They are meant to be held in subordination. It is not meant +that we should find in them the food for our souls. Wealth and honour +and wisdom and love and gratified ambition and successful purpose, and +whatsoever other good things a man may gather about him and achieve--he +may have them all, and yet in spite of them all there will be a great +aching, longing vacuity in his soul. His true and inmost being will be +groping through the darkness, like a plant growing in a cellar, for the +light which alone can tinge its pale petals and swell its shrivelling +blossoms to ripeness and fruit. + +A dry place, as well as a dangerous place--have not you found it so? I +believe that every soul of man has, if he will be honest with himself, +and that there is not one among us who would not, if he were to look +into the deepest facts and real governing experience of his life, +confess--I thirst: 'my soul thirsteth.' And oh, brethren, why not go on +with the quotation, and make that which is else a pain, a condition of +blessedness? Why not recognise the meaning of all this restless +disquiet, and say 'My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God'? + +And then there is the other idea also underlying these words, yet +another phase of this sad life of ours--not only danger and drought, +but also weariness and languor. The desert stretches before us again, +where there is no shelter from the blast and no trickling stream amid +the yellowing sand; where the fierce ball above beats down cruelly, and +its hot rays are flung up cruelly into our faces, and the glare blinds +us, and the stifling heat wearies us, and work is a torture and motion +is misery, and we long for nothing so much as to be quiet and to hide +our heads in some shade. + +I was reading recently one of our last books of travel 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 weary +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. + +Oh! the weariness felt by us all, of plod, plod, plodding across the +sand! That fatal monotony into which every man's life stiffens, as far +as outward circumstances, outward joys and pleasures go! the depressing +influence of custom which takes the edge off all gladness and adds a +burden to every duty! the weariness of all that tugging up the hill, of +all that collar-work which we have to do! Who is there that has not his +mood, and that by no means the least worthy and man-like of his moods, +wherein he feels not, perhaps, that all is vanity, but--'how infinitely +wearisome it all is.' + +And so every race of man that ever has lived has managed out of two +miseries to make a kind of shadowy gladness; and, knowing the weariness +of life and the blackness of death, has somewhat lightened the latter +by throwing upon it the thought of the former, and has said, 'Well, at +any rate, if the grave be narrow and dark, and if outside "the warm +precincts of the cheerful day" there be that ambiguous night, at least +it is the place for sleep; and, if we cannot be sure of anything more, +we shall rest then, at any rate.' So the hope of 'long disquiet merged +in rest' becomes almost bright, and man's weariness finds most pathetic +expression in his thinking of the grave as a bed where he can stretch +himself and be still. Life is hard, life is dry, life is dangerous. + +II. But another thought suggested by these words is--The Mysterious +Hope which shines through them. + +One of ourselves shall deliver us from all this evil in life. '_A man_ +shall be a refuge, rivers of water, the shadow of a great rock.' Such +an expectation seems to be right in the teeth of all experience and far +too high-pitched ever 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. + +It is worth while to realise to ourselves these two points which seem +to make such words as these of our text a blank impossibility. +Experience contradicts them, and common-sense demands for their +fulfilment an apparently impossible human character. + +All experience seems to teach--does it not?--that no human arm or heart +can be to another soul what these words promise, and what we need. And +yet the men who have been disappointed and disenchanted a thousand +times do still look among their fellows for what their fellows, too, +are looking for, and none have ever found. Have _we_ found what we seek +among men? Have we ever known amongst the dearest that we have clung +to, one arm that was strong enough to keep us in all danger? Has there +ever been a human love to which we can run with the security that +_there_ is a strong tower where no evil can touch us? There have been +many delights in all our lives mediated and ministered to us by those +that we loved. They have taught us, and helped us, and strengthened us +in a thousand ways. We have received from them draughts of wisdom, of +love, of joy, of guidance, of impulse, of comfort, which have been, as +water in the desert is, more precious than gold. Our fellow-travellers +have shared their store with us, 'letting down their pitchers upon +their hand,' and giving us drink; but has the draught ever slaked the +thirst? They carry but a pitcher, and a pitcher is not a fountain. Have +there been any in all the round of those that we have loved and +trusted, to whom we have trusted absolutely, without having been +disappointed? They, like us, are hemmed in by human limitations. They +each bear a burdened and thirsty spirit, itself needing such supplies. +And to the truest, happiest, most soul-sufficing companionship, there +comes at last that dread hour which ends all sweet commerce of giving +and receiving, and makes the rest of life, for some of us, one +monotonous ashen-grey wilderness where no water is. These things make +it impossible for us to find anywhere amongst men our refuge and our +fruition. + +And yet how strange, how pathetic, is the fact that after all +disappointments, men still obstinately continue to look among their +fellows for guidance and for light, for consolation, for defence, and +for strength! After a thousand failures they still hope. Does not the +search at once confess that hitherto they have not found, else why be +seeking still?--and that they yet believe they will yet find, else why +not cease the vain quest? And surely He who made us, made us not in +vain, nor cursed us with immortal hopes which are only persistent lies. +Surely there is some living Person who will vindicate these +unquenchable hopes of humanity, and receive and requite our love and +trust, and satisfy our longings, and explain the riddle of our lives. +If there be not, nor ever has been, nor ever can be a man who shall +satisfy us with his love, and defend us with his power, and be our +all-sufficient satisfaction and our rest in weariness, then much of +man's noblest nature is a mistake, and many of his purest and +profoundest hopes are an illusion, a mockery, and a snare. The +obstinate hope that, within the limits of humanity, we shall find what +we need is a mystery, except on one hypothesis, that it, too, belongs +to 'the unconscious prophecies' that God has lodged in all men's hearts. + +Nor need I remind you, I suppose, how such functions as those of which +my text speaks not only seem to be contradicted by all experience, but +manifestly and obviously to transcend the possibilities of human +nature. _A man_ to defend me; and he himself--does _he_ need no +defence? A man to supply my wants; and is his spirit, then, other than +mine, that it can become the all-sufficient fulness for my emptiness? +He that can do this for one spirit must be greater than the spirit for +which he doeth it. He that can do it for the whole race of man, through +all ages, in all circumstances, down to the end of time, in every +latitude, under every condition of civilisation--who must _he_ be who, +for the whole world, evermore and always, is their defence, their +gladness, their shelter, and their rest? + +The function requires a divine power, and the application of the power +requires a human hand. It is not enough that I should be pointed to a +far-off heaven, where there dwells an infinite loving God--I believe +that we need more than that. We need both of the truths: 'God is my +refuge and my strength,' and 'A man shall be a hiding-place from the +wind, and a covert from the tempest.' + +III. That brings me to the last point to be noticed, namely:--The +solution of the mystery in the person of Jesus Christ. + +That which seemed impossible is real. The forebodings of humanity 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 single souls +the adequate object of their perfect trust, the abiding home of their +deepest love, the unfailing supply for their profoundest wants. There +_is_ one man to whom it is wise and blessed to look as the exclusive +source of all our peace, the absolute ruler of all our lives. There +_is_ a man in whom we find all that we have vainly sought in men. There +_is_ a man, who can be to all ages and to the whole race their refuge, +their satisfaction, their rest. 'It behoved Him to be made in all +points like unto His brethren,' that His succour might be ever near, +and His sympathy sure. The man Christ Jesus who, being man, is God +manifest in the flesh, exercises in one and the same act the offices of +divine pity and human compassion, of divine and human guardianship, of +divine and human love. + + 'And so the Word had breath, and wrought + With human hands the creed of creeds + In loveliness of perfect deeds, + More strong than all poetic thought.' + +The dreams of weary hearts that have longed for an impossible +perfection are all below the reality. The fact surpasses all +expectation. It is more than all prophecies, it is more than all hopes, +it is more than all praise. It is God's unspeakable gift. Well might an +angel voice proclaim the mystery of love, 'Unto you is _born_ a +Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.' The ancient promise of our text is +history now. A man has been and is all these things for us. + +A refuge and a hiding-place from every storm--adverse circumstances +sweep upon us, and His mighty hand is put down there as a buckler, +behind which we may hide and be safe. Temptations to evil storm upon +us, but if we are enclosed within Him they never touch us. The fears of +our own hearts swirl like a river in flood against the walls of our +fortress home, and we can laugh at them, for it is founded upon a rock! +The day of judgment rises before us solemn and certain, and we can +await it without fear, and approach it with calm joy. I call upon no +mountains and hills to cover me. + +'Rock of ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee.' + +'Rivers of water in a dry place,'--hungry and thirsty, my soul fainted +within me. I longed for light, and behold darkness. I longed for help, +and there was none that could come close to my spirit to succour and to +give me drink in the desert. My conscience cried in all its wounds for +cleansing and stanching, and no comforter nor any balm was there. My +heart, weary of limited loves and mortal affections, howsoever sweet +and precious, yearned and bled for one to rest upon all-sufficient and +eternal. I thirsted with a thirst that was more than desire, that was +pain, and was coming to be death, and I heard a voice which said, 'If +any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.' + +'The shadow of a great rock in a weary land,'--and my heart was weary +by reason of the greatness of the way, and duties and tasks seemed +toils and burdens, and I was ready to say, 'Wherefore has Thou made me +and all men in vain? Surely all this is vanity and vexation of spirit,' +and I heard One that laid His hand upon me and said, 'Come unto Me, and +I will give thee rest.' I come to Thee, O Christ, faint and perishing, +defenceless and needy, with many a sin and many a fear; to Thee I turn +for Thou hast died for me, and for me thou dost live. Be Thou my +shelter and strong tower. Give me to drink of living water. Let me rest +in Thee while in this weary land, and let Thy sweet love, my Brother +and my Lord, be mine all on earth and the heaven of my heaven! + + + + +HOW TO DWELL IN THE FIRE OF GOD + +'Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall +dwell with everlasting burnings? 15. He that walketh righteously, and +speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that +shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from +hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil.'--ISAIAH +xxxiii. 14, 15. + +'He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God'--1 JOHN iv. 16. + + +I have put these two verses together because, striking as is at first +sight the contrast in their tone, they refer to the same subject, and +they substantially preach the same truth. A hasty reader, who is more +influenced by sound than by sense, is apt to suppose that the solemn +expressions in my first text, 'the devouring fire' and' everlasting +burnings,' mean _hell_. They mean _God_, as is quite obvious from the +context. The man who is to 'dwell in the devouring fire' is the _good_ +man. He that is able to abide 'the everlasting burnings' is 'the man +that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly,' that 'despiseth the +gain of oppression, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that +stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from +seeing evil.' The prophet has been calling all men, far and near, to +behold a great act of divine judgment in which God has been manifested +in flaming glory, consuming evil; now he represents the 'sinners in +Zion,' the unworthy members of the nation, as seized with sudden +terror, and anxiously asking this question, which in effect means: 'Who +among us can abide peacefully, joyfully, fed and brightened, not +consumed and annihilated, by that flashing brightness and purity?' The +prophet's answer is the answer of common-sense--like draws to like. A +holy God must have holy companions. + +But that is not all. The fire of God is the fire of love as well as the +fire of purity; a fire that blesses and quickens, as well as a fire +that destroys and consumes. So the Apostle John comes with his answer, +not contradicting the other one, but deepening it, expanding it, +letting us see the foundations of it, and proclaiming that as a holy +God must be surrounded by holy hearts, which will open themselves to +the flame as flowers to the sunshine, so a loving God must be clustered +about by loving hearts, who alone can enter into deep and true +friendship with Him. + +The two answers, then, of these texts are one at bottom; and when +Isaiah asks, 'Who shall dwell with the everlasting fire?'--the +perpetual fire, burning and unconsumed, of that divine +righteousness--the deepest answer, which is no stern requirement but a +merciful promise, is John's answer, 'He that dwelleth in love dwelleth +in God.' + +The simplest way, I think, of bringing out the force of the words +before us will be just to take these three points which I have already +suggested: the world's question, the partial answer of the prophet, the +complete answer of the Apostle. + +I. The World's Question. + +I need only remind you how frequently in the Old Testament the emblem +of fire is employed to express the divine nature. In many places, +though by no means in all, the prominent idea in the emblem is that of +the purity of the divine nature, which flashes and flames as against +all which is evil and sinful. So we read in one grand passage in this +book of Isaiah, 'the Light of Israel shall become a fire'; as if the +lambent beauty of the highest manifestation of God gathered itself +together, intensified itself, was forced back upon itself, and from +merciful, illuminating light turned itself into destructive and +consuming fire. And we read, you may remember, too, in the description +of the symbolical manifestation of the divine nature which accompanied +the giving of the Law on Sinai, that 'the glory of the Lord was like +devouring fire on the top of the mountain,' and yet into that blaze and +brightness the Lawgiver went, and lived and moved in it. + +There is, then, in the divine nature a side of antagonism and +opposition to evil, which flames against it, and labours to consume it. +I would speak with all respect for the motives of many men in this day +who dread to entertain the idea of the divine wrath against evil, lest +they should in any manner trench upon the purity and perfectness of the +divine love. I respect and sympathise with the motive altogether; and I +neither respect nor sympathise with the many ferocious pictures of that +which is called the wrath of God against sin, which much so-called +orthodox teaching has indulged in. But if you will only remove from +that word 'anger' the mere human associations which cleave to it, of +passion on the one hand, and of a wish to hurt its object on the other, +then you cannot, I think, deny to the divine nature the possession of +such passionless and unmalignant wrath, without striking a fatal blow +at the perfect purity of God. A God that does not hate evil, that does +not flame out against it, using all the energies of His being to +destroy it, is a God to whose character there cleaves a fatal suspicion +of indifference to good, of moral apathy. If I have not a God to trust +in that hates evil because He loveth righteousness, then 'the pillared +firmament itself were rottenness, and earth's base built on stubble'; +nor were there any hope that this damnable thing that is killing and +sucking the life-blood out of our spirits should ever be destroyed and +cast aside. Oh! it is short-sighted wisdom, and it is cruel kindness, +to tamper with the thought of the wrath of God, the 'everlasting +burnings' of that eternally pure nature wherewith it wages war against +all sin. + +But then, let us remember that, on the other side, the fire which is +the destructive fire of perfect purity is also the fire that quickens +and blesses. God is love, says John, and love is fire, too. We speak of +'the flame of love,' of 'warm affections,' and the like. The symbol of +fire does not mean destructive energy only. And these two are one. +God's wrath is a form of God's love; God hates because He loves. + +And the 'wrath' and the 'love' differ much more in the difference of +the eyes that look, than they do in themselves. Here are two bits of +glass; one of them sifts out and shows all the fiery-red rays, the +other all the yellow. It is the one same pure, white beam that passes +through them both, but one is only capable of receiving the fiery-red +beams of the wrath, and the other is capable of receiving the golden +light of the love. Let us take heed lest, by destroying the wrath, we +maim the love; and let us take heed lest, by exaggerating the wrath, we +empty the love of its sweetness and its preciousness; and let us accept +the teaching that these are one, and that the deepest of all the things +that the world can know about God lies in that double saying, which +does not contradict its second half by its first, but completes its +first by its second--God is Righteousness, God is Love. + +Well, then, that being so, the question rises to every mind of ordinary +thoughtfulness: 'Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who +among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?' A God fighting against +evil; can you and I hope to hold familiar fellowship with Him? A God +fighting against evil; if He rises up to exercise His judging and His +punishing energies, can we meet Him? 'Can thy heart endure and thy +hands be strong, in the day that I shall deal with thee?' is the +question that comes to each of us if we are reasonable people. I do not +dwell upon it; but I ask you to take it, and answer it for yourselves. + +To 'dwell with everlasting burnings' means two things. First, it means +to hold familiar intercourse and communion with God. The question which +presents itself to thoughtful minds is--What sort of man must I be if I +am to dwell near God? The lowliest bush may be lit by the divine fire +and not be consumed by it; and the poorest heart may be all aflame with +an indwelling God, if only it yield itself to Him, and long for His +likeness. Electricity only flames into consuming fire when its swift +passage is resisted. The question for us all is--How can I receive this +holy fire into my bosom, and not be burned? Is any communion possible, +and if it is, on what conditions? These are the questions which the +heart of man is really asking, though it knows not the meaning of its +own unrest. + +'To dwell with everlasting burnings' means, secondly, to bear the +action of the fire--the judgment of the present and the judgment of the +future. The question for each of us is--How can we face that judicial +and punitive action of that Divine Providence which works even here, +and how can we face the judicial and punitive action in the future? + +I suppose you all believe, or at least say that you believe, that there +is such a future judgment. Have you ever asked yourselves the question, +and rested not until you got a reasonable answer to it, on which, like +a man leaning on a pillar, you can lean the whole weight of your +expectations--How am I to come into the presence of that devouring +fire? Have you any fireproof dress that will enable you to go into the +furnace like the Hebrew youths, and walk up and down in the midst of +it, well and at liberty? Have you? 'Who shall dwell amidst the +everlasting fires?' + +That question has stirred sometimes, I know, in the consciences of +every man and woman that is listening to me. Some of you have tampered +with it and tried to throttle it, or laughed at it and shuffled it out +of your mind by the engrossments of business, and tried to get rid of +it in all sorts of ways: and here it has met you again to-day. Let us +have it settled, in the name of common-sense (to invoke nothing +higher), once for all, upon reasonable principles that will stand; and +do you see that you settle it to-day. + +II. And now, look next at the prophet's answer. + +It is simple. He says that if a man is to hold fellowship with, or to +face the judgment of, the pure and righteous God, the plainest dictate +of reason and common-sense is that he himself must be pure and +righteous to match. The details into which hid answer to the question +runs out are all very homely, prosaic, pedestrian kind of virtues, +nothing at all out of the way, nothing that people would call splendid +or heroic. Here they are:--'He that walks righteously,'--a short +injunction, easily spoken, but how hard!--'and speaketh uprightly, he +that despiseth the gain of oppression, that shaketh his hands from +holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, that +shutteth his eyes from seeing evil.' Righteous action, righteous +speech, inward hatred of possessions gotten at my neighbour's cost, and +a vehement resistance to all the seductions of sense, shutting one's +hands, stopping one's ears, fastening one's eyes up tight so that he +may not handle, nor hear, nor see the evil--there is the outline of a +trite, everyday sort of morality which is to mark the man who, as +Isaiah says, can 'dwell amongst the everlasting fires.' + +Now, if at your leisure you will turn to Psalms xv. and xxiv., you will +find there two other versions of the same questions and the same +answer, both of which were obviously in our prophet's mind when he +spoke. In the one you have the question put: 'Who shall abide in Thy +tabernacle?' In the other you have the same question put: 'Who shall +ascend into the hill of the Lord?' And both these two psalms answer the +question and sketch the outline (and it is only an outline) of a +righteous man, from the Old Testament point of view, substantially in +the same fashion that Isaiah does here. + +I do not need to remark upon the altogether unscientific and +non-exhaustive nature of the description of righteousness that is set +forth here. There are a great many virtues, plain and obvious, that are +left out of the picture. But I ask you to notice one very special +defect, as it might seem. There is not the slightest reference to +anything that we call religion. It is all purely pedestrian, worldly +morality; do righteous things; do not tell lies; do not cheat your +neighbour; stop your ears if people say foul things in your hearing; +shut your eyes if evil comes before you. These are the kind of duties +enjoined, and these only. The answer of my text moves altogether on the +surface, dealing only with conduct, not with character, and dealing +with conduct only in reference to this world. There is not a word about +the inner nature, not a word about the inner relation of a man to God. +It is the minimum of possible qualifications for dwelling with God. + +Well, now, do you achieve that minimum? Suppose we waive for the moment +all reference to God; suppose we waive for the moment all reference to +motive and inward nature; suppose we keep ourselves only on the outside +of things, and ask what sort of _conduct_ a man must have that is able +to walk with God? We have heard the answer. + +Now, then, is that _me_? Is this sketch here, admittedly imperfect, a +mere black-and-white swift outline, not intended to be shaded or +coloured, or brought up to the round; is this mere outline of what a +good man ought to be, at all like me? Yes or no? I think we must all +say No to the question, and acknowledge our failure to attain to this +homely ideal of conduct. The requirement pared down to its lowest +possible degree, and kept as superficial as ever you can keep it, is +still miles above me, and all I have to say when I listen to such words +is, 'God be merciful to me a sinner.' + +My dear friends, take this one thought away with you:--the requirements +of the most moderate conscience are such as no man among us is able to +comply with. And what then? Am I to be shut up to despair? am I to say: +Then nobody can dwell within that bright flame? Am I to say: Then when +God meets man, man must crumble away into nothing and disappear? Am I +to say, for myself: Then, alas for me! when I stand at His judgment bar? + +III. Let us take the Apostle's answer. + +God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God.' Now, to +begin with, let us distinctly understand that the New Testament answer, +represented by John's great words, entirely endorses Isaiah's; and that +the difference between the two is not that the Old Testament, as +represented by psalmist and prophet, said, 'You must be righteous in +order to dwell with God,' and that the New Testament says, 'You need +not be.' Not at all! John is just as vehement in saying that nothing +but purity can bind a man in thoroughly friendly and familiar +conjunction with God as David or Isaiah was. He insists as much as +anybody can insist upon this great principle, that if we are to dwell +with God we must be like God, and that we are like God when we are like +Him in righteousness and love. + +'He that saith he hath fellowship with Him, and walketh in darkness, is +a liar!' That is John's short way of gathering it all up. Righteousness +is as essential in the gospel scheme for all communion and fellowship +with God as ever it was declared to be by the most rigid of legalists; +and if any of you have the notion that Christianity has any other terms +to lay down than the old terms--that righteousness is essential to +communion--you do not understand Christianity. If any of you are +building upon the notion that a man can come into loving and familiar +friendship with God as long as he loves and cleaves to any sin, you +have got hold of a delusion that will wreck your souls yet,--is, +indeed, harming, wrecking them now, and will finally destroy them if +you do not got rid of it. Let us always remember that the declaration +of my first text lies at the very foundation of the declaration of my +second. + +What, then, is the difference between them? Why, for one thing it is +this--ISAIAH tells us that we must be righteous, John tells us how we +may be. The one says, 'There are the conditions,' the other says, 'Here +are the means by which you can have the conditions.' Love is the +productive germ of all righteousness; it is the fulfilling of the law. +Get that into your hearts, and all these relative and personal duties +will come. If the deepest, inmost life is right, all the surface of +life will come right. Conduct will follow character, character will +follow love. + +The efforts of men to make themselves pure, and so to come into the +position of holding fellowship with God, are like the wise efforts of +children in their gardens. They stick in their little bits of rootless +flowers, and they water them; but, being rootless, the flowers are all +withered to-morrow and flung over the hedge the day after. But if we +have the love of God in our hearts, we have not rootless flowers, but +the seed which will spring up and bear fruit of holiness. + +But that is not all. Isaiah says 'Righteousness,' John says 'Love,' +which makes righteousness. And then he tells us how we may get love, +having first told us how we may get righteousness: 'We love Him because +He first loved us.' It is just as impossible for a man to work himself +into loving God as it is for a man to work himself into righteous +actions. There is no difference in the degree of impossibility in the +two cases. But what we can do is, we can go and gaze at the thing that +kindles the love; we can contemplate the Cross on which the great Lover +of our souls died, and thereby we can come to love Him. John's answer +goes down to the depths, for his notion of love is the response of the +believing soul to the love of God which was manifested on the Cross of +Calvary. To have righteousness we must have love; to have love we must +look to the love that God has to us; to look rightly to the love that +God has to us we must have faith. Now you have gone down to the very +bottom of the matter. Faith is the first step of the ladder, and the +second step is love and the third step is righteousness. + +And so the New Testament, in its highest and most blessed declarations, +rests itself firmly upon these rigid requirements of the old law. You +and I, dear brethren, have but one way by which we can walk in the +midst of that fire, rejoicing and unconsumed, namely that we shall know +and believe the love which God hath to us, love Him back again 'with +pure hearts fervently,' and in the might of that receptive faith and +productive love, become like Him in holiness, and ourselves be +'baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire.' Thus, fire-born and +fiery, we shall dwell as in our native home, in God Himself. + + + + +THE FORTRESS OF THE FAITHFUL + +'He shall dwell on high: his place of defence shall be the munitions of +rocks; bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.'--ISAIAH +xxxiii. 16. + + +This glowing promise becomes even more striking if we mark its +connection with the solemn question in the previous context. 'Who among +us shall dwell with the devouring fire?' is the prophet's question; +'who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?' That question +really means, Who is capable 'of communion with God'? The prophet +sketches the outline of the character in the subsequent verses, and +then recurring to his metaphor of a habitation, and yet with a most +lovely and significant modification, he says, 'he'--the man that he has +been sketching--'shall dwell,' not 'with the everlasting burnings,' but +'on high; his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks,' like +some little hill, fort, or city, perched upon a mountain, and having +within it ample provision and an unfailing spring of water. 'His bread +shall, be given him, his water shall be sure.' To dwell with 'the +devouring fire' is to 'dwell on high,' to be safe and satisfied. So +then, whilst the words before us have, of course, direct and immediate +reference to the Assyrian invasion, and promise, in a literal sense, +security and exemption from its evils to the righteous in Israel, they +widen and deepen into a picturesque, but not less real, statement of +what comes into the religious life, by communion with God. There are +three things: elevation, security, satisfaction. + +'He shall dwell on high.' + +In the East, and in all unsettled countries, you will find that the +sites of the cities are on the hilltops, for a very plain reason, and +that is the fact that underlies the prophet's representation. To hold +fellowship with God, to live in union with Him, to have His thoughts +for my thoughts, and His love wrapping my heart, and His will enshrined +in my will; to carry Him about with me into all the pettinesses of +daily life, and, amidst the whirlpool of duties and changing +circumstances, to sit in the centre, as it were the eye of the +whirlpool where there is a dead calm, _that_ lifts a man on high. +Communion with God secures elevation of spirit, raising us clean above +the flat that lies beneath. There are many ways by which men seek for +lofty thoughts, and a general elevation above the carking cares and +multiplied minutenesses of this poor, mortal, transient life; but while +books and great thoughts, and the converse of the wise, and art, and +music, and all these other elevating influences have a real place and a +blessed efficiency in ennobling life, there is not one of them, nor all +of them put together, that will give to the human spirit that strange +and beautiful elevation above the world and the flesh and the devil, +which simple communion with God will give. I have seen many a poor man +who knew nothing about the lofty visions that shape and lift humanity, +who had no side of him responsive to aesthetics or art or music, who +was no thinker, no student, who never had spoken to anybody above the +rank of a poor labouring man, and to whom all the wisdom of the nations +was a closed chamber, who yet in his life, ay! and on his face, bore +marks of a spirit elevated into a serene region where there was no +tumult, and where nothing unclean or vicious could live. A few of the +select spirits of the race may painfully climb on high by thought and +effort. Get God into your hearts, and it will be like filling the round +of a silken balloon with light air; you will soar instead of climbing, +and 'dwell on high.' When you are up there, the things below that look +largest will dwindle and 'show,' as Shakespeare has it, 'scarce so +gross as beetles,' looked at from the height, and the noises will sink +to a scarcely audible murmur, and you will be able to see the lie of +the country, and, as it says in the context, 'your eyes shall behold +the land that is very far off.' Yes! the hilltop is the place for wide +views, and for understanding the course of the serpentine river, and it +is the place to discover how small are the mightiest things at the +foot, and how little a way towards the sun the noises of human praise +or censure can ever travel. 'He shall dwell on high,' and he will see a +long way off, and understand the relative magnitude of things, and the +strife of tongues will have ceased for him. + +And more than that is implied in the promise. If we dwell on high, we +shall come down with all the more force on what lies below. There is no +greater caricature and misconception of Christianity than that which +talks as if the spirit that lived in daily communion with God, high +above the world, was remote from the world. Why, how do they make +electricity nowadays? By the fall of water from a height, and the +higher the level from which it descends, the mightier the force which +it generates in the descent. So nobody will tell on the world like the +man who lives above it. The height from which a weight rushes down +measures the force of its dint where it falls, and of the energy with +which it comes. 'He shall dwell on high'; and only the man that stands +above the world is able to influence it. + +Again, here is another blessing of the Christian life, put in a +picturesque form: 'His defence shall be munitions of rocks.' That is a +promise of security from assailants, which in its essence is true +always, though its truth may seem doubtful to the superficial estimate +of sense. The experience of the South African war showed how +impregnable 'the munitions of rocks' were. The Boers lay safe behind +them, and our soldiers might fire lyddite at them all day and never +touch them. So, the man who lives in communion with God has between him +and all evil the Rock of Ages, and he lies at the back of it, quiet and +safe, whatever foe may rage on the other side of it. + +Now, of course, the prophet meant to tell his countrymen that, in the +theocracy of which they were parts, righteousness and nothing else was +the national security, and if a man or a nation lived in communion with +God, it bore a charmed life. That is a great deal more true, in regard +to externals, in the miraculous 'dispensation,' as it is called, of the +Old Testament than it is now, and we are not to take over these +promises in their gross literal form into the Christian era, as if they +were unconditional and absolutely to be fulfilled. But at the same +time, if you reflect how many of our troubles do come to us mainly +because we break our communion with God, I think we shall see that this +old word has still an application to our daily lives and outward +circumstances. Deduct from any man's life all the discomfort and +trouble and calamity which have come down upon him because he was not +in touch with God, and there will not be very much left. Yet there will +be some, and the deepest and sorest of all our sorrows are not to be +interpreted as occasioned by defects in our dwelling in God. Then has +my text no application to them? Yes, because what still remains of +earthly cares and sorrows and evils would, in communion with God, +change its character. The rind is the same; but all the interior +contents have been, as children will do with a fruit, scooped out, and +another kind of thing has been put inside, so that though the outward +appearance is the same, what is at the heart of it is utterly +different. It is no longer some coarse, palate-biting, common +vegetable, but a sweet confection, made by God's own hands, and put +into the gourd, which has been hollowed out and emptied of its evil. +That is, perhaps, a very violent figure, but take a plain case as +illustration. Suppose two men, each of them going to his wife's +funeral. The two hearses pass inside the cemetery gates, one after the +other. Outwardly the two afflictions are the same, but the one man +says, 'The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away'; the other man says, +'They have taken away my gods, and what shall I do more?' _Are_ the two +things the same? 'He shall dwell on high, his place of defence shall be +the munitions of rocks,' and if we do hide ourselves in the cleft, then +no evil shall befall us, nor any plague come nigh our dwelling. + +But there is another truth contained in this great promise, viz., that +in regard to all the real evils which beset men, and these are all +summed up in the one, the temptation to do wrong, their arrows will be +blunted, and their force be broken, if we keep our minds in touch with +God through humble communion and lowly obedience. Dear brethren, the +way by which we can conquer temptations around, and silence +inclinations within which riotously seek to yield to the temptations +is, I believe, far more by cultivating a consciousness of communion +with God, than by specific efforts directed to the overcoming of a +given and particular temptation. Keep inside the fortress, and no +bullet will come near you. Array yourselves in the most elaborate +precautions and step out from its shadow, and every bullet will strike +and wound. Let me keep up my fellowship with God, and I may laugh at +temptation. Security depends on continual communion with God by faith, +love, aspiration, and obedience. + +Now, I need not say more than a word about the last element in these +promises, the satisfaction of desires. 'His bread shall be given him, +and his water shall be sure.' In ancient warfare sieges were usually +blockades; and strong fortresses were reduced by famine much more +frequently than by assault. Mafeking and Ladysmith and Port Arthur were +in most danger from that cause. The promise here assures us that we +shall have all supplies in our abode, if God is our abode. Wherever he +who dwells in God goes, he carries with him his provisions, and he does +not need elaborate arrangements of pipes or reservoirs, because there +is a fountain in the courtyard that the enemy cannot get at. They may +stop the springs throughout the land, they may cut off all water +supplies, so that 'there shall be no fruit in the vine, and the labour +of the olive shall fail,' but they cannot touch the fountain. 'His +water shall be sure,' and he can say, 'In the days of famine I shall be +satisfied.' + +God is and gives all that we need for sustenance, for growth, for +refreshment, for satisfaction of our desires. Keep near Him, and you +will find in the heart of the devouring fire a shelter, and you will +have all that you want for life here. My text will be true about us, in +the measure in which we do thus dwell, and if we thus dwell here, and +so dwell on high, with the munitions of rocks for our fortress, and +'the bread of God that came down from heaven' for our food, and the +water of life for our refreshment, then, when there is no longer any +need of places for defence, the other saying will be true, 'They shall +hunger no more, neither thirst any more, for the Lamb which is in the +midst of the throne shall feed them ... and shall lead them to living +fountains of waters, and God, the Lord, shall wipe away all tears from +their eyes.' + + + + +THE RIVERS OF GOD + +'But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers +and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall +gallant ship pass thereby.'--ISAIAH xxxiii. 21. + + +One great peculiarity of Jerusalem, which distinguishes it from almost +all other historical cities, is that it has no river. Babylon was on +the Euphrates, Nineveh on the Tigris, Thebes on the Nile, Rome on the +Tiber; but Jerusalem had nothing but a fountain or two, and a well or +two, and a little trickle and an intermittent stream. The water supply +to-day is, and always has been, a great difficulty, and an insuperable +barrier to the city's ever having a great population. + +That deficiency throws a great deal of beautiful light on more than one +passage in the Old Testament. For instance, this same prophet contrasts +the living stream, the waters of Siloam, as an emblem of the gentle +sway of the divine King of Israel, with 'the river, strong and mighty,' +which was the symbol of Assyria; and a psalm that we all know well, +sings, 'There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of +God,'--a triumphant exclamation which is robbed of half its force, +unless we remember that the literal Jerusalem had no river at all. The +vision of living waters flowing from the Temple which Ezekiel saw is a +variation of the same theme, and suggests that in the Messianic days +the deficiency shall be made good, and a mysterious stream shall spring +up from behind, and flow out from beneath, the temple doors, and then +with rapid increase and depth and width, but with no tributaries coming +into it, shall run fertilising and life-giving everywhere, till it +pours itself into the noisome waters of the sullen sea of death and +heals even them. + +The same general representation is contained in the words before us. +Isaiah's great vision is not, as I take it, of a future, but of what +the Jerusalem of his day might be to the Israelite if he would live by +faith. The mighty Lord, 'the glorious Lord,' shall Himself 'be a place +of broad rivers and streams.' + +I. First, then, this remarkable promise suggests to me how in God there +is the supply of all deficiencies. + +The city was perched on its barren, hot rock, with scarcely a drop of +water, and its inhabitants must often have been tempted to wish that +there had been running down the sun-bleached bed of the Kedron a +flashing stream, such as laved the rock-cut temples and tombs of +Thebes. Isaiah says, in effect, 'You cannot see it, but if you will +trust yourselves to God, there will be such a river.' + +In like manner every defect in our circumstances, everything lacking in +our lives--and we all have something which does not correspond with, or +which falls beneath, our wishes and apparent needs--everything which +seems to hamper us in some aspects, and to sadden us in others, may be +compensated and made up if we will hold fast by God; and although to +outward sense we dwell 'in a dry and barren land where no water is,' +the eye of faith will see, flashing and flowing all around, the +rejoicing waters of the divine presence, and they will mirror the sky, +and the reflections will teach us that there is a heaven above us. + +If there is in any life a gap, that is a prophecy that God will fill +it. If there is anything in your circumstances in regard to which you +often feel sadly, and are sometimes tempted to feel bitterly, how much +stronger and more fully equipped you would be, if it were otherwise, be +sure that in God there is that which can supply the want, and that the +consciousness of the want is a merciful summons to seek its supply from +and in Him. If there is a breach in the encircling wall of your +defences, God has made it in order that He Himself, and not an enemy, +may enter your lives and hearts. 'In the year that King Uzziah died, I +saw the Lord sitting on a throne,' and it did not matter though that +mortal king was dead, for the true King was thereby revealed as living +for ever, just as when the summer foliage, fluttering and green, drops +from the tree, the sturdy stem and the strong branches are made the +more visible. Our felt deficiencies are doors by which God may come in. +Do you sometimes feel as if you would be better if you had easier +worldly circumstances? Is your health precarious and feeble? Have you +to walk a solitary path through this world, and does your heart often +ache for companionship? You can have all your heart's desire fulfilled +in deepest reality in God, in the same way that that riverless city had +Jehovah for 'a place of broad rivers and streams.' + +II. Take another side of the same thought. Here is a revelation of God +and His sweet presence as our true defence. + +The river that lay between some strong city and the advancing enemy was +its strongest fortification when the bridge of boats was taken away. +One of the ancient cities to which I have referred is described by one +of the prophets as being held as within the coils of a serpent, by +which he means the various bendings and twistings of the Euphrates, +which encompassed Babylon, and made it so hard to be conquered. The +primitive city of Paris owed its safety in the wild old times when it +was founded, to its being on an island. Venice has lived through many +centuries, because it is girded about by its lagoons. England is what +it is, largely because of 'the streak of silver sea.' So God's city has +a broad moat all round it. The prophet goes on to explain the force of +his bold figure in regard to the safety promised by it, when he says: +'Wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass +thereby.' Not a keel of the enemy shall dare to cut its waters, nor +break their surface with the wet plash of invading oars. And so, if we +will only knit ourselves with God by simple trust and continual +communion, it is the plainest prose fact that nothing will harm us, and +no foe will ever get near enough to us to shoot his arrows against us. + +That is a truth for faith, and not for sense. Many a man, truly +compassed about by God, has to go through fiery trial and sorrow and +affliction. But I venture to appeal to every heart that has known grief +most acutely, protractedly, and frequently, and has borne it in the +faith of God, and with submission to Him; and I know that they who are +the 'experts,' and who alone have the right to speak with authority on +the subject, will confirm the statement that I make, that sorrows +recognised as sent from God are the truest blessings of our lives. No +real evil befalls us, because, according to the old superstition that +money bewitched was cleansed if it was handed across running water, our +sorrows only reach us across the river that defends. + +Isaiah is full of symbols of various kinds for the impregnability of +Zion. Sometimes, as in my text, he falls back upon the thought of the +bright waters of the moat on which no enemy can venture to sail. +Sometimes he draws his metaphor from the element opposed to water, and +speaks of a wall of fire round about us. But the simple reality that +lies below all the poetry is, that trust in God brings His presence +around me, and that makes it impossible that any evil should befall me, +and certain that whatever does befall me is His messenger, His loving +messenger, for my good. If we believed that, and lived on the belief, +the whole world would be different. + +III. Take, again, another aspect of this same thought, which suggests +to us God's presence as our true refreshment and satisfaction. + +The waterless city depended on cisterns, and they were often broken, +and were always more or less foul, and sometimes the water fell very +low in them. Isaiah says to us: Even when you are living in external +circumstances like that: + + 'When all created streams are dry, + Thy fulness is the same.' + +The fountain of living waters--if we may slightly vary the metaphor of +my text--never sinks one hair's-breadth in its crystal basin, however +many thirsty lips may be glued to its edge, and however large may be +their draughts from it. This metaphor, turned to the purpose of +suggesting how in God every part of our nature finds its appropriate +nourishment and refreshment which it does not find anywhere besides, +has become one of the commonplaces of the pulpit. Would it were the +commonplace of our lives! It is easy to talk about Him as being the +fountain of living waters; it is easy to quote and to admire the words +which the Master spoke to the Samaritan woman when He said, 'I would +have given thee living water,' and 'the water which I give will be a +fountain springing up into everlasting life.' We repeat or learn such +sayings, and then what do we do? We go away and try to slake our thirst +at broken cisterns, and every draught which we take is like the salt +water from which a shipwrecked-boat's crew in its madness will +sometimes not be able to refrain, each drop increasing the raging +thirst and hastening the impending death. + +If we believed that God was the broad river from which we could draw +and draw, and drink and drink, for ever and ever, should we be clinging +with such desperate tenacity, as most of us exhibit, to earthly goods? +Should we whimper with such childish regrets, as most of us nourish, +when these goods are diminished or withdrawn? Should we live as we +constantly do, day in and day out, seldom applying ourselves to the one +source of strength and peace and refreshment, and trying, like fools, +to find what apart from Him the world can never give? The rivers in +northern Tartary all lose themselves in the sand. Not one of them has +volume or force enough to get to the sea. And the rivers from which we +try to drink are sand-choked long before our thirst is slaked. So, if +we are wise, we shall take Isaiah's hint, and go where the water flows +abundantly, and flows for ever. + +IV. There is a last point that I would also suggest, namely, the +manifold variety in the results of God's presence. + +It shapes itself into many forms, according to our different needs. +'The glorious Lord shall be a place of broad rivers.' Yes; but notice +the next words--'and streams.' Now, the word which is there translated +'streams' means little channels for irrigation and other purposes, by +which the water of some great river is led off into the melon patches, +and gardens, and plantations, and houses of the inhabitants. So we have +not only the picture of the broad river in its unity, but also that of +the thousand little rivulets in their multiplicity, and in their +direction to each man's plot of ground. It is the same idea that is in +the psalm which I have already quoted: 'There is a river, _the streams_ +whereof make glad the city of our God.' You can divide the river up +into very tiny trickles, according to the moment's small wants. If you +make but a narrow channel, you will get but a shallow streamlet; and if +you make your channel broad and deep, you will get much of Him. + +It is of no profit that we live on the river's bank if we let its +waters go rolling and flashing past our door, or our gardens, or our +lips. Unless you have a sluice, by which you can take them off into +your own territory, and keep the shining blessing to be the source of +fertility in your own garden, and of coolness and refreshment to your +own thirst, your garden will be parched, and your lips will crack. +There is a 'broad river,' and there are also 'streams'; which, being +brought down to its simplest expression, just comes to this--that we +may and must make God our very own property. It is useless to say +'_our_ God,' 'the God of Israel,' 'the God of the Church,' 'the Great +Creator,' 'the Universal Father,' and so on, unless we say '_my_ God +and _my_ Saviour,' '_my_ Refuge and _my_ Strength.' How much of the +river have you dipped up in your own vessel? How much of it have you +taken with which to water your own vineyard and refresh your own souls? + +The time comes when Isaiah's prophecy shall be perfectly fulfilled, +according to the great words in the closing hook of Scripture, about +the river of the water of life proceeding out of the Throne of God and +of the Lamb. But, till that time comes, we do not need to wander +thirsty in a desert; but all round us we may hear the mighty waters +rolling everywhere, and drink deep draughts of delight and supply for +all our needs, from the very presence of God Himself. + + + + +JUDGE, LAWGIVER, KING + +'For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our +King; He will save us.'--ISAIAH xxxiii. 22. + + +There is reference here to the three forms of government in Israel: by +Moses, by Judges, by Kings. In all, Israel was a Theocracy. Isaiah +looks beyond the human representative to the true divine Reality. + +I. A truth for us, in both its more specific and its more general forms. + +(a) Specific. Christ is all these three for us--Authority; His will +law; Defender. + +(b) More general. Everything that human beings are to us, they are by +derivation from Him--and He sums in Himself all forms of good and +blessing. Every name among men for any kind of helper belongs to Him. +All tender, helpful relationships are but 'broken lights of Thee.' + +II. A lesson hard to learn and to remember. + +One knows not whether it is harder for faith to look beyond the visible +helpers or delights to the Unseen Real One, or to look through tears, +when these are gone, and to see Him clearly filling an otherwise empty +field of vision. When we have a palpable prop to lean on, it is +difficult to be clearly aware that, unless the palpable support were +held up by the Unseen, it could not be a prop, and to lean on it would +be like resting one's weight on a staff stuck in yielding mud. But it +is no less difficult to tell our hearts that we have all that we ever +had, when what we had leaned on for many happy days and found to hold +us up is stricken from beneath us. Present, the seen lawgiver, judge, +or king stays the eyes that should travel past him to God Himself; +removed, his absence makes a great emptiness, in whose vacuity it is +difficult for faith to discern the real presence of Him who is all that +the departed seemed to be. The painted glass stays the eye; shattered, +it lets in only the sight of a void and far-off sky. + +Israel could not breathe freely in the rarefied air on the heights of a +theocracy, and demanded a visible king. It had its desire, and as a +consequence, 'leanness in its soul.' Christendom has found it as +difficult to do without visible embodiments of authority, law, defence, +and hence many evils and corruptions in the institutions and practices +of organised Christianity. + +III. A conviction which makes strong and blessed. + +To have dominant in our minds, and operative through our lives, the +settled conviction that God in Christ is for us judge, lawgiver, and +king, and that the purpose of all these offices or relationships is +that 'He will save us' is the secret of tranquillity, the fountain of +courage, the talisman which makes life all different and us who live in +it different. Fear cannot survive where that conviction rules and +fortifies a heart. We shall not be slavish adherents of men if we are +accustomed to take our orders from our Lawgiver. Earthly prizes or +dignities will not dazzle eyes that have seen the King in His beauty. +We shall pay little heed to men's judgments if there flames ever before +conscience the thought, 'He that judgeth me is the Lord.' 'He will save +us'; who can destroy what His hand is stretched out to preserve? 'If +God is for us, who is against us? It is God that justifieth; who is He +that condemneth?' + + + + +MIRACLES OF HEALING + +'Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf +shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the +tongue of the dumb sing.'--ISAIAH xxxv. 5,6. + + +'Then'--when? The previous verse answers, 'Behold, your God will come, +He will come and save you.' And what or when is that 'coming'? A glance +at the place which this grand hymn occupies in the series of Isaiah's +prophecies answers that question. It stands at the close of the first +part of these, and is the limit of the prophet's vision. He has been +setting forth the Lord's judgments upon all heathen, and His +deliverance of Israel from its oppressors; and the 'coming' is His +manifestation for that double purpose. Before its flashing brightness, +barrenness is changed into verdure, diseases that lame men's powers +vanish, the dry and thirsty land gleams with the shining light of +sudden streams. Across the wilderness stretches a broad path, raised +high above the bewildering monotony of pathless sand, too plain to be +missed, too lofty for wild beasts' suppleness to spring upon it: along +it troop with song and gladness the returning exiles, with hope in +their hearts as they journey to Zion, where they find a joyful home +undimmed by sorrow, and in which sighing and sorrow are heard and felt +no more. + +Now this is poetry, no doubt; the golden light of imagination suffuses +it all, but it is poetry with a solid meaning in it. It is not a mere +play of fancy exalting the 'coming of the Lord' by heaping together all +images that suggest the vanishing of evil and the coming of good. If +there is a basis of facts in it, what are they? What is the period of +that emphatic 'then' at the beginning of our text? The return of the +Jews from exile? Yes, certainly; but some greater event shines through +the words. Some future restoration of that undying race to their own +land? Yes, possibly, again we answer, but that does not exhaust the +prophecy. The great coming of God to save in the gift of His Son? Yes, +that in an eminent degree. The second coming of Christ? Yes, that too. +All the events in which God has come for men's deliverance are shadowed +here; for in them all, the same principles are at work, and in all, +similar effects have followed. But mainly the mission and work of Jesus +Christ is pointed at here--whether in its first stage of Incarnation +and Passion, or in its second stage of Coming in glory, 'the second +time without sin, unto salvation.' + +And the bodily diseases here enumerated are symbols, just as Christ's +miracles were symbolical, just as every language has used the body as a +parable of the soul, and has felt that there is such a harmony between +them that the outward and visible does correspond to and shadow the +inward and spiritual. + +I think, then, that we may fairly take these four promises as bringing +out very distinctly the main characteristics of the blessed effects of +Christ's work in the world. The great subject of these words is the +power of Christ in restoring to men the spiritual capacities which are +all but destroyed. We have here three classes of bodily infirmities +represented as cured at the date of that blessed 'Then.' Blindness and +deafness are defects in perception, and stand for incapacities +affecting the powers of knowledge. Lameness affects powers of motion, +and stands for incapacity of activity. Dumbness prevents speech, and +stands for incapacity of utterance. + +I. Christ as the restorer of the powers of knowing. + +Bodily diseases are taken to symbolise spiritual infirmities. + +Mark the peculiarities of Scripture anthropology as brought out in this +view of humanity:--- + +Its gloomy views of man's actual condition. + +Its emphatic declaration that that condition is abnormal. + +Its confidence of effecting a cure. + +Its transcendentally glorious conception of what man may become. + +Men are blind and deaf; that is to say, their powers of perception are +destroyed by reason of disease. What a picture! The great spiritual +realities are all unseen, as Elisha's young servant was blind to the +fiery chariots that girdled the prophet. Men are blind to the starry +truths that shine as silver in the firmament. They are deaf to the +Voice which is gone out to the ends of the earth, and yet they have +eyes and ears, conscience, intuitions. They possess organs, but these +are powerless. + +And while the blindness is primarily in regard to spiritual and +religious truths, it is not confined to these, but wherever spiritual +blindness has fallen, the whole of a man's knowledge will suffer. There +will be blindness to the highest philosophy, to the true basis and +motive of morals, to true psychology, to the noblest poetry. All will +be of the earth, earthy. You cannot strike religion out of men's +thoughts, as you might take a stone out of a wall and leave the wall +standing; you take out foundation and mortar, and make a ruinous heap. + +I know, of course, that there may be much mental activity without any +perception of spiritual realities, but all knowledge which is not +purely mathematical or physical suffers by the absence of such +perception. All this blindness is caused by sin. + +Christ is the giver of spiritual sight. He restores the faculty by +taking away the hindrance to its exercise. Further, He gives sight +because He gives light. + +But turn to facts of experience, and consider the mental apathy of +heathenism as contrasted with the energy of mind within the limits of +Christendom. Greece, of course, is a brilliant exception, but even +there (1) what of the conceptions of God? (2) what of the effect of the +wise on the mass of the nation? Think of the languid intellectual life +of the East. Think of the energy of thought which has been working +within the limits of Christianity. Think of Christian theology compared +with the mythologies of idolatry. And the contrast holds not only in +the religious field but all over the field of thought. + +There is no such sure way of diffusing a culture which will refine and +strengthen all the powers of mind as to diffuse the knowledge of Jesus, +and to make men love Him. In His light they will see light. + +To know Him and to keep company with Him is 'a liberal education,' as +is seen in many a lowly life, all uninfluenced by what is called +learning, but enriched with the finest flowers of 'culture,' and having +gathered them all in Christ's garden. + +Christ is the true light; in Him do we see. Without Him, what is all +other knowledge? He is central to all, like genial heat about the roots +of a plant. There is other knowledge than that of sense; and for the +highest of all our knowledge we depend on Him who is the Word. In that +region we can neither observe nor experiment. In that region facts must +be brought by some other means than we can command, and we can but draw +more or less accurate deductions from them. Logic without revelation is +like a spinning-machine without any cotton, busy drawing out nothing. +Here we have to listen. 'The entrance of Thy words giveth light.' Your +God shall come and save you; then, by that divine coming and saving, +'the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall +be unstopped.' + +II. Christ as the Restorer of the Powers of Action. + +Again turn to heathenism, see the apathetic indolence, the +unprogressive torpor, 'Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of +Cathay.' Sin lames for service of God; it leaves the lower nature free +to act, and that freedom paralyses all noble activity. + +Christianity brings the Energising of the Soul-- + +(a) By its reference of everything to God--our powers and our +circumstances and our activities. + +(b) By its prominence given to Retribution. It speaks not merely of +_vita brevis_--but of _vita brevis_ and an Eternity which grows out of +it. + +(c) By its great motive for work--love. + +(d) By the freedom It brings from the weight that paralysed. + +It takes away sin. Lifting that dreary load from our backs, it makes us +joyful, strong, and agile. + +The true view of Christianity is not, as some of its friends, and some +of its foes, mistakenly concur in supposing, that it weakens interest +in, and energy on, the Present, but that it heightens the power of +action. A life plunged in that jar of oxygen will glow with redoubled +brilliance. + +III. Christ as the Restorer of Powers of Utterance. + +The silence that broods over the world. It is dumb for all holy, +thankful words; with no voice to sing, no utterance of joyful praise. + +Think of the effect of Christianity on human speech, giving it new +themes, refining words and crowding them with new meanings. Translate +the Bible into any language, and that language is elevated and enriched. + +Think of the effect on human praise. That great treasure of Christian +poetry. + +Think of the effect on human gladness. Christ fills the heart with such +reasons for praise, and makes life one song of joy. + +Thus Christ is the Healer. + +To men seeking for knowledge, He offers a higher gift--healing. And as +for true knowledge and culture, in Christ, and in Christ alone, will +you find it. + +Let your culture be rooted in Him. Let your Religion influence all your +nature. + +The effects of Christianity are its best evidence. What else does the +like of that which it does? Let Jannes and Jambres 'do the same with +their enchantments.' We may answer the question, 'Art Thou He that +should come?' as Christ did, 'The blind receive their sight, and the +lame walk; the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear.' + +The perfect Restoration will be in heaven. Then, indeed, when our souls +are freed from mortal grossness, and the thin veils of sense are rent +and we behold Him as He is, then when they rest not day nor night, but +with ever renewed strength run to His commandments, then when He has +put into their lips a new song--'then shall the eyes of the blind be +opened, and the ears of the deaf be unstopped; then shall the lame man +leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing.' + + + + +MIRAGE OR LAKE + +'For in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the +desert. And the glowing sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty +ground springs of water.' ISAIAH xxxv. 6, 7. + + +What a picture is painted in these verses! The dreary wilderness +stretches before us, monotonous, treeless, in some parts bearing a +scanty vegetation which flourishes in early spring and dies before +fierce summer heats, but for the most part utterly desolate, the sand +blinding the eyes, the ground cracked and gaping as if athirst for the +rain that will not fall; over it the tantalising mirage dancing in +mockery, and amid the hot sand the yelp of the jackals. What does this +dead land want? One thing alone--water. Could that be poured upon it, +all would be changed; nothing else will do any good. And it comes. +Suddenly it bursts from the sand, and streams bring life along the +desert. It gathers into placid lakes, with their whispering reeds and +nodding rushes, and the thick cool grass round their margins. The foul +beasts that wandered through dry places seeking rest are drowned out. +So full of blessed change will be the coming of the Lord, of which all +this context speaks. Mark that this burst of waters is when 'the Lord +shall come,' and that it is the reason for the restoration of lost +powers in men, and especially for a chorus of praise from dumb lips. +This, then, is the central blessing. It is not merely a joyful +transformation, but it is the reason for a yet more joyful +transformation (chap. xliv. 3). Recall Christ's words to the Samaritan +woman and in the Temple on the great day of the Feast. + +Then this is pre-eminently a description of the work of Christ. + +I. Christ brings the Supernatural Communication of a New Life. + +We may fairly regard this metaphor as setting forth the very deepest +characteristic of the gospel. Consider man's need, as typified in the +image of the desert. Mark that the supply for that need must come from +without; that coming from without, it must be lodged in the heart of +the race; that the supernatural communication of a new life and power +is the very essence of the work of Christ; that such a communication is +the only thing adequate to produce these wondrous effects. + +II. This new life slakes men's thirst. + +The pangs and tortures of the waterless wilderness. The thirst of human +souls; they long, whether they know it or not, for-- + + Truth for Understanding. + Love for Heart. + Basis and Guidance for Will and Effort. + Cleansing for Conscience. + Adequate objects for their powers. + +They need that all these should be in One. + +The gnawing pain of our thirst is not a myth; it is the secret of man's +restlessness. We are ever on the march, not only because change is the +law of the world, nor only because effort and progress are the law for +civilised men, but because, like caravans in the desert, we have to +search for water. + +In Christ it is slaked; all is found there. + +III. The Communication of this New Life turns Illusions into Realities. + +'The mirage shall become a pool.' Life without Christ is but a long +illusion. 'Sin makes a mock of fools.' How seldom are hopes fulfilled, +and how still less frequently are they, when fulfilled, as good as we +painted them! The prismatic splendours of the rain bow, which gleam +before us and which we toil to catch, are but grey rain-drops when +caught. Joys attract and, attained, have incompleteness and a tang of +bitterness. The fish is never so heavy when landed on the sward as it +felt when struggling on our hook. 'All is vanity'--yes, if creatures +and things temporal are pursued as our good. But nothing is vanity, if +we have the life in us which Jesus comes to give. His Gospel gives +solid, unmingled joys, sure promises which are greater when fulfilled +than when longed for, certain hopes whose most brilliant colours are +duller than those of the realities. The half has not been told of the +'things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.' + +Sure Promises. + +A certain Hope. + +IV. This New Life gives Fruitfulness. It stimulates all our nature. A +godless life is in a very tragic sense barren, and a wilderness. There +is in it nothing really worth doing, nor anything that will last. +Christ gives Power, Motive, Pattern, and makes a life of holy activity +possible. The works done by men apart from Him are, if measured by the +whole relations and capacities of the doers, unfruitful works, however +they may seem laden with ruddy clusters. It is only lives into which +that river of God which is full of water flows that bring forth fruit, +and whose fruit remains. The desert irrigated becomes a garden of the +Lord. + +Note, too, how this river drowns out wild beasts. The true way of +conquering evil is to turn the river into it. Cultivate, and weeds die. +The expulsive power of a new affection is the most potent instrument +for perfecting character. + +What is the use of water if we do not drink? We may perish with thirst +even on the river's bank. 'If any man thirst, let him come to Me and +drink.' + + + + +THE KING'S HIGHWAY + +'And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the +way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be +for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No +lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it +shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there.'--ISAIAH +xxxv. 8, 9. + + +We can fancy what it is to be lost in a forest where a traveller may +ride round in a circle, thinking he is advancing, till he dies. But it +is as easy to be lost in a wilderness, where there is nothing to see, +as in a wood where one can see nothing. And there is something even +more ghastly in being lost below the broad heavens in the open face of +day than 'in the close covert of innumerous boughs.' The monotonous +swells of the sand-heaps, the weary expanse stretching right away to +the horizon, no land-marks but the bleaching bones of former victims, +the gigantic sameness, the useless light streaming down, and in the +centre one tiny, black speck toiling vainly, rushing madly hither and +thither--a lost man--till he desperately flings himself down and lets +death bury him, that is the one picture suggested by the text. The +other is of that same wilderness, but across it a mighty king has flung +up a broad, lofty embankment, a highway raised above the sands, cutting +across them so conspicuously that even an idiot could not help seeing +it, so high above the land around that the lion's spring falls far +beneath it, and the supple tiger skulks baffled at its base. It is like +one of those roads which the terrible energy of conquering Rome carried +straight as an arrow from the milestone in the Forum over mountains, +across rivers and deserts, morasses and forests, to flash along them +the lightning of her legions, and over whose solid blocks we travel +to-day in many a land. + +The prophet has seen in his vision the blind and deaf cured, the +capacities of human nature destroyed by sin restored. He has told us +that this miraculous change has come from the opening of a spring of +new life in the midst of man's thirsty desert, and now he gets before +us, in yet another image, another aspect of the glorious change which +is to follow that coming of the Lord to save, which filled the farthest +horizon of his vision. The desert shall have a plain path on which +those diseased men who have been healed journey. Life shall no longer +be trackless, but God will, by His coming, prepare paths that we should +walk in them; and as He has given the lame man power to walk, so will +he also provide the way by which His happy pilgrims will journey to +their home. + +I. The pathless wandering of godless lives. + +The old, old comparison of life to a journey is very natural and very +pathetic. It expresses life's ceaseless change; every day carries us +into a new scene, every day the bends of the road shut out some happy +valley where we fain would have rested, every day brings new faces, new +associations, new difficulties, and even if the same recur, yet it is +with such changes that they are substantially new, and of each day's +march it is true, even when life is most monotonous, that 'ye have not +passed this way heretofore.' It expresses life's ceaseless effort and +constant plodding. To-day's march does not secure to-morrow's rest, +but, however footsore and weary, we have to move on, like some child +dragged along by a careless nurse. It expresses the awful crumbling +away of life beneath us. The road has an end, and each step takes us +nearer to it. The numbers that face us on the milestones slowly and +surely decrease; we pass the last and on we go, tramp, tramp, and we +cannot stop till we reach the narrow chamber, cold and dark, where, at +any rate, we have got the long march over. + +But to many men, the journey of life is one which has no definite +direction deliberately chosen, which has no all-inclusive aim, which +has no steady progress. There may be much running hither and thither, +but it is as aimless as the marchings of a fly upon a window, as busy +and yet as uncertain as that of the ants who bustle about on an +ant-hill. + +Now that is the idea, which our text implies, of all the activity of a +godless life, that it is not a steady advance to a chosen goal, but a +rushing up and down in a trackless desert, with many immense exertions +all thrown away. Then, in contrast, it puts this great thought: that +God has come to us and made for us a path for our feet. + +II. The highway that God casts up. + +Of course that coming we take to be Christ's coming, and we have just +to consider the manner in which His coming fulfils this great promise, +and has made in the trackless wilderness a way for us to walk in. + +1. Christ gives us a Definite Aim for Life. I know, of course, that men +may have this apart from Him, definite enough in all conscience. But +such aims are unworthy of men's whole capacities. Not one of them is +fit to be made the exclusive, all-embracing purpose of a life, and, +taken together, they are so multifarious that in their diversity they +come to be equal to none. How many we have all had! Most of us are like +men who zig-zag about, chasing after butterflies! Nor are any such aims +certain to be reached during life, and they all are certain to be lost +at death. + +Godless men are enticed on like some dumb creature lured to +slaughter-house by a bunch of fodder--once inside, down comes the +pole-axe. + +But Christ gives us a definite aim which is worthy of a man, which +includes all others; which binds this life and the next into one. + +2. Christ gives us distinct knowledge of whither we should go. It is +not enough to give general directions; we need to know what our next +step is to be. It is of no avail that we see the shining turrets far +off on the hill, if all the valleys between are unknown and trackless. +Well: we have Him to point us our course. He is the exemplar--the true +ideal of human nature. Hour by hour His pattern fits to our lives. +True, we shall often be in perplexity, but that perplexity will clear +itself by patient thought, by holding our wills in suspense till He +speaks, and by an honest wish to go right. There will no longer be +doubt as to what is our law, though there may be as to the application +of it. We are not to be guided by men's maxims, nor by the standards +and patterns round us, but by Him. + +3. Christ gives means by which we can reach the aim. He does so by +supplying a stimulus to our activity, in the motive of His love; by the +removal of the hindrances arising from sin, through His redeeming work; +by the gifts of new life from His Spirit. + +'The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he +knoweth not how to go to the city.' But he that follows Jesus treads +the right way to the city of habitation. + +4. Christ goes with us. The obscure words, 'It shall be for those' are +by some rendered, 'He shall be with them,' and we may take them so, as +referring to the presence with His happy pilgrims of the Lord Himself. +Perhaps Isaiah may have been casting back a thought to the desert +march, where the pillar led the host. But at all events we have the +same companion to 'talk with us by the way,' and make 'our hearts burn +within us,' as had the two disconsolate pedestrians on the road to +Emmaus. It is Jesus who goes before us, whether He leads us to green +pastures and waters of quietness or through valleys of the shadow of +death, and we can be smitten by no evil, since He is with us. + +III. The travellers upon God's highway. + +Two conditions are laid down in the text. One is negative-the unclean +can find no footing there. It is 'the way of holiness,' not only +because holiness is in some sense the goal to which it leads, but still +more, because only holy feet can tread it, holy at least in the +travellers' aspiration and inward consecration, though still needing to +be washed daily. One is positive--it is 'the simple' who shall not err +therein. They who distrust themselves and their own skill to find or +force a path through life's jungle, and trust themselves to higher +guidance, are they whose feet will be kept in the way. + +No lion or ravenous beast can spring or creep up thereon. Simple +keeping on Christ's highway elevates us above temptations and evils of +all sorts, whether nightly prowlers or daylight foes. + +This generation is boasting or complaining that old landmarks are +blotted out, ancient paths broken, footmarks obliterated, stars hid, +and mist shrouding the desert. But Christ still guides, and His promise +still holds good: 'He that followeth Me shall not walk in the darkness, +but shall have the light of life.' The alternative for each 'traveller +between life and death' is to tread in His footsteps or to 'wander in +the wilderness in a solitary way, hungry and thirsty,' with fainting +soul. Let us make the ancient prayer ours: 'See if there be any wicked +way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.' + + + + +WHAT LIFE'S JOURNEY MAY BE + +'The redeemed shall walk there: And the ransomed of the Lord shall +return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their +heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall +flee away.'--ISAIAH XXXV 9,10. + + +We have here the closing words of Isaiah's prophecy. It has been +steadily rising, and now it has reached the summit. Men restored to all +their powers, a supernatural communication of a new life, a pathway for +our journey--these have been the visions of the preceding verses, and +now the prophet sees the happy pilgrims flocking along the raised way, +and hears some faint strains of their glad music, and he marks them, +rank after rank, entering the city of their solemnities, and through +the gates can behold them invested with joy and gladness, while sorrow +and sighing, like some night-loving birds shrinking from the blaze of +that better sun which lights the city, spread their black wings and +flee away. + +The noble rhythm of our English version rises here to a strain of +pathetic music, the very cadence of which stirs thoughts that lie too +deep for tears, and one shrinks from taking these lofty words of +immortal hope--which life's sorrows have interpreted, I trust, for many +of us--as the text of a sermon. But I would fain try whether some of +their gracious sweetness and power may not survive even our rude +handling of them. + +The prophet here is not only speaking of the literal return of his +brethren from captivity. The place which this prophecy holds at the +very close of the book, the noble loftiness of the language, the entire +absence of any details or specific allusions which compel reference to +the Captivity, would be sufficient of themselves to make us suspect +that there was very much more here. The structure of prophecy is +misunderstood unless it be recognised that all the history of Israel +was itself a prediction, a great supernatural system of types and +shadows, and that all the interventions of the divine hand are one in +principle, and all foretell the great intervention of redeeming love, +in the person of Jesus Christ. Nor need that be unlikely in the eyes of +any who believe that Christ's coming is the centre of the world's +history, and that there is in prophecy a supernatural element. We are +not reading our own fancies into Scripture; we are not using, in +allowable freedom, words which had another meaning altogether, to adorn +our own theology, but we are apprehending the innermost meaning of +prophecy, when we see in it Christ and His salvation (1 Peter i. 10). + +We have then here a picture of what Christ does for us weary journeyers +on life's road, + +I. Who are the travellers? + +'Redeemed,' 'ransomed of the Lord.' Israel had in its past history one +great act, under the imagery of which all future deliverances were +prophesied. The events of the Exodus were the great storehouse from +which prophets drew the clothing of their brightest hopes; and that is +a lesson for us of how to use the history of God's past deliverances. +They believed that each transitory act was a revelation of an +unchanging purpose and an unexhausted power, and that it would be +repeated over and over again. Experience supplied the material out of +which Hope wove its fairest webs, but Faith drove the shuttle. Here the +names which describe the pilgrims come from the old story. They are +slaves, purchased or otherwise set free from captivity by a divine act. +The epithets are transferred to the New Testament, and become the +standing designation for those who have been delivered by Christ. + +That designation, 'ransomed of the Lord,' opens out into the great +evangelical thoughts which are the very life-blood of vital +Christianity. + +Emancipation from bondage is the first thing that we all need. 'He that +committeth sin is the slave of sin.' An iron yoke presses on every neck. + +The needed emancipation can only be obtained by a ransom price. The +question of to whom the ransom is paid is not in the horizon of prophet +or apostle or of Jesus Himself, in using this metaphor. What is +strongly in their minds is that a great surrender must be greatly made +by the Emancipator. + +Jesus conceived of Himself as giving 'His life a ransom for the many.' + +The emancipation must be a divine act. It surpasses any created power. + +There can be no happy pilgrims unless they are first set free. + +II. The end of the journey. + +'They shall come to Zion.' It is one great distinctive characteristic +and blessedness of the Christian conception of the future that it takes +away from it all the chilling sense of strangeness, arising from +ignorance and lack of experience, and invests it with the attraction of +being the mother-city of us all. So the pilgrims are not travelling a +dreary road into the common darkness, but are like colonists who visit +England for the first time, and are full of happy anticipations of +'going home,' though they have never seen its shores. + +That conception of the future perfect state as a 'city' includes the +ideas of happy social life, of a settled polity, of stability and +security. The travellers who were often solitary on the march will all +be together there. The nomads, who had to leave their camping-place +each morning and let the fire that cheered them in the night die down +into a little ring of grey ashes, will 'go no more out,' but yet make +endless progress within the gates. The defenceless travellers, who were +fain to make the best 'laager' they could, and keep vigilant watch for +human and bestial enemies crouching beyond the ring of light from the +camp-fires, are safe at last, and they that swallowed them up shall be +far away. + +Contrast the future outlook of the noblest minds in heathenism with the +calm certainty which the gospel has put within the reach of the +simplest! 'Blessed are your eyes, for they see.' + +III. The joy of the road. + +The pilgrims do not plod wearily in silence, but, like the tribes going +up to the feasts, burst out often, as they journey, into song. They are +like Jehoshaphat's soldiers, who marched to the fight with the singers +in the van chanting 'Give thanks unto the Lord, for His mercy endureth +for ever.' The Christian life should be a joyful life, ever echoing +with the 'high praises of God.' However difficult the march, there is +good reason for song, and it helps to overcome the difficulties. 'A +merry heart goes all the day, a sad heart tires in a mile.' Why should +the ransomed pilgrims sing? For present blessings, for deliverance from +the burden of self and sin, for communion with God, for light shed on +the meaning of life, and for the sure anticipation of future bliss. + +'Everlasting joy on their heads.' Other joys are transitory. It is not +only 'we poets' who 'in our youth begin with gladness,' whereof 'cometh +in the end despondency and madness'; but, in a measure, these are the +outlines of the sequence in all godless lives. The world's festal +wreathes wilt and wither in the hot fumes of the banqueting house, and +'the crown of pride shall be trodden under foot.' But joy of Christ's +giving 'shall remain,' and even before we sit at the feast, we may have +our brows wreathed with a garland 'that fadeth not away.' + +IV. The perfecting of joy at last. + +'They shall obtain joy and gladness': but had they not had it on their +heads as they marched? Yes; but at last they have it in perfect measure +and manner. The flame that burned but dimly in the heavy air of earth +flashes up into new brightness in the purer atmosphere of the city. + +And one part of its perfecting is the removal of all its opposites. +Sorrow ends when sin and the discipline that sin needs have ended. 'The +inhabitant shall not say: I am sick; the people that dwell therein +shall be forgiven their iniquity.' Sighing ends when weariness, loss, +physical pain, and all the other ills that flesh is heir to have ceased +to vex and weigh upon the spirit. Life purges the dross of imperfection +from character. Death purges the alloy of sorrow and sighing from joy, +and leaves the perfected spirit possessor of the pure gold of perfect +and eternal gladness. + + + + +THE TRIUMPH OF FAITH + +'And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and +read it: and Hezekiah went up unto the house of the Lord, and spread it +before the Lord. 15. And Hezekiah prayed unto the Lord, saying, 16. O +Lord of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, Thou +art the God, even Thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: Thou +hast made heaven and earth. 17. Incline Thine ear, O Lord, and hear; +open Thine eyes, O Lord, and see: and hear all the words of +Sennacherib, which hath sent to reproach the living God. 18. Of a +truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations, and +their countries, 19. And have cast their gods into the fire: for they +were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone: therefore +they have destroyed them. 20. Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us +from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that Thou +art the Lord, even Thou only. 21. Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent unto +Hezekiah, saying. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Whereas thou hast +prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria.... 33. Therefore thus +saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into +this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, +nor cast a bank against it. 34. By the way that he came, by the same +shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the Lord. 35. +For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake, and for my +servant David's sake. 36. Then the angel of the Lord went forth, and +smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five +thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were +all dead corpses. 37. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went +and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. 38. And it came to pass, as he was +worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and +Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the +land of Armenia: and Esarhaddon his you reigned in his stead.'--ISAIAH +xxxvii. 14-21, 33-38. + + +Is trust in Jehovah folly or wisdom? That was the question raised by +Sennacherib's invasion. A glance at the preceding chapters will show +how the high military official, 'the rabshakeh,' or chief of the +officers, shaped all his insolent and yet skilful mixture of threats +and promises so as to demonstrate the vanity of trust in Egypt or in +Jehovah, or in any but 'the great king.' Isaiah had been labouring to +lift his countrymen to the height of reliance on Jehovah alone, and now +the crucial test of the truth of his contention had come. On the one +hand were Sennacherib and his host, flushed with victory, and sure of +crushing this puny kinglet Hezekiah and his obstinate little city, +perched on its rock. On the other was nothing but a prophet's word. +Where is the stronger force? And does political prudence dictate +reliance on the Unseen or on the visible? The moment is the crisis of +Isaiah's work, and this narrative has been placed, with true insight +into its importance, at the close of the first half of this book. + +To grasp the significance of the text the preceding events have to be +remembered. Hezekiah's kingdom had been overrun, and tribute exacted +from him. The rabshakeh had been sent from the main body of the +Assyrian army, which was down at Lachish in the Philistine low country +on the road to Egypt, in order to try to secure Jerusalem by promises +and threats, since it was too important a post to leave in the rear, if +Egypt was to be invaded. That attempt having failed, and the Egyptian +forces being in motion, this new effort was made to induce Hezekiah to +surrender. A letter was sent, whether accompanied by any considerable +armed force or no does not appear. At this point the narrative begins. +It may be best studied as an illustration of the trial of faith, its +refuge, its pleading, and its deliverance. + +I. Note the trial of faith. Rabshakeh had derided the obstinate +confidence in Jehovah, which kept these starving men on the walls +grimly silent in spite of his coaxing. The letter of Sennacherib harps +on the same string. It is written in a tone of assumed friendly +remonstrance, and lays out with speciousness the apparent grounds for +calling trust in Jehovah absurdity. There are no threats in it. It is +all an appeal to common sense and political prudence. It marshals +undeniable facts. Experience has shown the irresistible power of +Assyria. There have been plenty of other little nations which have +trusted in their local deities, and what has become of them? Barbarous +names are flourished in Hezekiah's face, and their wasted dominions are +pointed to as warnings against his committing a parallel folly. There +is nothing in the letter which might not have been said by a friend, +and nothing which was not said by the Jews who had lost their faith in +their God. It was but the putting into plain words of what +'common-sense' and faint faith had often whispered to Hezekiah. The +very absence of temper or demand in the letter gives it an aspect of +that 'sweet reasonableness' so dear to sense-bound souls. + +_Mutatis mutandis_, the letter may stand for a specimen of the +arguments which worldly prudence brings to shake faith, in all ages. +We, too, are assailed by much that sounds most forcible from the point +of view of mere earthly calculation. Sennacherib does not lie in +boasting of his victories. He and his shoals of soldiers are very real +and potent. It does seem madness for one little kingdom to stand out, +and all the more so because its king is cooped up in his city, as the +cuneiform inscription proudly tells, 'like a bird in a cage,' and all +the rest of his land is in the conqueror's grip. They who look only at +the things seen cannot but think the men of faith mad. They who look at +the things unseen cannot but know that the men of sense are fools. The +latter elaborately prove that the former are impotent, but they have +left out one factor in their calculations, and that is God. One man and +God at his back are stronger than Sennacherib and all his mercenaries. + +II. Note the refuge of tempted faith. What was Hezekiah to do with the +crafty missive? It was hoped that he would listen to reason, and come +down from his perch. But he neither yielded nor took counsel with his +servants, but, like a devout man, went into the house of the Lord, and +spread the letter before the Lord. It would have gone hard with him if +he had not been to the house of the Lord many a time before. It is not +easy to find our way thither for the first time, when our eyes are +blinded by tears or our way darkened by calamities. But faith +instinctively turns to God when anything goes wrong, because it has +been accustomed to turn to Him when all was right, according to the +world's estimate of right and wrong. Whither should the burdened heart +betake itself but to Him who daily bears our burdens? The impulse to +tell God all troubles is as truly a mark of the faithful soul as the +impulse to tell everything to the beloved is the life-breath of love. + +The act of spreading the letter before the Lord is an eloquent symbol, +which some prosaic and learned commentators have been dull enough to +call gross, and to compare to Buddhist praying-mills! Its meaning is +expressed in the prayer which follows. It is faith's appeal to His +knowledge. It is faith's casting of its burden on the Lord. Our faith +is of little power to bless, unless it impels us to take God into +confidence in regard to everything which troubles us. If the letter is +not grave enough to be spread before _Him_, it is too small to annoy +_us_. If we truly live in fellowship with God, we shall find ourselves +in His house, with the cause of our trouble in our hands, before we +have time to think. Instinct acts more quickly than reason, and, if our +faith be vital, it will not need to be argued into speaking to God of +all that weighs upon us. + +III. Note the pleading of faith. Hezekiah's address to God is no mere +formal recapitulation of divine names, but is the effort of faith to +grasp firmly the truths which the enemy denies, and on which it builds. +So considered, the accumulation of titles in verse 16 is very +instructive, and shows how a trustful soul puts forth the energy of its +faith in summoning to mind the great aspects of the divine name as +bulwarks against suggested fears, and bases of supplication. Hezekiah +appeals to 'the God of Hosts,' the Ruler of all the embattled forces of +the universe, as well as of the armies of angels. What is Sennacherib's +array compared with these? He appeals to the 'God of Israel,' as +pleading the ancient relationship, which binds the unchangeable +Guardian of the people to be still what He has been, and casts the +responsibility of Israel's preservation upon Him. He appeals to Him +'who sits between the cherubim,' as thence defending and filling the +threatened city. He grasps the thought that Jehovah is 'God alone' with +a vividness which is partly due no doubt to Isaiah's teaching, but is +also the indignant recoil of faith from the assumption of the letter, +that Jehovah was but as the beaten deities of Gozan and the rest. Faith +clings the more tenaciously to truths denied, as a dog will hold on to +the stick that one tries to pull from it. + +Thus, having heartened himself and pled with God by all these names, +Hezekiah comes to his petition. It is but translating into words the +symbol of spreading the letter before God. He asks God to behold and to +hear the defiant words. Prayer tells God what it knows that He knows +already, for it relieves the burdened heart to tell Him. It asks Him to +see and hear what it knows that He does see and hear. But the prayer is +not for mere observance followed by no divine act, but for taking +knowledge as the precursor of the appropriate help. Of such seeing and +hearing by God, believing prayer is the appointed condition. 'Your +Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him'; but +that is not a reason for silence, but for supplication. + +Hezekiah rightly regarded Sennacherib's words as meant to reproach the +living God, for the point of the letter was to dissuade from trust in +Him, as no more powerful than the petty deities of already conquered +cities. The prayer, therefore, pleads that God would take care of His +own honour, and by delivering Jerusalem, show His sole sovereignty. It +is a high and wonderful level for faith to reach, when it regards +personal deliverance mainly in its aspect as vindicating God and +warranting faith. We may too easily conclude that God's honour is +involved in our deliverance, and it is well to be on our guard against +that. + +But it is possible to die to self so fully as to feel that our cause is +His, because His is so entirely ours; and then we may come to that +heroic faith which seeks even personal good more for God's sake than +for our own. It was noble that this man should have no word to say +about self but 'Save us, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know +that Thou art God alone.' Like him, we may each feel that our defence +is more God's affair than ours, in proportion as we feel we are His +rather than our own. That siege of Jerusalem was indeed as a duel +between faith and unbelief on the one hand, and between Jehovah and the +gods who were 'no gods' on the other. Sennacherib's letter was a +defiant challenge to Jehovah to do His best for this people, and when +faith repeated in prayer the insolence of unbelief only one result was +possible. It came. + +IV. Note the deliverance of faith. Isaiah's grand prophecy tempts us to +linger over its many beauties and magnificent roll of triumphant scorn, +but it falls outside our purpose. As for the catastrophe, it should be +noted that its place and time are not definitely stated, and that +probably the notion that the Assyrian army was annihilated before +Jerusalem is a mistake. Sennacherib and his troops were at Libnah, on +their way to meet the Egyptian forces. If there were any of them before +Jerusalem, they would at most be a small detachment, sufficient to +invest it. Probably the course of events was that, at some time not +specified, soon after the dismissal of the messengers who brought the +letter, the awful destruction fell, and that, when the news of the +disaster reached the detachment at Jerusalem, as the psalm which throbs +with the echoes of the triumph says, 'They were troubled, and hasted +away.' + +How complete was the crushing blow the lame record of this campaign in +the inscriptions shows, in which the failure of the attempt to capture +the city is covered up by vapouring about tribute and the like. If it +had not failed, however, the success would certainly have been told, as +all similar cases are told, with abundant boasting. The other fact is +also to be remembered, that Sennacherib tried no more conclusions with +Jerusalem and Jehovah, and though he lived for some twenty years +afterwards, never again ventured on to the soil where that mighty God +fought for His people. + +The appended notice of Sennacherib's death has been added by some +narrator, since it probably occurred after Isaiah's martyrdom. 'All +they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.' Such a career as +his could not but give taste for violence and bloodshed, and dimmish +regard for human life. Retribution comes slowly, for twenty years +intervened between the catastrophe to the army and the murder of the +king. Its penalties increase as its fall delays; for first came the +blotting out of the army, and then, when that had no effect, at last +the sword in his own heart. 'He that being often reproved hardeneth his +neck shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.' + +But the great lesson of that death is the same as that of the other +king's deliverance. Hezekiah 'went unto the house of the Lord,' and +found Him a very present help in trouble. Sennacherib was slain in the +house of his god. The two pictures of the worshippers and their fates +are symbolic of the meaning of the whole story. Sennacherib had dared +Jehovah to try His strength against him and his deities. The challenge +was accepted, and that bloody corpse before the idol that could not +help preaches a ghastly sermon on the text, 'They that make them are +like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them. O Israel, trust +thou in the Lord: He is their help and their shield.' + + + + +WHERE TO CARRY TROUBLES + +And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and +read it: and Hezekiah went up unto the house of the Lord, and spread it +before the Lord.'--ISAIAH xxxvii. 14. + + +When Hezekiah heard the threatenings of Sennacherib's servants, he rent +his clothes and went into the house of the Lord, and sent to Isaiah +entreating his prayers. When he received the menacing letter, his faith +was greater, having been heartened by Isaiah's assurances. So he then +himself appealed to Jehovah, spreading the letter before Him, and +himself prayed God to guard His own honour, and answer the challenge +flung down by the insolent Assyrian. It is noble when faith increases +as dangers increase. + +I. We have here an example of what to do with troubles and difficulties. + +We are to lay them out before God, as we can do by praying about them. +Hezekiah's trouble was great. His kingdom could be crushed like an +eggshell by the grasp of Sennacherib's hand. But little troubles as +well as great ones are best dealt with by being 'spread before the +Lord.' Whatever is important enough to disturb me is important enough +for me to speak to God about it. Whether the poison inflaming our blood +be from a gnat's bite, or a cobra's sting, the best antidote is--pray +about it. + +How much more real and fervid our prayers would be, if we habitually +turned all our affairs into materials for petition! That is a very +empty dispute as to whether we ought to pray for deliverance from +outward sorrows. If we are living in touch with God, we cannot but take +Him into our confidence, if we may so say, as to everything that +affects us. And we should as soon think of hiding any matter from our +dearest on earth as from our Friend in heaven. 'In _everything_, by +prayer and supplication' is the commandment, and will be the instinct +of the devout heart. + +Note Hezekiah's assurance that God cares about him. + +Note his clear perception that God is his only help. + +Note his identification of his own deliverance with God's honour. We +cannot identify our welfare, or deliverance in small matters, with +God's fair fame, in such a fashion. But we ought to be quite sure that +He will not let us sink or perish, and will never desert us. And we can +be quite sure that, if we identify ourselves and our work with Him, He +will identify Himself with us and it. His treatment of His servants +will tell the world (and not one world only) what He is, how faithful, +how loving, how strong. + +II. We have here an example of how God answers His servants' prayers. + +It was 'by terrible things in righteousness' that Hezekiah's answer +came. His prayer was at one end of the chain, and at the other was a +camp full of corpses. One poor man's cry can set in motion tremendous +powers, as a low whisper can start an avalanche. That magnificent +theophany in Psalm xviii., with all its majesty and terror of flashing +lightnings and a rocking earth, was brought about by nothing more than +'In my distress I called upon the Lord,' and its purpose was nothing +more than to draw the suppliant out of many waters and deliver him from +his strong enemy. + +That army swept off the earth may teach us how much God will do for a +praying child of His. His people's deliverance is cheaply purchased at +such a price. 'He reproved kings for their sake.' + +One man with God beside him is stronger than all the world. As the +psalmist learned in his hour of peril, 'Thou, Lord, makest me to dwell +in safety, thou alone!' + + + + +GREAT VOICES FROM HEAVEN + +'Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. 2. Speak ye +comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is +accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of +the Lord's hand double for all her sins. 3. The voice of him that +crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight +in the desert a highway for our God. 4. Every valley shall be exalted, +and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be +made straight, and the rough places plain: 5. And the glory of the Lord +shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth +of the Lord hath spoken it. 6. The voice said, Cry. And he said, What +shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as +the flower of the field: 7. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: +because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is +grass. 8. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our +God shall stand for ever. 9. 0 Zion, that bringest good tidings, get +thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good +tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid: +say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! 10. Behold, the Lord God +will come with strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him: behold, His +reward is with Him, and His work before Him.'--ISAIAH xi. 1-10. + + +How majestically this second part of the Book of Isaiah opens with +these mysterious voices! Other prophecies are wont to begin with +symbolic visions, but here the ear takes the place of the eye; and +instead of forms and flashing lights, which need to be translated, the +prophet hears words, the impressiveness of which is heightened by the +absence of any designation of the speakers. This much is clear, that +the first words are God's, addressed to the prophets. They are the +keynote of the whole. Israel is comforted in the assurance that her +trial is ended and her sin purged. Then there is silence, broken by a +voice to which no personality is attached, the herald and forerunner of +the coming King and God. When the echoes of it have died away, another +is heard, commanding yet another unnamed to 'cry,' and, in response to +the latter's asking what is to be the burden of his message, bidding +him peal out the frailty of man and the eternal vigour of the word of +the Lord, which assures its own fulfilment. + +Then comes a longer pause. The way has been prepared, the coming God +has come; He has set up His throne in the restored Jerusalem, and His +glory is seen upon her. So there rings out from unnamed lips the +stirring command to the city, thus visited by the indwelling God, to +proclaim the glad tidings with a voice, the strength of which shall +correspond to their gladness and certainty. This rapid glance at the +structure of the whole naturally suggests the fourfold division to +which we shall adhere. + +I. God speaks and bids His servants speak (vs. 1, 2), That is a +wonderfully tender word with which the silence and sadness of exile are +broken. The inmost meaning of God's voice is ever comfort. What a world +of yearning love there is, too, in the two little words 'my' and +'your'! The exiles are still His; He who has hidden His face from them +so long is still theirs. And what was true of them is true of us; for +sin may separate us from God, but it does not separate Him from us, and +He still seeks to make us recognise the imperishable bond, which itself +is the ground of both our comfort and of His will that we should be +comforted. + +As the very first words go deep into the meaning of all God's voices, +and unveil the permanence of His relation of love even to sinful and +punished men, so the next disclose the tender manner of His approach to +us, and prescribe the tone for all His true servants: 'Speak ye to the +heart of Jerusalem,' with loving words, which may win her love; for is +she not the bride of Jehovah, fallen though she be? And is not humanity +the beloved of Jesus, in whom God's heart is unveiled that our hearts +may be won? How shall human voices be softened to tenderness worthy of +the message which they carry? Only by dwelling near enough to Him to +catch the echoes, and copy the modulations, of His voice, as some birds +are taught sweeter notes than their own. The prophet's charge is laid +upon all who would speak of Christ to men. Speak to the heart, not only +to the head or to the conscience. God beseeches in the person of His +'ambassadors.' The substance of the message may well find its way to +the heart; for it is the assurance that the long, hard service of the +appointed term of exile is past, that the sin which brought it about is +forgiven, and, more wonderful and gracious still, that God's mercy +reckons that the ills which followed on faithlessness have more than +expiated it. We need not seek for any other explanation of these +startling words than the exuberance of the divine pity, which 'doth not +willingly afflict.' + +Of course, the captivity is in the foreground of the prophet's vision; +but the wider sense of the prophecy embraces the worse captivity of sin +under which we all groan, and the divine voice bids His prophets +proclaim that Jehovah comes, to set us all free, to end the weary +bondage, and to exact no more punishment for sins. + +II. The forerunner speaks. There is something very impressive in the +abrupt bursting in of this second voice, all unnamed. It is the +reverberation, as it were, of the former, giving the preparation on the +side of man for the coming of Jehovah. Israel in bondage in Egypt had +been delivered by Jehovah marching through the wilderness, a wilderness +stretched between Babylon and Jerusalem; these supply the scenery, so +to speak; but the scenery is symbolic, and the call is really one to +prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness of human sin, by raising +up the cast-down by reason of transgressions or sorrows, to subdue +lofty thoughts and self-sufficiency by humble self-abnegation, to make +the 'crooked things' or 'rugged things' straight or smooth, and the +rough ground where heights were tumbled on heights a deep valley, by +forsaking evil. + +The moral preparation, not the physical, is meant. It was fitting that +the road for such a coming should be prepared. But the coming was not +so contingent on the preparation that the 'glory of the Lord' would not +'be revealed' unless men made a highway for Him. True, that the +revelation of His glory to the individual soul must be preceded by such +a preparation; but that raising of abjectness and levelling of +loftiness needs some perception of Him ere it can be done by man. +Christ must come to the heart before the heart can be prepared for His +coming. John the Baptist came crying in the wilderness, but his fiery +message did little to cast up a highway for the footsteps of the King. +John's immovable humility pierced to the very heart of the prophecy +when he answered the question 'Who art thou?' with 'I am a voice. The +voice was unnamed; why, what does it matter who I am?' + +The substance and the range of the coming manifestation are next +defined. It is to be the revelation of 'the glory of the Lord,' and to +be for all mankind, not for Israel only. That lowly life and that +shameful death were a strange revelation of God's glory. If _they_ +revealed it, then it cannot consist in power or any of the majestic +'attributes,' but in love, pity, and long-suffering. Love is the +divinest thing in God. The guarantee for all lies simply here, that God +has spoken it. It is because the unnamed herald's ear has heard the +divine voice uttering the gracious assurances of verse 1, that _his_ +voice is lifted up in the commands and assurances of verse 4. Absolute +faith in God's utterances, however they seem to transcend experience, +is wisdom and duty. + +III. Yet another voice, whether sounding from heaven or earth is as +uncertain as is the person to whom it is addressed, authoritatively +commands a third to 'cry,' and, on being asked what is to be the burden +of the call, answers. This new herald is to proclaim man's frailty and +the immortal vigour of God's word, which secures the fulfilment of His +promises. Is it the questioning voice, or the commanding one, which +says, 'All flesh is grass,... the people is grass'? If the former, it +is the utterance of hopelessness, all but refusing the commission. But, +dramatic as that construction is, it seems better to regard the whole +as the answer to the question, 'What shall I cry?' The repetition of +the theme of man's frailty is not unnatural, and gives emphasis to the +contrast of the unchangeable stability of God's word. An hour of the +deadly hot wind will scorch the pastures, and all the petals of the +flowers among the herbage will fall. So everything lovely, bright, and +vigorous in humanity wilts and dies. One thing alone remains fresh from +age to age,--the uttered will of Jehovah. His breath kills and makes +alive. It withers the creatural, and it speaks the undying word. + +This message is to follow those others which tell of God's merciful +promises, that trembling hearts may not falter when they see all +created stays sharing the common lot, but may rest assured that God's +promises are as good as God's facts, and so may hope when all things +visible would preach despair. It was given to hearten confidence in the +prophecy of a future revelation of the glory of God. It remains with us +to hearten confidence in a past revelation, which will stand unshaken, +whatever forces war against it. Its foes and its friends are alike +short-lived as the summer's grass. The defences of the one and the +attacks of the other are being antiquated while being spoken; but the +bare word of God, the record of the incarnate Word, who is the true +revelation of the glory of God, will stand for ever,--'And this is the +Word which by the gospel is preached to you.' + +IV. The prophet seems to be the speaker in verses 9-11, or perhaps the +same anonymous voice which already commanded the previous message +summons Jerusalem to become the ambassadress of her God. The coming of +the Lord is conceived as having taken place, and He is enthroned in +Zion. The construction which takes Jerusalem or Zion (the double name +so characteristic of the second part of Isaiah) to be the recipient of +the good tidings is much less natural than that which regards her as +their bearer. + +The word rendered 'tellest good tidings' is a feminine form, and falls +in with the usual personification of a city as a woman. She, long laid +in ruins, the Niobe of nations, the sad and desolate widow, is bid to +bear to her daughter cities the glad tidings, that God is in her of a +truth. It is exactly the same thought as 'Cry out and shout, thou +inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of +thee.' The prophecy refers to the Church. It sets forth her highest +office as being the proclamation of her indwelling King. The possession +of Christ makes the Church the evangelist for the world; for it gives +the capacity and the impulse as well as the obligation to speak the +glad tidings. Every Christian has this command binding on him by the +fact of his having Christ. + +The command sets forth the bold clearness which should mark the +herald's call. Naturally, any one with a message to peal out to a crowd +would seek some vantage-ground, from which his words might fly the +farther. If we have a message to deliver, let us seek the best place +from which to deliver it. 'Lift up thy voice with strength.' No whisper +will do. Bated breath is no fit vehicle for God's gospel. There are too +many of God's heralds who are always apologising for their message, and +seeking to reconcile it with popular opinions. We are all apt to speak +truth less confidently because it is denied; but, while it is needful +to speak with all gentleness and in meekness to them that oppose, it is +cowardly, as well as impolitic, to let one tremor be heard in our tones +though a world should deny our message. + +The command tells the substance of the Church's message. Its essence is +the proclamation of the manifested God. To gaze on Jesus is to behold +God. That God is made known in the twin glories of power and +gentleness. He comes 'as a strong one.' His dominion rests on His own +power, and on no human allies. His reign is retributive, and that not +merely as penally recompensing evil, but as rewarding the faith and +hope of those who waited for Him. + +But beyond the limits of our text, in verse 11, we have the necessary +completion of the manifestation, in the lovely figure of the Shepherd +carrying the lambs in His arms, and gently leading the flock of +returning exiles. The strength of Jesus is His lowliness; and His +mighty arm is used, not to wield an iron sceptre, but to gather us to +His bosom and guide us in His ways. The paradox of the gospel, which +points to a poor, weak man dying in the dark on a cross and says, +'Behold the great Power of God!' is anticipated in this prophecy. The +triumphant paradox of the Apostle is shadowed here: 'We preach Christ +crucified, ... the power of God, and the wisdom of God.' + + + + +O THOU THAT BRINGEST GOOD TIDINGS + +'O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high +mountain: O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice +with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, +Behold your God!'--ISAIAH xl. 9. + + +There is something very grand in these august and mysterious voices +which call one to another in the opening verses of this chapter. First, +the purged ear of the prophet hears the divine command to him and to +his brethren--Comfort Jerusalem with the message of the God who comes +for her deliverance. Then afar off another voice is heard, the herald +and forerunner of the approaching Deity; and when thus the foundation +has been laid, yet another takes up the speech, and 'The voice said, +Cry,' and the anonymous recipient of the command asks with what message +he shall be entrusted, and the answer is the signature and pledge of +the divine fulfilment of the word thus spoken. And then there comes, as +I take it, a pause of silence, within which the great Epiphany and +manifestation takes place, and the coming God comes, enters into the +rebuilded city, and there shines in His beauty; and then breaks forth +the rapturous commandment of my text to the resuscitated city, to tell +to all her daughters of Judah the glad tidings of a present God. + +I need not, I suppose, spend your time in vindicating the translation +of our Bible as against one which has been made very familiar by being +wedded to Handel's music, and has commended itself to many, according +to which Zion is rather the recipient than the herald of the tidings, +'O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with +strength,' and so on. + +And I suppose I need not either spend any time in vindicating the +transference of the text to the Gentile Church, beyond the simple +remark that, whatever be the date of this second portion of Isaiah's +prophecy, its standpoint is the time of the Captivity, when Jerusalem +lay desolate, burned with fire, and all their pleasant things were laid +waste, so that the city here addressed is the new form of the ancient +Zion, which had risen from her ashes, and had a better tidings of glad +significance to impart to all the nations. And so, dear brethren, +looking at the words from that point of view, I think that they may +very fairly yield to us two or three very old-fashioned and well-worn +thoughts, which may yet be stimulating and encouraging to us. I take +them as simply as possible, just as they run here in this text, which +brings out very strikingly and beautifully, first, the function of the +Evangelist Zion; secondly, the manner of her message; and lastly, its +contents. + +I. Look with me at the thoughts that cluster round the name, 'O Zion, +that bringest glad tidings.' + +It is almost a definition of the Church; at any rate, it is a +description of her by her most characteristic office and function, that +which marks and separates her from all associations and societies of +men. This is her highest office; this is the reason of her being; this +is her noblest dignity. All mystical powers have been claimed for her, +men have been bidden to submit their judgment and manhood to her +authority; but her true dignity is that she bears a gospel in her hand, +and that grace is poured into her lips. Fond and sense-bound regrets +have been sighed forth that her miracle-working gifts have faded away; +but so long as her voice can quicken dead souls, and make the tongue of +the dumb to speak, her noblest energies remain unimpaired, and so we +may think of her as most exalted and dignified in that her Master +addresses her, 'O Zion, that bringest good tidings.' + +Now, if I was right in my preliminary remark, to the effect that, prior +to my text, we are to suppose the manifestation and approach of the +Divine Deliverer, then I think it is quite clear that what constitutes +Zion the messenger of good tidings is the presence in her of the living +God. Translate that into New Testament language, and it just comes to +this: that what constitutes the Church the evangelist for the world is +the simple possession of Christ or of the Gospel. That thought branches +into some considerations on which we may touch. + +The first of them is this: Whoever has Christ has the power to impart +Him. All believers are preachers, or meant to be so, by virtue of the +possession of that Divine Christ for your own. We Nonconformists are +ready enough to proclaim the universal priesthood of all believers when +we are opposing ecclesiastical assumption; are we as ready to take it +for the law of our own lives, and to say, 'Yes, priests by the +imposition of a mightier hand, and ministers of Christ by the +possession of Christ, and therefore bound and able to impart Him to all +around'? He has given us His love, and He thereby has made us fit to +impart Him. Zion only needed to receive its God, in order thereby to +possess the power to say unto all the cities of Judah, 'Behold your +God.' It does not take much genius, it does not take much culture, it +does not need any prolonged training, for a man who has Christ to say, +'Behold, I have Him.' The very first Christian sermon that was ever +preached was a very short one, and a very effectual one, for it +converted the whole congregation, and it was this: 'We have found the +Messiah.' That was all--the utterance of individual possession and +personal experience--and it 'brought him to Jesus.' + +Take another point. The possession of Christ for ourselves imposes upon +us the obligation to impart Him. All property in this world is trust +property, and everything that a man has that can help or bless the +moral or spiritual or intellectual condition of his fellows, he is +thereby under solemn obligation to impart. There is an obligation +arising from the bands that knit us to one another, so that no man can +possess his good alone without being untrue to what we call nowadays +the solidarity of humanity. You have, you say, the bread of life: very +well, what would you think of a man in a famine who, when women were +boiling their children, and men were fighting with the swine on the +dunghill for garbage, was content to eat his morsel alone, and leave +others to perish by starvation? You possess, you say, the healing for +all the diseases of humanity: very well, what would you think of a man +who, in a pestilence, was contented with swallowing his own specific, +and leaving others to die and to rot in the street? If you have the +Christ, you have Him that you may impart Him. 'He that withholdeth +bread, the people shall curse him'; of how much deeper malediction from +despairing lips will they be thought worthy who call themselves the +followers of Him that gave His life to be the bread of the world, and +yet withhold it from famishing souls? + +And it is an obligation that arises, too, from the very purposes of our +calling. What are Christian men and women saved for? For their own +blessedness? Yes, and no. No creature in God's great universe but is +great enough to be a worthy end of the divine action; the happiness of +the humblest and most insignificant moves His mighty hand. Ay, but no +creature in God's universe so great as that he is a worthy end of the +divine action, if he is going to keep all the divine gifts in himself. +We are all brought into the light that we may impart light. + + 'Heaven doth with us as we with torches do; + Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues + Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike + As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch'd + But to fine issues.' + +II. And now turn to the second thought which I desire to draw from +these words. We have here, in a very picturesque and vivid form, the +setting forth of the manner in which the Evangelist Zion is to proclaim +her message. + +The fair-featured herald is bidden to get up into the high +mountain--perhaps a mere picturesque detail, perhaps some reference to +the local position of the city set upon a hill--like the priests on +Ebal and Gerizim, or Alpine shepherds, calling to each other across the +valleys, to secure some vantage-ground, and next, to let her voice roll +out across the glen. No faltering whisper will do, but a voice that +compels audience, that can be heard above the tumult and afar off, and +confident and loud and clear, because courageous and without dread. +'Lift up thy voice with strength.' Yes, but a timid heart will make a +tremulous voice, and fear and doubt will whisper a message when courage +will ring it out. 'Be not afraid' is the foundation of the clearness +and the loudness with which the word is to be uttered. + +That thought opens itself out into these two others, on each of which I +say a word or two. Our message is to be given with a courage and a +force that are worthy of it; 'Be not afraid.' That is a lesson for this +day, my brethren. There are plenty of causes of fear round about us if, +like poor Peter on the water, we look at the waves instead of at the +Master. There are the great forces of evil that are always arrayed +against Christ. There is the thoroughgoing and formidable rejection of +all that is dearest to us, which is creeping like poison through +cultivated society at home; there is the manifest disproportion between +our resources and the task that we have set ourselves to. 'They need +not depart; give ye them to eat,' said the Master. What! five thousand +people need not depart, and only this scanty provision of loaves and +fishes! Yes; the Master's hand can multiply it. There is the +consciousness of our own weakness; there is the apparent slow progress +of the Gospel in the world. All these things come surging in upon us +when our spirits are low and our faith weak; and yet the message comes +to us, 'Be not afraid.' I venture to break that injunction up into two +or three exhortations, which I cast into the shape of exhortations, not +from any assumption of superiority, but for the sake of point and force. + +First of all, I would say, let us cherish a firm, soul-absorbing +confidence in the power and truth of the message we have to carry. I do +not speak now of the intellectual discipline which may be required from +each of us to meet the difficulties of this day--that is outside of my +present subject; but there is a moral discipline quite as important as +the intellectual. There cannot be any question, I suppose, to any one +who looks round about, and notices the tendencies of his own mind, but +that all we Christian people, in our various circles and organisations, +are under a very great temptation to a very perceptible lowering of our +key in the presence of widespread doubt. We are tempted to fancy that a +truth is less certain because it is denied; that because a has attacked +this thing, and b's clever book has unsettled that thing, and c's +researches seem to cast a great deal of doubt upon that other thing, +therefore we are to surrender them all, and talk about them as if they +were doubtful problems or hypotheses rather than sure verities of our +faith. And there are some of us, I venture to say, who are in danger of +another temptation, and that is of getting a little ashamed and +becoming afraid to say 'Yes, I stand by that great truth, God in Christ +reconciling the world to Himself,' for fear of being thought to +be--well, 'narrow' is the favourite word, 'old-fashioned,' or 'holders +of a creed outworn,' 'in antagonism with the spirit of the age,' and so +on, and so on. Brethren, I am not the man, I hope, to preach an +unreasonable attitude of antagonism; I am not the man to ask anybody to +exaggerate his beliefs because somebody else denies them, but I do +believe that among us all, and especially among young men, there is the +temptation just to be a little bit afraid, and not to let the voice +ring out with that clear certitude which becomes the messenger of the +Cross. Try by mental discipline to find intellectual standing-ground +that will be firm below your feet, and then remember that that is not +all, but that moral discipline is wanted also that I may open my mouth +boldly, as I ought to speak.' + +And then, if I might venture to dwell for a moment or two further upon +this class of consideration, I would say, Do not let us make too much +of the enemy. There is no need why we should take them at their own +appraisement. Men are always tempted to think that no generation ever +had such a fight as their own generation. They have said that ever +since there was a Christian Church. But the true, healthy way of +looking at the adversary--and by that I mean all the various forms of +difficulty which beset us in our evangelistic work, difficulties in the +mission-field, difficulties in the state of things here round us--the +true, healthy way of looking at them all, is to look at them as the +brave Apostle Paul did, when he said, 'I am going to stop at Ephesus +till Pentecost, for there is a great and effectual door opened to me.' +And how did he know that? He tells us in the next clause, 'There are +many adversaries.' Where there are many adversaries, there is an +effectual door, if you and I are bold and big enough to go in and +occupy. + +And then I would venture to say, still further, let us remember the +victories of the past. Let us make personal experience of the +overcoming powers that are stored and hidden in Christ's Gospel. And, +above all, let us remember who fights with us. Jesus Christ and one man +are always the majority. There is an old story, which you may remember, +about the Conqueror of Rome, who dashed his sword into the scales when +the ransom was being weighed; and Christ flings His sharp sword with +the two edges into the scales when we are weighing resources, and the +other kicks the beam. There are enemies, plenty of them, all round +about. Yes, and the spreading forth of their wings fills the breadth of +the land. Be it so. But notwithstanding the irruption of the barbarous +and cruel hosts, it is 'Thy land, O Emanuel!' And in His time He will +sweep them before His presence, as the north wind drives the locusts +into the hindermost sea. I do not know if any of you remember an +ancient Christian legend, and I do not know whether it is a legend or a +truth--it does not matter, it will serve for our purpose all the same +either way--how when the Emperor Julian, surnamed the Apostate, once +taunted a humble Christian man with the question, 'What is the +carpenter's son doing now?' and the answer was, 'Hewing wood for the +emperor's funeral pile,' and not very long after there came the fatal +field on which, according to ancient tradition, he died with the words +on his lips, 'Thou hast conquered, Galilean. As in Carlyle's grand +translation of Luther's Hymn of the Reformation-- + + 'Of our own strength we nothing can, + Full soon were we downridden; + But for us fights the proper Man, + Whom God Himself hath bidden. + Ask ye, who is the same? + Christ Jesus is His name, + The Lord Sabaoth's Son. + He and none other one + Shall conquer in this battle.' + +'Lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid.' + +III. I come to the last thought that emerges from these words, and that +is the substance and contents of the Evangelist Zion's message: 'Say +unto the cities of Judah, behold your God!' + +They were to be pointed to a great historical act, in which God had +manifested and made Himself visible to men; and the words of my text +are, not only an exclamation, but they are an entreaty, and the message +was to be given to these little daughter cities of Judah as +representing all of those for whom the deliverance had been +wrought--all which things are paralleled in the message that is +committed to our hand. + +For, first of all, we all have given to us the charge of pointing men +to the great historical fact wherein God is visible to men, and so +crying, 'Behold your God!' God cannot be revealed by word, God cannot +be revealed by thought. There is no way open to Him to make Himself +known to His creatures except the way by which men make themselves +known to one another; that is, by their deeds; and so, high above all +speculation, high above all abstraction, nearer to us than all thought +stands the historical fact in which God shows Himself to the world, and +that is the person and work of Jesus Christ, 'the brightness of His +glory and the express image of His person,' in whom the abysses of the +divine nature are opened, and through whom all the certitude of divine +light that human eyes can receive pours itself in genial and yet +intensest radiance upon the world. How beautiful in that connection the +verses following my text are I need only indicate in a word as I pass, +'Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand,' and yet, 'behold, He +shall feed His flock like a shepherd.' And so in Christ is the power of +God, for I take it that He is the arm of the Lord; and in Christ is the +gentleness of God; and whilst men grope in the darkness, our business +is to point to the living, dying Son, and to say, 'There you have the +complete, the ultimate revelation of the unseen God.' + +And do not let us forget that the burning centre of all that brightness +is the Cross, that ever-wondrous paradox; that the depth of humiliation +is the height of glorifying; that Christ's Cross is the throne of the +manifested divine power quite as much as it is the seat of the +manifested divine love, and that when He is hanging there in His +weakness and mortal agony, the words are yet true--strange, +paradoxical, blessedly true--'He that hath seen Me hath seen the +Father.' And when we say, pointing to His Cross and Him there, His brow +paled with dying, and His soul faint with loss--when we say, 'Behold +the Lamb!' we are also and therein saying, 'Behold your God!' + +And therefore, with what of gentleness, with what of tenderness, with +what of patient entreaty as well as strength and confidence, the word +that speaks of a strength manifested in weakness, and a God made +visible in Christ, should be spoken, it needs not here to enlarge +upon--only take that one last thought that I suggested, that this +message comes to all those for whom God has appeared, and for whom the +deliverance has been wrought. We each have the right, and we each have +the charge, to go to every man and say, 'Behold your God!' and the +hearts of men will leap up to meet the message. For, though overlaid by +sin, perverted often into its own opposite by fear, misinterpreted and +misunderstood by the very men that bear it, there yet lies deep in +every heart the aching thirst for the living God, and we have the word +that alone can meet that thirst. All around us men are saying--'In all +the fields of science and of nature, in human history and in the spirit +of men, I find no God,' and are falling back into that dreary negation, +'Behold, we know not anything!' And some of them, orphaned in their +agony, are crying, though it be often in contemptuous tones that almost +sound as if they meant the opposite, 'Oh, that I knew where I might +find Him!' We have a word that can meet that. For cultivated Europe it +has come to this--Christ or nothing; either He has shown us the Father, +or there is no knowledge of Him possible. We do not need to dread the +alternative; we can face it, and overcome it. And in far-off lands men +are groping in twilight uncertainty, worshipping, with a nameless +horror at their hearts, gods capricious, gods cruel, gods +terrible--tamely believing in gods far-off and mysterious, cowering +before gods careless and heartless, degrading their manhood by +imitating gods foul and bestial, and yet all the while dimly feeling, +'Surely, surely there is somewhere a good and a fair Being, that has an +eye to see my sorrows, and a heart to pity them; an ear to hear my +prayer, and a hand to stretch out.' We have a word that can meet that. +Let that word ring out, brother, as far as your influence can reach. +Set the trumpet to thy mouth, and say, 'Behold your God!' and be sure +that from the uttermost parts of the earth we shall hear the choral +songs of many voices answering, 'Lo! this is our God, we have waited +for Him, and He will save us! This is our God; we will be glad and +rejoice in His salvation!' + + + + +'HAVE YE NOT? HAST THOU NOT?' + +'Have ye not known, have ye not heard? hath it not been told yon from +the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the +earth?... Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard?'--ISAIAH xl. 21 and +28. + + +The recurrence of the same form of interrogation in these two verses is +remarkable. In the first case the plural is used, in the second the +singular, and we may reasonably conclude that as Israel is addressed in +the latter, the nations outside the sphere illumined by Revelation are +appealed to in the former. The context of the two passages confirms +this reference, for the witness of Creation and History is summoned in +the former section, and that of God's inward dealings with trustful +souls is brought out in the latter. + +I. What Nature and History tell men about God. + +Observe that emphatic '_told you_'; then the witness here appealed to +is truly a Revelation, though a silent one. 'There is no speech nor +language,' yet 'their line is gone out through all the earth, and their +words to the ends of the world.' + +The general idea of the divine nature, as revealed 'from the beginning' +and 'from the foundation of the earth,' is that of Majesty transcending +all comparison. + +The contrast is drawn between Him and men, in the magnificent image of +Him as throned above 'the circle of the earth,' and so far above that +all the busy tribes of men 'are as grasshoppers,' their restless +activity but aimless leaping, and 'the tumult of the peoples' only as a +meaningless chirping. + +God's creative and sustaining power is further set forth by that great +image of His 'stretching out the heavens as a curtain, and spreading +them out as a tent to dwell in.' As easily as travellers set up their +tents when the day's march is done, did He stretch the great expanse +above the low earth; and all its depths and spaces are, in comparison +with Him, thin, transient, and as easily rolled up and put aside as the +stuff that makes a nomad's home for a night. Nor are the two implied +thoughts that 'the heavens' are a veil screening Him from men even +while they tell of Him to men, and that they are His lofty +dwelling-place, to be left out of view. + +But in verse 26 we have a more specific and grander exhibition of God's +relation to the Universe. The stars, in number numberless, are +conceived of as a great army drilled and directed by Him. And that +metaphor, familiar to us as it is, and condensed into the divine title +so frequent in this prophetic book, is pregnant with great truths. + +It speaks of God as the Imperator, the Commander, exercising supreme +authority by 'the word of His power,' and of creation as obedient +thereto. 'For ever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in the heavens.' The +Commander needs but to speak, and so mystic is the power of His uttered +will, that effects on the material universe follow that altogether +immaterial energy. + +It speaks of the harmony and order of the whole Creation. 'By number' +and 'by name' He sways and ranks them. 'All things work together.' They +are an ordered whole--a kosmos, not a chaos. Modern science is slowly +establishing by experiment the truth which is enshrined in that old +name, 'the Lord of hosts,' that all things in the physical universe are +a unity. + +It speaks of the perfectness of God's knowledge of each item in the +mighty whole. 'He calleth them all by name.' Thereby are expressed +authority, ownership, particular knowledge of, and relation to, each +individual of the overwhelming aggregate. God knows all, because He +knows each. + +It speaks of the inexhaustible energy of His sustaining power, and the +consequent strength of His creatures. 'Preservation is a continued +creation.' The prophet saw much deeper than the mechanical view of the +creative act. To him God was, to use more modern language, 'immanent' +as well as 'transcendent.' True, He 'sits above the circle of the +earth,' but as truly He is working on His creatures, and it is by His +communicated strength that they are strong. If any being--star, or +insect--were separated utterly from Him, it would crumble into +nothingness. + +But the appeal to Creation is singularly interrupted by an appeal to +History. The prophet drops from the serene expanse of the silent yet +eloquent heavens to the stormy scenes of changing dynasties and +revolutions of earth's kingdoms. How calm the one, how tumultuous the +other! How the one witnesses to Him by its apparently unchanging +continuance! how the other witnesses by its swift mutations! In the +one, He is revealed as Preserver; in the other, the most clear +demonstration of His power is given in His destroying of rebel +kingdoms. But in these acts by which ancient and firmly rooted +dynasties are rooted up or withered as by the simoom, He reveals a side +of His nature to which the calm heavens bore no witness. He is the +moral Governor of the world, 'The history of the world is the judgment +of the world,' and when hoary iniquities are smitten to death, 'the +Holy One' is revealed as the righteous Judge. And the conjoint witness +of creation and of history attests that none can be 'likened' to Him. + +II. What Revelation tells Israel about God. + +It is noteworthy that in the section of which our first text is the +centre, there is no mention of the divine Name, and even the well-known +title, 'the Holy One of Israel,' is truncated, so as to leave out +reference to the people of Revelation; whereas in this section He is +not only designated as God and Creator, but as Jehovah, the God who has +made a covenant with Israel, and made known His will and to some extent +His nature. The distinct climax in the divine Names itself implies a +nobler relation to men, and a clearer revelation than was declared in +the former part of this prophecy. It is the fitting preparation for the +loftier and infinitely more tender and touching aspect of the divine +nature which shines with lambent, inviting lustre within the sphere of +Revelation. + +The distinctive glory of the long process of God's self-manifestation +to Israel is that, while it emphasises all that nature and history +affirm of Him, it sets Him forth as restoring the weak, as well as +sustaining the strong. The sad contrast between the untroubled and +unwearied strength of the calm heavens and the soon-exhausted strength +of struggling and often beaten men strikes the poet prophet's sensitive +soul. He did not know, what modern astronomy teaches us, that change, +convulsions, ruin, are not confined to earth, but that stars as well as +men faint and fail, dwindle and die. The scriptural view of Nature is +not that of the scientist, but that of the poet and of the devout man. +It lies quite apart from the scientific attitude, and has as good a +right to exist as it has. The contrast of heaven and earth is for the +prophet the contrast of strength with weakness, of joyful harmony with +moral disorder, of punctual, entire obedience with rebellion and the +clash of multitudes of anarchic self-willed men. + +But there is a sadder contrast still--namely, that between God and the +wretched weaklings that men have made of themselves. 'He fainteth not, +neither is weary.' Strange anomaly that in His universe there should be +the faint and 'them that have no might'! The only explanation of such +an exception to the order of Creation is that men have broken loose +from Creation's dependence on God, and that therefore the inflow of +sustaining strength has been checked. In other words, man's weakness +comes from man's sin. + +Hence to restore strength to those whose power has been drained away by +sin is God's divinest work. It is more to restore than to sustain. It +takes less energy to keep a weight stationary at a height than to roll +it up again if it falls to the bottom. Since sin is the cause of our +weakness, the first step to deliver from the weakness is to deliver +from the sin. If we are ever to be restored, hearts, consciences, +averted wills must be dealt with--and but One Hand can deal with these. + +And not only does God outdo all His mightiest works in the work of +restoring strength to the faint, but He crowns that restoration by +making the restored weakling like Himself. 'He fainteth not, neither is +weary.' They, too, 'shall ran and not be weary, they shall walk and not +faint.' In the long drawn out grind of monotonous marching along the +common path of daily small duties and uneventful life, they shall not +faint; in the rare occasional spurts, occurring in every man's +experience, when extraordinary tax is laid on heart and limbs, they +shall not be weary. And they will be able both to walk and to run, +because they soar on wings as eagles. And they do all because they wait +on the Lord. Communion with Him buoys us above this low earth, and +bears us up into the heavenly places, and, living there, we shall be +fit for the slow hours of commonplace plodding and for the crowded +moments of great crises. + + + + +UNFAILING STABS AND FAINTING MEN + +'...For that He is strong in power; not one faileth.... He giveth power +to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth +strength.'--ISAIAH xl. 26 and 29. + + +These two verses set forth two widely different operations of the +divine power as exercised in two sadly different fields, the starry +heavens and this weary world. They are interlocked, as it were, by the +recurrence in the latter of the emphatic words of the former. The one +verse says, 'He is strong in power'; the other, 'He giveth power.' In +the former verse, 'the greatness of His might' sustains the stars; in +the latter verse, a still diviner operation is set forth in that 'to +them that have no might He increaseth strength.' Thus there are three +contrasts suggested: that between unfailing stars, and men that faint; +that between the unwearied God and wearied men; and that between the +sustaining power that is exercised in the heavens and the restoring +power that is manifested on earth. + +There is another interlocking between the latter of these two texts and +its context, which is indicated by a similar recurrence of epithets. In +my second text we read of the 'faint,' and in the verse that follows +it, again we find the expressions 'faint' and 'weary,' while in the +verse before my text we read that 'the Lord fainteth not, neither is +weary.' So again the contrast between Him and us is set forth, but, in +the verse that closes the chapter, we read how that contrast merges +into likeness, inasmuch as the unfainting and unwearied God makes even +the men that wait upon Him unwearied and unfainting. Here, then, we +have lessons that we may well ponder. + +Note, first-- + +I. That sad contrast. + +The prophet in the former of these verses seems to be expanding the +thoughts that lie in the name, 'the Lord of hosts,' in so far as that +name expresses the divine relation to the starry universe. The image +that underlies both it and the words of the text is that of a captain +who commands his soldiers, and they obey. Discipline and plan array +them in their ranks; they are not a mob, but an army. The voice that +reads the roll-call summons one after another to his place, and, +punctually obedient, there they stand, ready for any evolution that may +be prescribed. The plain prose of which is, that night by night above +the horizon rise the bright orbs, and roll on their path obedient to +the Sovereign will; 'because He is strong in might not one' is lacking. +Astronomers have taught us, what the prophet did not know, that even in +the apparently serene spaces there are collisions and catastrophes, and +that stars may dwindle and dim, and finally go out. But while Scripture +deals with creation neither from the scientific nor from the aesthetic +point of view, it leaves room for both of these--for all that the +poet's imagination can see or say, for all that the scientist's +investigation can discover, it sees that beneath the beauty is the +Fountain of all loveliness, beneath and behind the 'number' of the +numberless stars works the infinite will of God. Surely an intelligible +creation must have an intelligent source. Surely a universe in which +Mind can apprehend order and number must have a Mind at the back of it. +Wordsworth has nobly said of Duty what we may more truly say of God: +'Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong, And the most ancient heavens +through Thee are fresh and strong.' 'For that He is great in might, not +one faileth.' Scripture bids us think of God, not as a creative energy +that set the universe in motion, and leaves it to roll or spin, but as +of a Divine Presence--to use a word which can only be in a very +modified sense applied to that mysterious, intelligent +Entity--operating in, and being the sustaining Cause of, all that is. +This Divine Presence stamps its signature on the unfailing strength of +these bright creatures above. + +But in our second text we drop from the illumination of the heavens to +the shadowed plain of this low earth. It is as if a man, looking up +into the violet sky, with all its shining orbs, should then turn to +some reeking alley, with its tumult and its squalor. Just because man +is greater than the stars, man 'fails,' whilst they shine on unwearied. +For what the prophet has in view as the clinging curse that cleaves to +our greatness, is not merely the bodily fatigue which is necessarily +involved in the very fact of bodily existence, since energy cannot be +put forth without waste and weariness, but it is far more the weary +heart, the heart that is weary of itself, the heart that is weary of +toil, the heart that is weary of the momentary crises that demand +effort, and wearier still of the effortless monotony of our daily +lives; the heart that all of us carry, and which to all of us sometimes +whispers, with a dark and gloomy voice which we cannot contradict, +'Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.' I was going to say, happy are you +if you do not know that weariness, but I check myself and say, tenfold +more miserable are you if you have never been sober and wise enough to +have felt the weariness and weight of all this unintelligible world, +and of your own sorry selves. + +For it is ever to be remembered that the faintness and the ebbing away +of might, which is the truly tragic thing in humanity, does not depend +upon physical constitution, but upon separation from the Source of all +strength, breaking the union between ourselves and God. If a star could +shake off its dependence, and shut out the influx of the sustaining +power that by continual creation preserves it, it would die into +darkness, or crumble into dust. It cannot, and we cannot, in so far as +our physical being is concerned, but we can shake ourselves free from +God, in so far as the life of the spirit is concerned, and the godless +spirit bears the Cain-curse of restlessness and weariness ever upon it. +So the contrast between the unfailing strengths that ever shine down +upon us from the heavens, and the weariness of body and of mind +afflicting the sleeping millions on whom they shine, is tragical +indeed. But far more tragical is the contrast, of which the other is +but an indication because it is a consequence, the contrast between the +punctual obedience with which these hosts, summoned by the great +Commander, appear and take their places, and the self-will which turns +a man into a 'wandering star unto whom is reserved the blackness of +darkness for ever.' Above is peace and order, because above is the +supremacy of an uncontested will. Below is tumult and weariness, +because when God says 'Thou shalt,' men respond, 'I will not.' + +Secondly, my text suggests to us-- + +II. Another sad contrast, melting into a blessed likeness. + +'He fainteth not, neither is weary.' 'He giveth power to the faint.' +'Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall +utterly fail,' but waiting on God the curse removes, and faintness and +weariness cease, and the humble man becomes in some measure participant +of, and conformed to, that life which knows no exhausting, operates +unspent, burns with an undying flame, works and never wearies. We may +take to ourselves all the peace and strength that come from that +transcendent hope, whilst we are still subject, as of course we must +be, to the limitations imposed on spirits fettered, as well as housed, +in body. Whilst toil leaves as its consequence fatigue, and as our days +increase our strength wanes; whilst physical weariness remains +unaffected, there may pour into our spirits the influx of divine power, +by which they will remain fresh and strong through advancing years and +heavy tasks and stiff battles. Is it not something to believe it +possible that + + 'In old age, when others fade, + _We_ fruit still forth shall bring' + +Is it not something to know it as a possibility that we may have that +within us which has no tendency to decay, which neither perishes with +the using nor is exhausted by exercise, which grows the more the longer +we live, which has in it the pledge of immortality, because it has in +it the impossibility of exhaustion? Thus to all of us who know how +weary life sometimes is, thus to those of us who in the flush of our +youth are deceived into thinking that the vigorous limbs will always be +vigorous, and the clear eyesight will always be keen, and to those of +us who, in the long weary levels of middle life, where there are few +changes, are worn out by the eventless recurrence, day after day, of +duties that have become burdensome, because they are so small, and to +those of us who are learning by experience how inevitably early +strength utterly fails; to us all surely it comes us a gospel, 'They +that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall run and +not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.' It is true; and each of +us may set to our seals, if we will, that the promise is faithful and +sure. + +Is that not a higher exercise of power than to 'preserve the stars from +wrong'? Is not the strength that restores mightier than the strength +that sustains? Is not the hand that, put beneath the falling body, +stops its plunge, and lifts it whence it fell, displaying a greater +manifestation of strength, than the hand that held it unfailing at the +height? The mighty miracle of the calm, steadfast heavens, with no +vacant spaces where yesterday a star blazed, is less than the miracle +of that restoring energy which, coming to men separated from the +Fountain of power, re-establishes the connection between them, and out +of the fainting creature makes one that is neither faint nor weary for +ever. God is greater, in the miracle that He works upon you and me, +poor strengthless souls, than when He rolls the stars along. Redemption +is more than Creation, and to the hosts of 'the principalities and +powers in heavenly places, is made known,' by the Church, 'of restored +and redeemed souls, the manifold wisdom of God.' + +What are the consequences that the prophet traces to this restoring +power? 'They shall mount up with wings as eagles.' Power to soar, to +lift our heavy selves from earth, and to reach the heavenly places +where we shall commune with God, that is the greatest of all gifts to +strengthened spirits. And it is the foundation of all the others, for +it is only they who know how to soar that can creep, and it is only +they who have renewed their strength hour by hour, by communion with +the Source of all energy and might, who when they 'drop with quivering +wings, composed and still,' down to the low earth, there live unwearied +and unfainting. + +'They shall run and not be weary.' Crises come--moments when +circumstances demand from us more than ordinary energy and swifter rate +of progress. We have often, in the course of our years, to make short +spurts of unusual effort. 'They shall run and not be weary. They shall +walk.' The bulk of our lives is a slow jog-trot, and it is harder to +keep elasticity, buoyancy, freshness of spirit, in the eventless +mill-horse round of our trivial lives than it is in the rarer bursts. +Excitement helps us in the one; nothing but dogged principle, and close +communion with God, 'mounting on wings as eagles,' will help us in the +other. But we may have Him with us in all the arid and featureless +levels across which we have to plod, as well as in the height to which +we sometimes have to struggle upwards, or in the depths into which we +have sometimes to plunge. If we have the life of Christ within us, then +neither the one nor the other will exhaust our energy or darken our +spirits. + +Lastly, one word as to-- + +III. The way by which these contrasts can be reconciled, and this +likeness secured. + +'They that wait upon the Lord'--that is the whole secret. What does +waiting on the Lord include? Let me put it in three brief exhortations. +Keep near Him; keep still; expect. If I stray away from Him, I cannot +expect His power to come to me. If I fling myself about, in vain +impatience, struggling, resisting providences, shirking duties, +perturbing my soul, I cannot expect that the peace which brings +strength, or the strength which brings peace, will come to me. It must +be a windless sea that mirrors the sunshine and the blue, and the +troubled heart has not God's strength in it. If I do not expect to get +anything from Him, He will not give me anything; not because He will +not, but because He cannot. Take the old Psalmist's words, 'I have +quieted myself as a weaned child,' and nestle on the great bosom, and +its warmth, its fragrance, its serenity will be granted to you. Keep +hold of God's hand in expectation, in submission, in close union, and +the contact will communicate something of His own power. 'In quietness +and in confidence shall be your strength.' The bitter contrasts may all +be harmonised, and the miraculous assimilation of humanity to divinity +may, in growing measure according to our faith, be realised in us. And +though we must still bear the limitations of our present corporeal +condition, and though life's tasks must still oftentimes be felt by us +as toils, and life's burdens as too burdensome for our feeble +shoulders, yet we shall be held up. 'As thy day so shall thy strength +be,' and at last, when we mount up further than eagle's wings have ever +soared, and look down upon the stars that are 'rolled together as a +scroll,' we shall through eternal ages 'run and not be weary' and 'walk +and not faint.' + + + + +THE SECRET OF IMMORTAL YOUTH + +'Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall +utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their +strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and +not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.'--ISAIAH xl. 30, 31. + + +I remember a sunset at sea, where the bosom of each wavelet that +fronted the west was aglow with fiery gold, and the back of each turned +eastward was cold green; so that, looking on the one hand all was +glory, and on the other all was sober melancholy. So differently does +life look to you young people and to us older ones. Every man must buy +his own experience for himself, and no preaching nor talking will ever +make you see life as we see it. It is neither possible nor desirable +that you should; but it is both possible and most desirable that you +should open your eyes to plain, grave facts, which do not at all depend +on our way of looking at things, and that if they be ascertainable, as +they are, you should let them shape your lives. + +Here are a couple of facts in my text which I ask you to look steadily +in the face, and to take account of them, because, if you do so now, it +may save you an immense deal of disappointment and sorrow in the days +that are to come. You have the priceless prerogative still in your +hands of determining what that future is to be; but you will never use +that power rightly if you are guided by illusions, or if, unguided by +anything but inclination, you let things drift, and do as you like. + +So, then, my object is simply to deal with these two forecasts which my +text presents; the one a dreary certainty of weariness and decay, the +other a blessed possibility of inexhaustible and incorruptible strength +and youth, and on the contrast to build as earnest an appeal to you as +I can make. + +I. Now, then, look at the first fact here, that of the dreary certainty +of weariness and decay. + +I do not need to spend much time in talking about that. It is one of +the commonplaces which are so familiar that they have lost all power of +impression, and can only be rescued from their trivial insignificance +by being brought into immediate connection with our own experience. If, +instead of the toothless generality, 'the youths shall faint and be +weary,' I could get you young people to say, '_I--I_ shall faint and be +weary, and, as sure as I am living, I shall lose what makes to me the +very joy of life at this moment,' I should not have preached in vain. + +Of course the words of my text point to the plain fact that all created +and physical life, by the very law of its being, in the act of living +tends to death; and by the very operation of its strength tends to +exhaustion. There are three stages in every creature's life--that of +growth, that of equilibrium, that of decay. You are in the first. If +you live, it is as certain as fate that you will come to the second and +the third. _Your_ 'eyes will grow dim,' _your_ 'natural force' will be +'abated,' _your_ body will become a burden, _your_ years that are full +of buoyancy will be changed for years of heaviness and weariness, +strength will decay, 'and the young men'--that is _you_--'shall utterly +fall.' + +And the text points also to another fact, that, long before your +natural life shall have begun to tend towards decay, hard work and +occasional sorrows and responsibilities and burdens of all sorts will +very often make you wearied and ready to faint. In your early days you +dream of life as a kind of enchanted garden, full of all manner of +delights; and you stand at the threshold with eager eyes and +outstretched hands. Ah! dear young friend, long before you have +traversed the length of one of its walks, you will often have been sick +and tired of the whole thing, and weary of what is laid upon you. + +My text points to another fact, as certain as gravitation, that the +faintness and weariness and decay of the bodily strength will be +accompanied with a parallel change in your feelings. We are drawn +onward by hopes, and when we get them fulfilled we find that they are +disappointing. Custom, which weighs upon us 'heavy as frost, and deep +almost as life,' takes the edge off everything that is delightsome, +though it does not so completely take away the pain of things that are +burdensome and painful. Men travel from a tinted morning into the sober +light of common day, and with failing faculties and shattered illusions +and dissipated hopes, and powers bending under the long monotony of +middle life, most of them live. Now all that is the veriest threadbare +morality, and I dare say while I have been speaking, some of you have +been thinking that I am repeating platitudes that every old woman could +preach. So I am. That is to say, I am trying to put into feeble words +the universal human experience. That is your experience, and what I +want to get you to think about now is that, as sure as you are living +and rejoicing in your youth and strength, this is the fate that is +awaiting you--'the youths shall faint and be weary, and shall utterly +fall.' + +Well, then, one question: Do you not think that, if that is so, it +would be as well to face it? Do you not think that a wise man would +take account of all the elements in forecasting his life and would +shape his conduct accordingly? If there be something certain to come, +it is a very questionable piece of wisdom to make that the thing which +we are most unwilling to think about. I do not want to be a kill-joy; I +do not want to take anything out of the happy buoyancy of youth. I +would say, as even that cynical, bitter Ecclesiastes says, 'Rejoice, O +young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of +thy youth.' By all means; only take all the facts into account, and if +you have joys which shrivel up at the touch of this thought, then the +sooner you get rid of such joys the better. If your gladness depends +upon your forcibly shutting your eyes to what is inevitably certain to +come about, do you not think that you are living in a fool's paradise +that you had better get out of as soon as possible? There is the fact. +Will you be a wise and brave man and front it, and settle how you are +going to deal with it, or will you let it hang there on your horizon, a +thunder-cloud that you do not like to look at, and that you are all the +more unwilling to entertain the thought of, because you are so sure +that it will burst in storm? Lay this, then, to heart, though it is a +dreary certainty, that weariness and decay are sure to be your fate. + +II. Now turn, in the next place, to the blessed opposite possibility of +inexhaustible and immortal strength. 'They that wait upon the Lord +shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; +they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.' The +life of nature tends inevitably downward, but there may be another life +within the life of nature, which shall have the opposite motion, and +tend as certainly upwards. 'The youths shall faint and be +weary'--whether they be Christians or not, the law of decay and fatigue +will act upon them; but there may be that within each of us, if we +will, which shall resist that law, and have no proclivity whatsoever to +extinction in its blaze, to death in its life, to weariness in its +effort, and shall be replenished and not exhausted by expenditure. +'They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength,' and, in all +forms of motion possible to a creature they shall expatiate and never +tire. So let us look on this blessed possibility a little more closely. + +Note, then, how to get at it. 'They that wait upon the Lord' is Old +Testament dialect for what in New Testament phraseology is meant by +'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.' For the notion expressed here by +'waiting' is that of expectant dependence, and the New Testament +'faith' is the very same in its attitude of expectant dependence, while +the object of the Old Testament 'waiting,' Jehovah, is identical with +the object of the New Testament faith, which fastens on God manifest in +the flesh, the Man Jesus Christ. + +Therefore, I am not diverting the language of my text from its true +meaning, but simply opening its depth, when I say that the condition of +the inflow of this unwearied and immortal life into our poor, fainting, +dying humanity is simply the trust in Jesus Christ the Redeemer of our +souls. True, the revelation has advanced; the contents of that which we +grasp are more developed and articulate, blessed be God! True, we know +more about Jehovah, when we see Him in Jesus Christ, than Isaiah did. +True, we have to trust in Him as dying on the Cross for our salvation +and as the pattern and example in His humanity of all nobleness and +beauty of life for young or old, but the Christ is the 'same yesterday, +and to-day, and for ever.' And the faith that knit the furthest back of +the saints of old to the Jehovah, whom they dimly knew, is in essence +identical with the faith that binds my poor sinful heart to the Christ +that died and that lives for my redemption and salvation. So, dear +brethren, here is the simple old message for each of you, young or old. +No matter where we stand on the course of life, there may come into our +hearts a Divine Indweller, who laughs at weariness and knows nothing of +decay; and He will come if, as sinful men, we turn ourselves to that +dear Lord, who fainted and was weary many a time in His humanity, and +who now lives, the 'strong Son of God, immortal love,' to make us +partakers in His immortality and His strength. The way, then, by which +we get this divine gift is by faith in Jesus Christ, which is the +expansion, as it was the root, of trust in Jehovah. + +Further, what is this strength that we thus get, if we will, by faith? +It is the true entrance into our souls of a divine life. God in His Son +will come to us, according to His own gracious and profound promise: +'If any man open the door I will enter in.' He will come into our +hearts and abide there. He will give to us a life derived from, and +therefore, kindred with, His own. And in that connection it is very +striking to notice how the prophet, in the context, reiterates these +two words, _'fainteth_ not, neither is _weary._' He begins by speaking +of 'God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, who fainteth +not, neither is weary.' He passes on to speak of His gift of power to +the faint. He returns to the contrast between the Creator's +incorruptible strength and the fleeting power of the strongest and +youngest. And then he crowns all with the thought that the same +characteristics will mark them in whom the unwearied God dwells, as +mark Him. We too, like Him, if we have Christ in our hearts by faith, +will share, in some fashion and degree, in His wondrous prerogative of +unwearied strength. + +So, brethren, here is the promise. God will give Himself to you, and in +the very heart of your decaying nature will plant the seed of an +immortal being which shall, like His own, shake off fatigue from the +limbs, and never tend to dissolution or an end. The life of nature dies +by living; the life of grace, which may belong to us all, lives by +living, and lives evermore thereby. And so that life is continuous and +progressive, with no tendency to decay, nor term to its being. 'The +path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more,' +until it riseth to the zenith of the noontide of the day. Each of you, +looking forward to the certain ebbing away of creatural power, to the +certain changes that will pass upon you, may say, 'I know that I shall +have to leave behind me my present youthful strength, my unworn +freshness, my buoyancy, my confidence, my wonder, my hope; but I shall +carry my Christ; and in Him I shall possess the secret of an immortal +youth.' + +The oldest angels are the youngest. The longer men live in fellowship +with Christ, the stronger do they grow. And though our lives, whether +we are Christians or no, are necessarily subject to the common laws of +mortality, we may carry all that is worth preserving of the earliest +stages into the latest; and when grey hairs are upon us, and we are +living next door to our graves, we may still have the enthusiasm, the +energy, and above all, the boundless hopefulness that made the gladness +and the spring of our long-buried youth. 'They shall still bring forth +fruit in old age.' 'The youths shall faint and be weary, but they that +wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.' + +There is one more point to touch, and then I have done, and that is the +manner in which this immortal strength is exercised. The latter clauses +of my text give us, so to speak, three forms of motion. 'They shall +mount up with wings as eagles.' Some good commentators find in this a +parallel to the words in the 103rd Psalm, 'My youth is renewed like the +eagle's,' and propose to translate it in this fashion, 'They shall cast +their plumage like the eagle.' But it seems much more in accordance +with the context and the language to adopt substantially the reading of +our English version here, or to make the slight change, 'They shall +lift up their wings as the eagle,' implying, of course, the steady +upward flight towards the light of heaven. + +So, then, there are three forms of unwearied strength lying ready for +you, young men and women, to take for your very own if you like: +strength to soar, strength to run, strength to walk. + +There is strength to soar. Old men generally shed their wings, and can +only manage to crawl. They have done with romance. Enthusiasms are +dead. Sometimes they cynically smile at their own past selves and their +dreams. And it is a bad sign when an old man does that. But for the +most part they are content, unless they have got Christ in their +hearts, to keep along the low levels, and their soaring days are done. +But if you and I have Jesus Christ for the life of our spirits, as +certainly as fire sends its shooting tongues upwards, so certainly +shall we rise above the sorrows and sins and cares of this 'dim spot +which men call earth,' and find an ampler field for buoyant motion high +up in communion with God. Strength to soar means the gracious power of +bringing all heaven into our grasp, and setting our affections on +things above. As the night falls, and joys become fewer and life +sterner, and hopes become rarer and more doubtful, it is something to +feel that, however straitened may be the ground below, there is plenty +of room above, and that, though we are strangers upon earth, we can +lift our thoughts yonder. If there be darkness here, still we can +'outsoar the shadow of our night,' and live close to the sun in +fellowship with God. Dear brethren, life on earth were too wretched +unless it were possible to 'mount up with wings as eagles.' + +Again, you may have strength to run--that is to say, there is power +waiting for you for all the great crises of your lives which call for +special, though it may be brief, exertion. Such crises will come to +each of you, in sorrow, work, difficulty, hard conflicts. Moments will +be sprung upon you without warning, in which you will feel that years +hang on the issue of an instant. Great tasks will be clashed down +before you unexpectedly which will demand the gathering together of all +your power. And there is only one way to be ready for such times as +these, and that is to live waiting on the Lord, near Christ, with Him +in your hearts, and then nothing will come that will be too hard for +you. However rough the road, and however severe the struggle, and +however swift the pace, you will be able to keep it up. Though it may +be with panting lungs and a throbbing heart, and dim eyes and quivering +muscles, yet if you wait on the Lord you will run and not be weary. You +will be masters of the crises. + +Strength to walk may be yours--that is to say, patient power for +persistent pursuit of weary, monotonous duty. That is the hardest, and +so it is named last. Many a man finds it easy, under the pressure of +strong excitement, and for a moment or two, to keep up a swift pace, +who finds it very difficult to keep steadily at unexciting work. And +yet there is nothing to be done except by doggedly plodding along the +dusty road of trivial duties, unhelped by excitement and unwearied by +monotony. Only one thing will conquer the disgust at the wearisome +round of mill-horse tasks which, sooner or later, seizes all godless +men, and that is to bring the great principles of the gospel to bear on +them, and to do them in the might and for the sake of the dear Lord. +'They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk' along life's common +way in cheerful godliness, 'and they shall not faint.' + +Dear friends, life to us all is, and must be, full of sorrow and of +effort. Constant work and frequent sorrows wear us all out, and bring +us many a time to the verge of fainting. I beseech you to begin right, +and not to add to the other occasions for weariness that of having to +retrace, with remorseful heart and ashamed feet, the paths of evil on +which you have run. Begin right, which is to say, begin with Christ and +take Him for inspiration, for pattern, for guide, for companion. 'Run +with patience the race set before you, looking unto Jesus the author of +your faith, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.' + +And if you have Him in your hearts, then, however your creatural power +may grow weary, yet because He is with you, 'your shoes shall be iron +and brass, and as your days so shall your strength be,' and you may +lift up in your turn the glad, triumphant acknowledgment: 'For this +cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, our inward man +is renewed day by day.' + +God bless you all and make that your experience! + + + + +CHRIST THE ARRESTER OF INCIPIENT EVIL AND THE NOURISHER OF INCIPIENT +GOOD + +'A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not +quench.... He shall not fail nor be discouraged.'--ISAIAH xlii. 3, 4. + + +The two metaphors which we have in the former part of these words are +not altogether parallel. 'A bruised reed' has suffered an injury which, +however, is neither complete nor irreparable. 'Smoking flax,' on the +other hand--by which, of course, is meant flax used as a wick in an +old-fashioned oil lamp--is partially lit. In the one a process has been +begun which, if continued, ends in destruction; in the other, a process +has been begun which, if continued, ends in a bright flame. So the one +metaphor may refer to the beginnings of evil which may still be +averted, and the other the beginnings of incipient and incomplete good. +If we keep this distinction in mind, the words of our text gain +wonderfully in comprehensiveness. + +Then again, it is to be noticed that in the last words of our text, +which are separated from the former by a clause which we omit, we have +an echo of these metaphors. The word translated 'fail' is the same as +that rendered in the previous verse 'smoking,' or 'dimly burning'; and +the word 'discouraged' is the same as that rendered in the previous +verse 'bruised.' So then, this 'Servant of the Lord,' who is not to +break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax, is fitted for His +work, because He Himself has no share in the evils which He would heal, +and none in the weaknesses which He would strengthen. His perfect +manhood knows no flaws nor bruises; His complete goodness is capable of +and needs no increase. Neither outward force nor inward weakness can +hinder His power to heal and bless; therefore His work can never cease +till it has attained its ultimate purpose. 'He shall not fail nor be +discouraged'; shall neither be broken by outward violence, nor shall +the flame of His fading energy burn faint until He hath 'set judgment +in the earth,' and crowned His purposes with complete success. + +We have, then, here set before us three significant representations of +the servant of the Lord, which may well commend Him to our confidence +and our love. I shall not spend any time in answering the question: Of +whom speaketh the prophet this? The answer is plain for us. He speaks +of the personal Servant of the Lord, and the personal Servant of the +Lord is Jesus Christ our Saviour. I ask you then to come with me while +I deal, as simply as may be, with these three ideas that lie before us +in this great prophecy. + +I. Consider then, first, the representation of the Servant of the Lord +as the arrester of incipient ruin. + +'He shall not break the bruised reed.' Here is the picture--a slender +bulrush, growing by the margin of some tarn or pond; its sides crushed +and dented in by some outward power, a gust of wind, a sudden blow, the +foot of a passing animal. The head is hanging by a thread, but it is +not yet snapped or broken off from the stem. + +But, blessed be God! there emerges from the metaphor not only the +solemn thought of the bruises by sin that all men bear, but the other +blessed one, that there is no man so bruised as that he is broken; none +so injured as that restoration is impossible, no depravity so total but +that it may be healed, none so far off but that he may be brought nigh. +On no man has sin fastened its venomous claws so deeply but that these +may be wrenched away. In none of us has the virus so gone through our +veins but that it is capable of being expelled. The reeds are all +bruised, the reeds are none of them broken. And so my text comes with +its great triumphant hopefulness, and gathers into one mass as capable +of restoration the most abject, the most worthless, the most ignorant, +the most sensuous, the most godless, the most Christ-hating of the +race. Jesus looks on all the tremendous bulk of a world's sins with the +confidence that He can move that mountain and cast it into the depths +of the sea. + +There is a man in Paris that says he has found a cure for that horrible +disease of hydrophobia, and who therefore regards the poor sufferers of +whom others despair as not beyond the reach of hope. Christ looks upon +a world of men smitten with madness, and in whose breasts awful poison +is working, with the calm confidence that He carries in His hand an +elixir, one drop of which inoculated into the veins of the furious +patient will save him from death, and make him whole. 'The blood of +Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.' 'He will not break,' and that +means He will restore, 'the bruised reed.' There are no hopeless +outcasts. None of you are beyond the reach of a Saviour's love, a +Saviour's blood, a Saviour's healing. + +But then the words in my text may be taken in a somewhat narrower +sense, applying more particularly to a class. In accordance with other +metaphors of Scripture, we may think of 'the bruised reed' as +expressive of the condition of men whose hearts have been crushed by +the consciousness of their sins. 'The broken and the contrite heart,' +bruised and pulverised, as it were, by a sense of evil, may be typified +for us by this bruised reed. And then from the words of my text there +emerges the great and blessed hope that such a heart, wholesomely +removed from its self-complacent fancy of soundness, shall certainly be +healed and bound up by His tender hand. Did you ever see a gardener +dealing with some plant, a spray of which may have been wounded? How +delicately and tenderly the big, clumsy hand busies itself about the +tiny spray, and by stays and bandages brings it into an erect position, +and then gives it water and loving care. Just so does Jesus Christ deal +with the conscious and sensitive heart of a man who has begun to find +out how bad he is, and has been driven away from all his foolish +confidence. Christ comes to such an one and restores him, and just +because he is crushed deals with him gently, pouring in His +consolation. Wheresoever there is a touch of penitence, there is +present a restoring Christ. + +And the words may be looked at from yet another point of view. We may +think of them as representing to us the merciful dealing of the Master +with the spirits which are beaten and bruised, sore and wounded, by +sorrows and calamities; to whom the Christ comes in all the tenderness +of His gentleness, and lays a hand upon them--the only hand in all the +universe that can touch a bleeding heart without hurting it. + +Brother and sister suffering from any sorrow, and bleeding from any +wound, there is a balm and a physician. There is one hand that will +never be laid with blundering kindness or with harshness upon our sore +hearts, but whose touch will be healing, and whose presence will be +peace. + +The Christ who knows our sins and sorrows will not break the bruised +reed. The whole race of man may be represented in that parable that +came from His own lips, as fallen among thieves that have robbed him +and wounded him and left him bruised, but, blessed be God! only 'half +dead'; sorely wounded, indeed, but not so sorely but that he may be +restored. And there comes One with the wine and the oil, and pours them +into the wounds. 'The bruised reed shall He not break.' + +II. Now, in the next place, look at the completing thought that is +here, in the second clause, which represents Christ as the fosterer of +incipient and imperfect good. + +'The dimly-burning wick He shall not quench.' A process, as I have +said, is begun in the smoking flax, which only needs to be carried on +to lead to a brilliant flame. That represents for us not the beginnings +of a not irreparable evil, but the commencement of very dim and +imperfect good. Now, then, who are represented by this 'smoking flax'? +You will not misunderstand me, nor think that I am contradicting what I +have already been saying, if I claim for this second metaphor as wide a +universality as the former, and say that in all men, just because the +process of evil and the wounds from it are not so deep and complete as +that restoration is impossible, therefore is there something in their +nature which corresponds to this dim flame that needs to be fostered in +order to blaze brightly abroad. There is no man out of hell but has in +him something that needs but to be brought to sovereign power in his +life in order to make him a light in the world. You have consciences at +the least; you have convictions, you know you have, which if you +followed them out would make Christians of you straight away. You have +aspirations after good, desires, some of you, after purity and +nobleness of living, which only need to be raised to the height and the +dominance in your lives which they ought to possess, in order to +revolutionise your whole course. There is a spark in every man which, +fanned and cared for, will change him from darkness into light. Fanned +and cared for it needs to be, and fanned and cared for it can only be +by a divine power coming down upon it from without. This second +metaphor of my text, as truly as the other, belongs to every soul of +man upon the earth. He from whom all sparks and light have died out is +not a man but a devil. And for all of us the exhortation comes: 'Thou +hast a voice within testifying to God and to duty'; listen to it and +care for it. + +Then again, dear brethren, in a narrower way, the words may be applied +to a class. There are some of us who have in us a little spark, as we +believe, of a divine life, the faint beginnings of a Christian +character. We call ourselves Christ's disciples. We are; but oh! how +dimly the flax burns. They say that where there is smoke there is fire. +There is a great deal more smoke than fire in the most of Christian +people in this generation, and if it were not for such thoughts as this +of my text about that dear Christ who will not lay a hasty hand upon +some little tremulous spark, and by one rash movement extinguish it for +ever, there would be but small hope for a great many of us. + +Whether, then, the dimly-burning wick be taken to symbolise the +lingering remains of a better nature which still abides with all sinful +men, yet capable of redemption, or whether it be taken to mean the low +and imperfect and inconsistent and feeble Christianity of us professing +Christians, the words of my text are equally blessed and equally true. +Christ will neither despise, nor so bring down His hand upon it as to +extinguish, the feeblest spark. Look at His life on earth, think how He +bore with those blundering, foolish, selfish disciples of His; how +patient the divine Teacher was with their slow learning of His meaning +and catching of His character. Remember how, when a man came to Him +with a very imperfect goodness, the Evangelist tells us that Jesus, +beholding him, loved him. And take out of these blessed stories this +great hope, that howsoever small men 'despise the day of small things,' +the Greatest does not; and howsoever men may say 'Such a little spark +can never be kindled into flame, the fire is out, you may as well let +it alone,' He never says that, but by patient teaching and fostering +and continual care and wise treatment will nourish and nurture it until +it leaps into a blaze. + +How do you make 'smoking flax' burn? You give it oil, you give it air, +and you take away the charred portions. And Christ will give you, in +your feebleness, the oil of His Spirit, that you may burn brightly as +one of the candlesticks in His Temple; and He will let air in, and +sometimes take away the charred portions by the wise discipline of +sorrow and trial, in order that the smoking flax may become a shining +light. But by whatsoever means He may work, be sure of this, that He +will neither despise nor neglect the feeblest inclination of good after +Him, but will nourish it to perfection and to beauty. + +The reason why so many Christian men's Christian light is so fuliginous +and dim is just that they keep away from Jesus Christ. 'Abide in Me and +I in you.' 'As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide +in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in Me.' How can the Temple +lamps burn bright unless the Priest of the Temple tends them? Keep near +Him that His hand may nourish your smoking dimness into a pure flame, +leaping heavenward and illuminating your lives. + +III. And now, lastly, we have here the representation of the servant of +the Lord's exemption from human evil and weakness, as the foundation of +His restoring and fostering work. + +'He shall not burn dimly nor be broken till He hath set judgment in the +earth.' There are no bruises in this reed; that is to say, Christ's +manhood is free from all scars and wounds of evil or of sin. There is +no dimness in this light, that is to say, Christ's character is +perfect, His goodness needs no increase. There is no trace of effort in +His holiness, no growth manifest in His God-likeness, from the +beginning to the end. There is no outward violence that can be brought +to bear upon Him that will stay Him in His purpose. There is no inward +failure of strength in Him that may lead us to fear that His work shall +not be completed. And because of these things, because of His perfect +exemption from human infirmity, because in Him was no sin. He is +manifested to take away our sins. Because in Him there was goodness +incapable of increase, being perfect from the beginning, therefore He +is manifested to make us participants of His own unalterable and +infinite goodness and purity. Because no outward violence, no inward +weakness, can ever stay His course, nor make Him abandon His purpose, +therefore His gospel looks upon the world with boundless hopefulness, +with calm triumph; will not hear of there being any outcast and +irreclaimable classes; declares it to be a blasphemy against God and +Christ to say that any men or any nations are incapable of receiving +the gospel and of being redeemed by it, and comes with supreme love and +a calm consciousness of infinite power to you, my brother, in your +deepest darkness, in your moods most removed from God and purity, and +insures you that it will heal you, and will raise all that in you is +feeble to its own strength. Every man may pray to that strong Christ +who fails not nor is discouraged-- + + 'What in me is dark + Illumine; what is low, raise and support,' + +in the confidence that He will hear and answer. If you do that you will +not do it in vain, but His gentle hand laid upon you will heal the +bruises that sin has made. Out of your weakness, as of 'a reed shaken +with the wind,' the Restorer will make a pillar of marble in the Temple +of His God. And out of your smoking dimness and wavering light, a spark +at the best, almost buried in the thick smoke that accompanies it, the +fostering Christ will make a brightness which shall flame as the +perfect light that 'shineth more and more unto the noontide of the day.' + + + + +THE BLIND MAN'S GUIDE + +'I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them +in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before +them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, +and not forsake them.'--ISAIAH xiii. 16. + + +The grand stormy verses before these words, with all their dread array +of natural convulsions, have one object--the tender guidance promised +in the text. So we have the combination of terror and love, the +blending in the divine government of terrible judgments and most gentle +guidance. The words apply, of course, primarily to the redemption of +Israel; but through them shines a picture of the greater redemption of +humanity. + +1. The blind travellers. They are blind, and their road is unknown to +them. It is a symbol of our condition and of our paths in life. Our +limited foresight cannot discern certainly even the next moment. It is +always the unexpected that happens. We cannot tell what lies behind the +next bend in the road, and there are so many bends; and behind one of +them, we cannot tell whether it may be the next, sits 'the Shadow +feared of man.' Life is like the course of the Congo, which makes so +mighty a bend northward that, till it had been followed from source to +mouth, no one could have supposed that it was to enter the ocean far +away to the west. Not only God's mercies, but our paths, are 'new every +morning.' Experience, like conscience, sheds light mainly on what lies +behind, and scarcely 'doth attain to something of prophetic strain.' + +2. The Leader. How tenderly God makes Himself the leader of the blind +pilgrims! It does not matter about being blind, if we put our hands in +His. Then He will 'be to us instead of eyes.' Jesus took the blind man +by the hand. + +So here is the promise of guidance by Providence, Word, Spirit. And +here is the condition of receiving it, namely, our conscious blindness +and realisation of the complexities of life, leading to putting +ourselves into His hands in docile faith. + +3. The gradual light. Darkness is made light. We receive the knowledge +of each step, when it needs to be taken; the light shines only on the +next; we are like men in a fog, who are able only to see a yard ahead. + +4. The clearing away of hindrances. 'Crooked things straight.' A +careful guide lifts stones out of a blind man's way. How far is this +true? There will be plenty of crooked things left crooked, but still so +many straightened as to make our road passable. + +5. The perpetual Presence. If God is with me, then all these blessings +will surely be mine. He will be with me if I keep myself with Him. It +is His felt presence that gives me light on the road, and levels and +straightens out the crookedest and roughest path. + + + + +THY NAME: MY NAME + +'I have called thee by thy name.'--ISAIAH xliii. 1. + +'Every one that is called by My name.'--ISAIAH xliii. 7. + + +Great stress is laid on names in Scripture. These two parallel and +antithetic clauses bring out striking complementary relations between +God and the collective Israel. But they are as applicable to each +individual member of the true Israel of God. + +I. What does God's calling a man by his name imply? + +1. Intimate knowledge. + +Adam naming the creatures. + +Christ naming His disciples. + +2. Loving friendship. + +Moses, 'I know thee by name, and thou hast found grace in my sight.' + +3. Designation and adaptation to work. + +Bezaleel--Exodus xxxi. 2; Cyrus--ISAIAH xlv. 3; Servant of the +Lord--ISAIAH xlix. 1. + +II. What does God's calling a man by His name imply? + +1. God's possession of him. That possession by God involves God's +protection and man's safety. He does not hold His property slackly. +'None shall pluck them out of My Father's hand.' + +2. Kindred. The man bears the family name. He is adopted into the +household. The sonship of the receiver of the new name is dimly +shadowed. + +3. Likeness. + +The Biblical meaning of 'name' is 'character manifested.' + +Nomen and omen coincide. + +We must bring into connection with the texts the prominence given in +the Apocalypse to analogous promises. + +'I will write on him the name of My God.' That means a fuller +disclosing of God's character, and a clear impress of that character on +perfected men 'His name shall be in their foreheads.' + + + + +JACOB--ISRAEL--JESHURUN + +'Yet now hear, O Jacob My servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen.... +Fear not, O Jacob, My servant; and thou, Jeshurun, whom I have +chosen.--ISAIAH xliv. 1, 2. + + +You observe that there are here three different names applied to the +Jewish nation. Two of them, namely Jacob and Israel, were borne by +their great ancestor, and by him transmitted to his descendants. The +third was never borne by him, and is applied to the people only here +and in the Book of Deuteronomy. + +The occurrence of all three here is very remarkable, and the order in +which they stand is not accidental. The prophet begins with the name +that belonged to the patriarch by birth; the name of nature, which +contained some indications of character. He passes on to the name which +commemorated the mysterious conflict where, as a prince, Jacob had +power with God and prevailed. He ends with the name Jeshurun, of which +the meaning is 'the righteous one,' and which was bestowed upon the +people as a reminder of what they ought to be. + +Now, as I take it, the occurrence of these names here, and their +sequence, may teach us some very important lessons; and it is simply to +these lessons, and not at all to the context, that I ask your attention. + +I. I take, then, these three names in their order as teaching us, +first, the path of transformation. + +Every 'Jacob' may become a 'righteous one,' if he will tread Jacob's +road. We start with that first name of nature which, according to +Esau's bitter etymology of it, meant 'a supplanter'--not without some +suggestions of craft and treachery in it. It is descriptive of the +natural disposition of the patriarch, which was by no means attractive. +Cool, calculating, subtle, with a very keen eye to his own interests, +and not at all scrupulous as to the means by which he secured them, he +had no generous impulses, and few unselfish affections. He told lies to +his poor old blind father, he cheated his brother, he met the +shiftiness of Laban with equal shiftiness. It was 'diamond cut diamond' +all through. He tried to make a bargain with God Himself at Bethel, and +to lay down conditions on which he would bring Him the tenth of his +substance. And all through his earlier career he does not look like the +stuff of which heroes and saints are made. + +But in the mid-path of his life there came that hour of deep dejection +and helplessness, when, driven out of all dependence on self, and +feeling round in his agony for something to lay hold upon, there came +into his nightly solitude a vision of God. In conscious weakness, and +in the confidence of self-despair, he wrestled with the mysterious +Visitant in the only fashion in which He can be wrestled with. 'He wept +and made supplication to Him,' as one of the prophets puts it, and so +he bore away the threefold gift--blessing from those mighty lips whose +blessing is the communication, and not only the invocation, of mercy, a +deeper knowledge of that divine and mysterious Name, and for himself a +new name. + +That new name implied a new direction given to his character. + +Hitherto he had wrestled with men whom he would supplant, for his own +advantage, by craft and subtlety; henceforward he strove with God for +higher blessings, which, in striving, he won. All the rest of his life +was on a loftier plane. Old ambitions were dead within him, and though +the last of these names in our text was never actually borne by him, he +began to deserve it, and grew steadily in nobleness and beauty of +character until the end, when he sang his swan-song and lay down to +die, with thanksgiving for the past and glowing prophecies for the +future, pouring from his trembling lips. + +And now, brethren, that is the outline of the only way in which, from +out of the evil and the sinfulness of our natural disposition, any of +us can be raised to the loftiness and purity of a righteous life. There +must be a Peniel between the two halves of the character, if there is +to be transformation. + +Have you ever been beaten out of all your confidence, and ground down +into the dust of self-disgust and self-abandonment? Have you ever felt, +'there is nothing in me or about me that I can cling to or rely upon'? +Have you ever in the thickest of that darkness had, gleaming in upon +your solitude, the vision of His face, whose face we see in Jesus +Christ? Have you ever grasped Him who is infinitely willing to be held +by the weakest hand, and who never 'makes as though He would go +further,' except in order to induce us to say, with deeper earnestness +of desire, 'Abide with us, for it is dark'? And have you ever, in +fellowship with Him thus, found pouring into your enlightened mind a +deeper reading of the meaning of His character and a fuller conception +of the mystery of His love? And have you ever--certainly you have if +these things have preceded it, certainly you have not if they have +not--have you ever thereby been borne up on to a higher level of feeling +and life, and been aware of new impulses, hopes, joys, new directions +and new capacities budding and blossoming in your spirit? + +Brethren! there is only one way by which, out of the mire and clay of +earth, there can be formed a fair image of holiness, and that is, that +Jacob's experience, in deeper, more inward, more wonderful form, should +be repeated in each one of us; and that thus, penitent and yet hopeful, +we should behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and draw +from Him our righteousness. That is the path of transformation. The +road passes through Peniel, and Jacob must become Israel before he is +Jeshurun. He must hold communion with God in Christ before he is +clothed with righteousness. + +How different that path is from the road which men are apt to take in +working out their own self-improvement! How many forms of religion, and +how many toiling souls put the cart before the horse, and in effect +just reverse the process, and say practically--'first make yourselves +righteous, and then you will have communion with God'! That is an +endless and a hopeless task. I have no doubt that some of you have +spent--and I would not say wasted, but it has been almost so--years of +life, not without many an honest effort, in the task of +self-improvement, and are very much where you were long ago. Why have +you failed? Because you have never been to Peniel. You have never seen +the face of God in Christ, You have not received from Him the blessing, +even righteousness, from the God of your salvation. + +Dear friends, give up treading that endless, weary path of vain effort; +and learn--oh! learn--that the righteousness which makes a soul pure +and beautiful must come as a gift from God, and is given only in Jesus +Christ. + +This sequence too, I think, may very fairly be used to teach us the +lesson that there is no kind of character so debased but that it may +partake of the purifying and ennobling influence. All the Jacobs may be +turned into righteous ones, however crafty, however subtle, however +selfish, however worldly they are. Christianity looks at no man and +says, 'That is too bad a case for me to deal with.' It will undertake +any and every case, and whoever will take its medicines can be cured +'of whatsoever disease he had.' + +To all of us, no matter what our past may have been, this blessed +message comes: 'There is hope for thee, if thou wilt use these means.' +Only remember, the road from the depths of evil to the heights of +purity always lies through Peniel. You must have power with God and +draw a blessing from Him, and hold communion with Him, before you can +become righteous. + +How do they print photographs? By taking sensitive paper, and laying +it, in touch with the negative, in the sun. Lay your spirits on Christ, +and keep them still, touching Him, in the light of God, and that will +turn you into His likeness. That, and nothing else will do it. + +II. And now there is a second lesson from the occurrence of these three +names, viz., here we may find expressed the law for the Christian life. + +There are some religious people that seem to think that it is enough if +only they can say; 'Well! I have been to Jesus Christ and I have got my +past sins forgiven; I have been on the mountain and have held communion +with God; I do know what it is to have fellowship with Him, in many an +hour of devout communion.' and who are in much danger of treating the +further stage of simple, practical righteousness as of secondary +importance. Now the order of these names here points the lesson that +the apex of the pyramid, the goal of the whole course, +is--Righteousness. The object for which the whole majestic structure of +Revelation has been builded up, is simply to make good men and women. +God does not tell us His Name merely in order that we may know His +Name, but in order that, knowing it, we may be smitten with the love of +it, and so may come into the likeness of it. There is no religious +truth which is given men for the sake of clearing their understandings +and enlightening their minds only. We get the truth to enlighten our +minds and to clear our understandings in order that thereby, as becomes +reasonable men with heads on our shoulders, we may let our principles +guide our conduct. Conduct is the end of principle, and all Revelation +is given to us in order that we may be pure and good men and women. + +For the same end all God's mercy of forgiveness and deliverance from +guilt and punishment in Jesus Christ is given to you, not merely in +order that you may escape the penalties of your evil, but in order +that, being pardoned, you may in glad thankfulness be lifted up into an +enthusiasm of service which will make you eager to serve Him and long +to be like Him. He sets you free from guilt, from punishment, and His +wrath, in order that by the golden cord of love you may be fastened to +Him in thankful obedience. God's purpose in redemption is that 'we, +being delivered out of the hand of our enemies should serve Him without +fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.' + +And in like manner, righteousness, by which, in the present connection, +we mean simply the doing of the things, and the being the character, +which a conscience enlightened by the law of God dictates to us to be +and to do--righteousness is the intention and the aim of all religious +emotion and feeling. It is all very well to have the joy of fellowship +with God in our inmost soul, but there is a type of Christianity which +is a great deal stronger on the side of devout emotion than on the side +of transparent godliness; and although it becomes no man to say what +Jesus Christ could say to those whose religion is mainly emotional, +'Hypocrites!' it is the part of every honest preacher to warn all that +listen to him that there does lie a danger, a very real danger, very +close to some of us, to substitute devout emotion for plain, practical +goodness, and to be a great deal nearer God in the words of our prayers +than we are in the current and set of our daily lives. Take, then, +these three names of my text as flashing into force and emphasis the +exhortation that the crown of all religion is righteousness, and as +preaching, in antique guise, the same lesson that the very Apostle of +affectionate contemplation uttered with such earnestness:--'Little +children! let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is +righteous, even as He is righteous.' An ounce of practical godliness is +worth a pound of fine feeling and a ton of correct orthodoxy. Remember +what the Master said, and take the lesson in the measure in which you +need it: 'Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not +prophesied in Thy name, and in Thy name have cast out devils, and in +Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, +I never knew you, depart from Me.' And the proof that I never knew you, +nor you Me, is: 'Ye that work iniquity.' + +III. Then there is another lesson still which I draw from these words, +viz. the merciful judgment which God makes of the character of them +that love Him. + +Jeshurun means 'the righteous one.' How far beneath the ideal of the +name these Jewish people fell we all know, and yet the name is applied +to them. Although the realisation of the ideal has been so imperfect, +the ideal is not destroyed. Although they have done so many sins, yet +He calls them by His name of 'righteous.' And so we Christian people +find that the New Testament calls us 'saints.' That name is not applied +to some select and lofty specimens of Christianity, but to all +Christians, however imperfect their present life and character may be. +Then people sneer and say, 'Ah! a strange kind of saints these +Christians are! Do you think that a man can condone practical +immorality by saying that he is trusting in Jesus Christ? The Church's +"saint" seems to mean less than the world's "man of honour."' God +forbid that it should be fancied that Christian sainthood is more +tolerant of evil than worldly morality, or has any fantastic standard +of goodness which makes up for departures from the plain rule of right +by prayers and raptures. But surely there may be a principle of action +deep down at the bottom of a heart, very feeble in its present exercise +and manifestation, which yet is the true man, and is destined to +conquer the whole nature which now wars against it. Here, for instance, +is a tiny spark, and there is a huge pile of damp, green wood. Yes; and +the little spark will turn all the wood into flame, if you give it time +and fair play. The leaven may be hid in an immensely greater mass of +meal, but it, and not the three measures of flour, is the active +principle. And if there is in a man, overlaid by ever so many +absurdities, and contradictions, and inconsistencies, a little seed of +faith in Jesus Christ, there will be in him proportionately a little +particle of a divine life which is omnipotent, which is immortal, which +will conquer and transform all the rest into its own likeness; and He +who sees not as men see, beholds the inmost tendencies and desires of +the nature, as well as the facts of the life, and discerning the inmost +and true self of His children, and knowing that it will conquer, calls +us 'righteous ones,' even while the outward life has not yet been +brought into harmony with the new man, created in righteousness after +God's image. + +All wrong-doing is inconsistent with Christianity, but, thank God, it +is not for us to say that _any_ wrong-doing is incompatible with it; +and therefore, for ourselves there is hope, and for our estimate of one +another there ought to be charity, and for all Christian people there +is the lesson--live up to your name. _Noblesse oblige!_ Fulfil your +ideal. Be what God calls you, and 'press toward the mark for the prize.' + +If one had time to deal with it, there is another lesson naturally +suggested by these names, but I only put it in a sentence and leave it; +and that is the union between the founder of the nation and the nation. +The name of the patriarch passes to his descendants, the nation is +called after him that begat it. In some sense it prolongs his life and +spirit and character upon the earth. That is the old-world way of +looking at the solidarity of a nation. There is a New Testament fact +which goes even deeper than that. The names which Christ bears are +given to Christ's followers. Is He a King, is He a Priest? He 'makes us +kings and priests.' Is He anointed the Messiah? God 'hath anointed us +in Him.' Is He the Light of the World? + +'Ye are the lights of the world.' His life passeth into all that love +Him in the measure of their trust and love. We are one with Jesus if we +rest upon Him; one in life, one in character, approximating by slow +degrees, but surely, to His likeness; and blessed be His name! one in +destiny. Then, my friend, if you will only keep near that Lord, trust +Him, live in the light of His face, go to Him in your weakness, in your +despair, in your self-abandonment; wrestle with Him, with the +supplication and the tears that He delights to receive, then you will +be knit to Him in a union so real and deep that all which is His shall +be yours, His life shall be the life of your spirit, His power the +strength of your life, His dominion the foundation of your dignity as a +prince with God, His all-prevailing priesthood the security that your +prayer shall have power, and the spotless robe of His righteousness the +fine linen, clean and white, in which arrayed, you shall be found of +Him, and in Him at last, in peace, 'not having your own righteousness, +but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which +is of God by faith.' + + + + +FEEDING ON ASHES + +'He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he +cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right +hand?'--ISAIAH xliv. 20. + + +The prophet has been pouring fierce scorn on idolaters. They make, he +says, the gods they worship. They take a tree and saw it up: one log +serves for a fire to cook their food, and with compass and pencil and +plane they carve the figure of a man, and then they bow down to it and +say, 'Deliver me, for thou art my god!' He sums up the whole in this +sentence of my text, in which the tone changes from bitter irony to +astonished pity. Now, if this were the time and the place, one would +like to expand and illustrate the deep thoughts in these words in +reference to idolatry; thoughts which go dead in the teeth of a great +deal that is now supposed to be scientifically established, but which +may be none the more true for all that. He asserts that idolatry is +empty, a feeding on ashes. He declares, in opposition to modern ideas, +that the low, gross forms of polytheism and idol-worship are a +departure from a previous higher stage, whereas to-day we are told by a +hundred voices that all religion begins at the bottom, and slowly +struggles up to the top. Isaiah says the very opposite. The pure form +is the primitive; the secondary form is the gross, which is a +corruption. They tell us too, nowadays, that all religion pursues a +process of evolution, and gradually clears itself of its more imperfect +and carnal elements. Isaiah says, 'he cannot deliver his soul'; and no +religion ever worked itself up, unless under the impulse of a +revelation from without. That is Isaiah's philosophy of idolatry, and I +expect it will be accepted as the true one some day. + +But my text has a wider bearing. It not only describes, in pathetic +language, the condition of the idolater, but it is true about all +lives, which are really idolatrous in so far as they make anything else +than God their aim and their joy. Every word of this text applies to +such lives--that is to say, to the lives of a good many people +listening to me now. And I would fain try to lay the truths here on +some hearts. Let me just take them as they lie in the words before me. + +I. A life that substantially ignores God is empty of all true +satisfaction. + +'He feedeth on ashes'! Very little imagination will realise the force +of that picture. The gritty cinders will irritate the lips and tongue, +will dry up the moisture of the mouth, will interfere with the +breathing, and there will be no nourishment in a sackful of them. + +Dear brethren, the underlying truth is this--God is the only food of a +man's soul. You pick up the skeleton of a bird upon a moor; and if you +know anything about osteology--the science of bones--you will see, in +the very make of its breast-bone and its wing-bones, the declaration +that its destiny was to soar into the blue. You pick up the skeleton of +a fish lying on the beach, and you will see in its very form and +characteristics that its destiny is to expatiate in the depths of the +sea. And, written on you, as distinctly as flight on the bird, or +swimming on the fish, is this, that you are meant, by your very make, +to soar up into the heights of the glory of God, and to plunge deep +into the abysses of His infinite love and wisdom. Man is made for God. +'Whose image and superscription hath it?' said Christ. The coin belongs +to the king whose head and titles are displayed upon it; and on your +heart, friend, though a usurper has tried to recoin the piece, and put +his own foul image on the top of the original one, is stamped deep that +you belong to the King of kings, to God Himself. + +For what does our heart want? A perfect, changeless, all-powerful love. +And what does our mind want? Reliable, guiding, inexhaustible, and yet +accessible truth. And what does our will want? Commandments which have +an authoritative ring in their very utterance, and which will serve for +infallible guides for our lives. And what do our weak, sinful natures +want? Something that shall free our consciences, and shall deliver us +from the burden of our transgressions, and shall calm our fears, and +shall quicken and warrant our lofty hopes. And what do men whose +destiny is to live for ever want but something that shall go with them +through all changes of condition, and, like a light in the midst of the +darkest tunnel, shall burn in the passage between this and the other +world, and shall never be taken away from them? We want a Person to be +everything to us. No accumulation of things will satisfy a man. And we +want all our treasures to be in one Person, and we need that that +Person shall live as long as we live, and as long as we need shall be +sufficient to supply us. And all this is only the spelling in many +letters of the one name--God. That is what we want, that, and nothing +less. + +Then the next step that I suggest to you is, that where a man will take +God for the food of his spirit, and turn love and mind and will and +conscience and practical life to Him, seeing Him in everything, and +seeing all things in Him; saturating, as it were, the universe with the +thought of God, and recreating his own spirit with communion of +friendship to Him; to that man lower goods do first disclose their real +sweetness, their most poignant delight, and their most solid +satisfaction. To say of a world where God has set us, that it is all +'vanity and vexation of spirit,' goes in flat contradiction to what He +said when, creation finished, He looked upon His world, and proclaimed +to the waiting seraphim around that 'it was very good.' There is a view +of the world which calls itself pious, but is really an insult to God; +and the irreligious pessimism that is fashionable nowadays, as if human +life were a great mistake, and everything were mean and poor and +insufficient, is contrary to the facts and to the consciousness of +every man. But if you make things first which were meant to be second, +then you make what was meant to be food 'ashes.' They are all good in +their place. Wealth is good; wisdom is good; success is good; love is +good. And all these things may be enjoyed without God, and will each of +them yield their proportional satisfaction to the part of our nature to +which they belong. But if you put them first you degrade them; a change +passes over them at once. A long row of cyphers means nothing; put a +significant digit in front of it, and it means millions. Take away the +digit, and it goes back to nothing again. The world, and all its fading +sweets, if you put God in the forefront of it, and begin the series +with Him, is sweet, though it may be fleeting, and is meant to be felt +by us as such. But if you take away Him, it is a row of cyphers +signifying nothing, and able to contribute nothing to the real, deepest +necessities of the human soul. And so the old question comes--'Why do +ye spend your money for that which is not bread?' It is bread, if only +you will remember first that God is the food of your souls. But if you +try to nourish yourselves on it alone, then, as I said, a sackful of +such ashes will not stay your appetite. Oh! brethren, God has not so +blundered in making the world that He has surrounded us with things +that are all lies, but He has so made it that whosoever flies in the +face of the gracious commandment which is also an invitation, 'Seek ye +first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness,' has not only no +security that the 'other things' shall 'be added unto him,' but has the +certainty that though they were added to him, in degree beyond his +dreams and highest hopes, they would avail nothing to satisfy the +hunger of his heart. As George Herbert puts it-- + + Shadows well mounted, dreams in a career, + Embroidered lies, nothing between two dishes, + These are the pleasures here.' + +'He feedeth on ashes,' because he does not take God for the food of his +soul. + +II. So, secondly, notice that a life which thus ignores God is +tragically unaware of its own emptiness. + +'A deceived heart hath turned him aside.' That explains how the man +comes to fancy that ashes are food. His whole nature is perverted, his +vision distorted, his power of judgment marred. He is given over to +hallucinations and illusions and dreams. + +That explains, too, why men persist in this feeding on ashes after all +experience. There is no fact stranger or more tragical in our histories +than that we do not learn by a thousand failures that the world will +not avail to make us restful and blessed. You will see a dog chasing a +sparrow,--it has chased hundreds before and never caught one. Yet, when +the bird rises from the ground, away it goes after it once more, with +eager yelp and rush, to renew the old experience. Ah! that is like what +a great many of you are doing, and you have not the same excuse that +the dog has. You have been trying all your lives--and some of you have +grey hairs on your heads--to slake your thirst by dipping leaky buckets +into empty wells, and you are at it yet. As some one says, 'experience +throws a light on the wave behind us,' but it does very little to fling +a light on the sea before us. Experience confirms my text, for I +venture to put it to the experience of every man--how many moments of +complete satisfaction and rest can you summon up in your memory as +having been yours in the past? 'He that loveth silver shall not be +satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase.' +Appetite always grows faster than supply. And so, though we have tried +them in vain so often, we turn again to the old discredited sources, +and fancy we shall do better this time. Is it not strange? Is there any +explanation of it, other than that of my text? 'A deceived heart hath +turned him aside.' + +And that deceived heart, stronger than experience, is also stronger +than conscience. Do you not know that you ought to be Christians? Do +you not know that it is both wrong and foolish of you to ignore God? Do +you not know that you will have to answer for it? Have you not had +moments of illumination when there has risen up before you the whole +vanity of your past lives, and when you have felt 'I have played the +fool, and erred exceedingly'? And yet, what has come of it all with +some of you? Why, what comes of it with the drunkard in the Book of +Proverbs, who, as soon as he has got over the bruises and the sickness +of his last debauch, says, 'I will seek it yet again.' 'A deceived +heart hath turned him aside.' + +And how is it that this hallucination that you have fed full and been +satisfied, when all the while your hunger has not been appeased, can +continue to act on us? For the very plain reason that every one of us +has in himself a higher and a lower self, a set of desires for the +grosser, more earthly, and, using the word in its proper sense, worldly +sort--that is to say, directed towards material things, and a higher +set which look right up to God if they were allowed fair play. And of +these two sets--which really are one at bottom, if a man would only see +it--the lower gets the upper hand, and suppresses the higher and the +nobler. And so in many a man and woman the longing for God is crushed +out by the grosser delights of sense. + +One sometimes hears of cowardly, unmanly sailors, who in shipwreck push +the women and children aside, and struggle to the boats. And there are +in all of us groups of sturdy mendicants, so to speak, who elbow their +way to the front, and will have their wants satisfied. What becomes of +the gentler group that stand behind, unnoticed and silent? It is an +awful thing when men and women do, as so many of us do, pervert the +tastes that are meant to lead them to God, in order to stifle the +consciousness that they need a God at all. There are tribes of low +savages who are known as 'clay-eaters.' That is what a great many of us +are; we feed upon the serpent's meat, the dust of the earth, and let +all the higher heavenly food, which addresses itself first to loftier +desires, but also satisfies these lower ones, stand unnoticed, unsought +for, unpartaken of. Dear friends, do not be befooled by that +treacherous heart of yours, but let the deepest voices in your soul be +heard. Understand, I beseech you, that their cry is for no created +person or thing, and that only God Himself can satisfy them. + +III. And now, lastly, notice that a life thus ignoring God needs a +power from without to set it free. + +'He cannot deliver his soul.' Can you? Do you think you can break the +habits of a lifetime? Do you think that, left to yourself, you would +ever have any inclination to break them? Certainly, left to yourselves, +you will never have the power. These long indulged appetites of ours +grow with indulgence; and that which first was light as a cobweb, and +soft as a silken bracelet, becomes heavier and solider until it is an +iron fetter upon the limb, which no man can break. There is nothing +more awful in life than the influence of habit, so unthinkingly +acquired, so inexorably certain, so limiting our possibilities and +enclosing us in its grip. + +Dear brethren, there is something more wanted than yourselves to break +this chain. You have tried, I have no doubt, in the course of your +lives, more and more resolutely, to cure yourselves of some more or +less unworthy habits. They may be but mere slight tricks of attitude or +intonation, or movement. Has your success been such as to encourage you +to think that you can revolutionise your lives, and dethrone the +despots that have ruled over you in the past? I leave the question to +yourselves. To me it seems that the world of men is certain to go on +ignoring God, and seeking its delight only in the world of creatures, +unless there comes in an outside power into the heart of the world and +revolutionises all things. + +It is that power that I have to preach, the Christ who is the 'Bread of +God that came down from Heaven,' who can lift up any soul from the most +obstinate and long-continued grovelling amongst the transitory things +of this limited world, and the superficial delights of sense and a +gratified bodily life; who can bring the forgiveness which is +essential, the deliverance from the power of evil which is not less +essential, and who can fill our hearts with Himself the food of the +world. He comes to each of us; He comes to you, with the old +unanswerable question upon His lips, 'Why do you spend your money for +that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth +not?' It is unanswerable, for you can give no reason sufficient for +such madness. All that you could say, and you durst not say it to Him, +is, 'a deceived heart hath turned me aside.' He comes with the old +gracious word upon His lips, 'Take! eat! this is My body which is +broken for you.' He offers us Himself. He can stay all the hungers of +all mankind. He can feed your heart with love, your mind with truth +which is Himself, your will with His sweet commands. + +As of old He made the thousands sit down upon the grass, and they did +all eat and were filled, so He stands before the world to-day and says, +'I am the Bread of Life; He that cometh to Me shall never hunger.' And +if you will only come to Him--that is to say, will trust yourselves +altogether to the merits of His sacrifice, and the might of His +indwelling Spirit--He will take away all the taste for the leeks and +onions and garlic, and will give you the appetite for heavenly food. He +will spread for you a table in the wilderness, and what would else be +ashes will become sweet, wholesome, and nourishing. Nor will He cease +there, for in His own good time He will call us to the banqueting house +above, where He will make us to sit down to meat, and come forth +Himself and serve us. Here, hunger often brings pain, and eating is +followed by repletion. But there, appetite and satisfaction will +produce each other perpetually, and the blessed ones who then hunger +will not hunger so as to feel faintness or emptiness, nor be so filled +as to cease to desire larger portions of the Bread of God. I beseech +you, cry, 'Lord, ever more give us this bread!' + + + + +WRITING BLOTTED OUT AND MIST MELTED + +'I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a +cloud, thy sins.'--ISAIAH xliv. 22. + + +Isaiah has often and well been called the Evangelical Prophet. Many +parts of this second half of his prophecies referring to the Messiah +read like history rather than prediction. But it is not only from the +clearness with which the great figure of the future king of Israel +stands out on his page that he deserves that title. Other thoughts +belonging to the very substance of the gospel appear in him with a +vividness and a frequency which well warrants its application to him. +He speaks much of the characteristically Christian conceptions of sin, +forgiveness, and redemption. The whole of the latter parts of this book +are laden with that burden. They are gathered up in the extraordinarily +pregnant and blessed words of my text, in which metaphors are blended +with much disregard to oratorical propriety, in order to bring out the +whole fulness of the prophet's meaning. 'I have blotted out'--that +suggests a book. 'I have blotted out as a cloud'--that suggests the +thinning away of morning mists. The prophet blends the two thoughts +together, and on that great revelation of a forgiveness granted before +it has been asked, and given, not only to one penitent soul wailing out +like the abased king of Israel in his deep contrition, 'according to +the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions,' but +promised to a whole people, is rested the great invitation, 'Return +unto Me, for I have redeemed thee.' + +Let me try and bring out, as simply and earnestly as I can, the great +teaching that is condensed into these words. + +I. Observe here the penetrating glance into the very essential +characteristics of all sin. + +There are two words, as you see, employed in my text, 'transgressions' +and 'sins.' They apply to the same kind of actions, but they look at +them from different angles and points of view. They are partially +synonymous, but they cover very various conceptions, and if we take +note of the original significations of the two words, we get two very +important and often forgotten thoughts. + +For that expression rendered in my text, and rendered correctly +enough--transgressions--means at bottom, 'rebellion,' the rising up of a +disobedient will, not only against a law, but against a lawgiver. There +we have a deepening of that solemn fact of a man's wrongdoing, which +brings it into immediate connection with God, and marks its foulness by +reason of that connection. + +Ah! brethren, it makes all the difference to a man's notions of right +and wrong, whether he stops on the surface or goes down to the depths; +whether he says to himself, 'The thing is a vice; it is wrong; it is +contrary to what I ought to be'; or whether he gets down to the darker, +deeper, and truer thought, and says, 'The damnable thing about every +little evil that I do is this, that in it _I_--poor puny I--perk myself +up against God, and say to Him, "Thou wilt; wilt thou? _I_ shall not!"' +Sin is rebellion. + +And so what becomes of the hazy distinction between great sins and +little ones? An overt act of rebellion is of the same gravity, +whatsoever may be its form. The man that lifts his sword against the +sovereign, and the man behind him that holds his horse, are equally +criminal. And when once you let in the notion that in all our actions +we have to do with a Person, to whom we are bound to be obedient, then +the distinction which sophisticates so many people's consciences, and +does such infinite harm in so many lives, between great and small +transgressions, disappears altogether. Sin is rebellion. + +Then the other word of my text is equally profound and significant. For +it, literally taken, means--as the words for 'sin' do in other +languages besides the Hebrew--missing a mark. Every wrong thing that +any man does is beside the mark, at which he, by virtue of his manhood, +and his very make and nature, ought to aim. It is beside the mark in +another sense than that. As some one says, 'A rogue is a roundabout +fool.' No man ever secures that, and only that, which he aims at by any +departure from the straight path of imperative duty. For if he gets +some vulgar and transient titillation of appetite, or satisfaction of +desire, he gets along with it something that takes all the gilt off the +gingerbread, and all the sweetness out of the satisfaction. So that it +is always a blunder to be bad, and every arrow that is drawn by a +sinful hand misses the target to which all our arrows should be +pointed, and misses even the poor mark that we think we are aiming at. +Take these two thoughts with you--I will not dwell on them, but I +desire to lay them upon all your hearts--all evil is sin, and every sin +is rebellion against God, and a blunder in regard to myself. + +II. And now I come to the second point of our text, and ask you to note +the permanent record which every sin leaves. + +I explained in the earlier part of my remarks that we have a case here +of the thing that horrifies rhetoricians, but does not matter a bit to +a prophet, the blending or confusing of two metaphors. The first of +them--'I have blotted out'--suggests a piece of writing, a book, or +manuscript of some sort. And the plain English of what lies behind that +metaphor is this solemn thought, which I would might blaze before each +of us, in all our lives, that God's calm and all-comprehensive +knowledge and remembrance takes and keeps filed, and ready for +reference, the whole story of our whole acts. There _is_ a book. It is +a violent metaphor, no doubt, but there is a solemn truth underlying it +which we are too apt to forget. The world is groaning nowadays with +two-volume memoirs of men that nobody wants to know anything more +about. But every man is ever writing his autobiography with invisible +but indelible ink. You have seen those old-fashioned 'manifold writers' +in your places of business, and the construction of them is this: a +flimsy sheet of tissue paper, a bit of black to be put in below it, and +then another sheet on the other side; and the pen that writes on the +flimsy top surface makes an impression that is carried through the +black to the sheet below, and there is a duplicate which the writer +keeps. You and I, upon the flimsinesses of this fleeting--sometimes, we +think, futile--life, are penning what is neither flimsy nor futile, +which goes through the opaque dark, and is reproduced and docketed +yonder. That is what we are doing every day and every minute, writing, +writing, writing our own biography. And who is going to read it? Well, +God does read it now, and you will have to read it out one day, and how +will you like that? + +This metaphor will bear a little further expansion. Scripture tells us, +and conscience tells us, what manner of manuscript it is that we are +each so busy adding line upon line to. It is a ledger; it is an +indictment. Our own handwriting puts down in the ledger our own debts, +and we cannot deny our own handwriting when we are confronted with it. +It is an indictment, and our own hand draws it, and we have to plead +'guilty,' or 'not guilty,' to it. Which, being translated into plain +fact, is this--that there goes with all our deeds some sense and +reality of responsibility for them, and that all our rebellions against +God, and our blunders against self, be they great or small, carry with +them a sense of guilt and a reality of guilt whether we have the sense +of it or not. God has a judgment at this moment about every man and +woman, based upon the facts of the unfinished biography which they are +writing. + +Mystical and awful, yet blessed and elevating, is the thought that +nothing--_nothing,_ ever dies; and that what was, is now, and always +will be. + +Amongst the specimens from the coal measures in a museum you will find +slabs upon which the tiniest fronds of ferns that grew nobody knows how +many millenniums since are preserved for ever. Our lives, when the blow +of the last hammer lays them open, will, in like manner, bear the +impress of the minutest filament of every deed that we have ever done. + +But my metaphor will bear yet further expansion, for this +autobiographical record which we are busy preparing, which is at once +ledger and indictment, is to be read out one day. There is a great +scene in the last book of Scripture, the whole solemn significance of +which, I suppose, we shall not understand till we have learned it by +experience, but the truth of which we have sufficient premonitions to +assure us of, which declares that at a given time, on the confines of +Eternity, the Great White Throne is to be set, and the books are to be +opened, and the dead are judged 'out of the books,' which, the seer +goes on to explain, is 'according to their works.' The story of Esther +tells us how the sleepless monarch in the night-watches sent for the +records of the kingdom and had them read to him. The King who never +slumbers nor sleeps, in that dawning of heaven's eternal morning, will +have the books opened before Him, and my deeds will be read out. He and +I will hear them, whether any else may hear or no. That is my second +lesson. + +III. The third is, that we have here suggested the darkening power of +sin. + +The prophet, as I said, mixes metaphors. 'I have blotted out as a cloud +thy transgressions.' He uses two words for 'cloud' here; both of them +mean substantially the same thing, and both suggest the same idea. When +cloud fills the sky it darkens the earth, and shuts out the sunshine +and the blue, it closes the petals of the little flowers, it hushes the +songs of the birds. Sin makes for the sinning man 'an under-roof of +doleful grey,' which shuts out all the glories above. Put that metaphor +into plain English, and it is just this, 'Your sins have separated +between you and your God, and your iniquities have hid His face from +you that He will not hear.' It is impossible for a man that has his +heart all stiffened by the rebellion of his will against God's, or all +seething with unrestrained passions, or perturbed with worldly longings +and desires, to enter into calm fellowship with God or to keep the +thought of God clear before his mind. For we know Him, not by sense nor +by reason, but by sympathy and by feeling. And whatsoever comes in to +disturb a man's purity, comes in to hinder his vision of God. 'Blessed +are the pure in heart, for they'--and they only--'shall see God.' +Whenever from the undrained swamps of my own passions and sensualities, +or from the as malarious though loftier grounds of my own self-regard, +be I student or thinker, or moral man, there rise up these light mists, +they will fill the sky and hide the sun. On a winter's night you will +see the Pleiades, or other bright constellations, varying in brilliancy +from moment to moment as some invisible cloud-wrack floats across the +heavens. So, brother, every evil thing that we do rises up and gets +diffused through our atmosphere, and blots out from our vision the face +of God Himself, the blessed Son. + +Not only by reason of dimming and darkening my thoughts of Him is my +sin rightly compared to an obscuring cloud; but the comparison also +holds good because, just as the blanket of a wet mist swathing the +wintry fields prevents the sunshine from falling upon them in blessing, +so the accumulated effect of my evil doings and evil designings and +thinkings and willings comes between me and all spiritual blessings +which God can bestow, so that the very light of light, the highest +blessings that He yearns to give, and we faint for want of possessing, +are impossible even to His love to communicate until the cloud is swept +away. So my sin darkens my soul, and separates me from the light of +life. + +But the metaphor carries with it, too, a suggestion of the limitations +of the power of sin. For when the cloud is thickest and most obscuring +it only hugs the earth, and rises but a little way Into the heavens; +and far above it the blue is as blue, and the sunshine as bright, as if +there were no mist or fog in the lower regions. Therefore, let us +remember that, while the cloud must veil us from the light, the light +is above it, and 'every cloud that veileth love' may some day be +thinned away by the love it veils. + +IV. That brings me to the last word of my text,--viz. the prophet's +teaching as to the removal of the sin. + +We have to carry both the metaphors together with us here. 'I have +blotted out'--that is, as erasing from a book. 'I have blotted out as a +cloud'--that is, the thinning away of the mist. The blurred and stained +page can be cancelled. Chemicals will take the ink out. 'The blood of +Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin'; and it, passed over all that foul +record, makes it pure and clean. 'What I have written, I have written,' +said Pilate in his obstinacy. 'What I have written, I have written,' +wails many a man in the sense of the irrevocableness of his past. +Brother! be not afraid. Christ can take away all that stained record, +and give you back the page ready to receive holier words. + +The cloud is thinned away. What thins the cloud? As I have said, the +light which the cloud obscures, shining on the upper surface of it, +dissipates it layer by layer till it gets down at last to the +lowermost, and then rends a gap in it, and sends the shaft of the +sunbeam through on to the green earth. And that is only a highly +imaginative way of saying that it is the love against which we +transgress that thins away the cloud of transgression, and at last, as +the placid moon, by simply shining silently on, will sweep the whole +sky clear of its clouds, dissipates them all, and leaves the calm blue. +God forgives. The ledger account--if I may use so grossly commercial a +figure--is settled in full; the indictment is endorsed, 'acquitted.' He +remembers the sins only to breathe into the child's heart the assurance +of pardon, and no obstacle rises by reason of forgiven transgression +between the sinning man and the reconciled God. + +Now, all this preaching of Isaiah's is enlarged and confirmed, and to +some extent the _rationale_ of it is set before us in the great Gospel +truth of forgiveness through the blood of Jesus Christ. Unless we know +that truth, we may well stand amazed and questioning as to whether a +righteous God, administering a rigorous universe, can ever pardon sin. +And unless we know that by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, granted to our +spirits, our whole nature may be remade and moulded, we might well be +tempted to say, Ah! the Ethiopian cannot change his skin nor the +leopard his spots. But Jesus Christ can change more than skin, even the +heart and spirit, the inmost depths of the nature. + +Now, brother, my text speaks of this great blotting out as a past fact. +It is so in the divine mind with regard to each of us, because Christ's +great work has made reconciliation and atonement for all the sins of +all the world. And on the fact that it is past is based the +exhortation, 'Return unto Me, for I have redeemed thee.' God does not +say, 'Come back and I will forgive'; He does not say, 'Return and I +will blot out'; but He says, 'Return, for I _have_ blotted out.' Though +accomplished, the forgiveness has to be appropriated by individual +faith. The sins of the world have been borne, and borne away, by the +Lamb of God, but your sins are not borne away unless your hand is laid +on this head. + +If it is, then you do not need to say, 'What I have written is written, +and it cannot be blotted out.' But as in the old days a monk would take +some manuscript upon which filthy stories about heathen gods and +foolish fables were written, and erase these to write the legends of +saints, or perhaps the words of the Gospels themselves; so on our +hearts, which have been scribbled all over with obscenities and +follies, He will write His new best name of Love, and we may be +epistles of Christ, written with the Spirit of the living God. + + + + +HIDDEN AND REVEALED + +'Verily thou art a God that hidest Thyself, O God of Israel, the +Saviour.... I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth; +I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye Me in vain: I the Lord speak +righteousness, I declare things that are right.'--ISAIAH xlv, 15,19. + + +The former of these verses expresses the thoughts of the prophet in +contemplating the close of a great work of God's power which issues in +the heathen's coming to Israel and acknowledging God. He adores the +depth of the divine counsels which, by devious ways and after long +ages, have led to this bright result. And as he thinks of all the +long-stretching preparations, all the apparently hostile forces which +have been truly subsidiary, all the generations during which these +Egyptian and Ethiopian tribes have been the enemies and oppressors of +that Israel whom they at last acknowledge for the dwelling-place of +God, and enemies of that Jehovah before whom they finally bow down, he +feels that he has no measuring-line to fathom the divine purposes, and +bows his face to the ground in reverent contemplation with that word +upon his lips: 'Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thyself, O God of +Israel, the Saviour.' It is a parallel to the apostolic words, 'O the +depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How +unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out.' + +But such thoughts are but a half truth, and may very easily become in +men's minds a whole error, and therefore they are followed by a +marvellous section in which the Lord Himself speaks, and of which the +whole burden is--the clearness and fulness with which God makes Himself +known to men. True it is that there are depths inaccessible in the +divine nature. True it is that there are mysteries unrevealed in the +method of the divine procedure, and especially in that of the relation +of heathen tribes to His gospel and His love. True it is that there are +mysteries opened in the very word of His grace. But notwithstanding all +this--it is also true that He makes Himself known to us all, that He +declares righteousness, that He calls us to seek Him, and that He wills +to be found and known by us. + +The collocation of these two passages may be taken, then, as +representing the two phases of the Divine Manifestation, the obscurity +which must ever be associated with all our finite knowledge of God, and +the clear sunlight in which blazes all that we need to know of Him. + +I. After all revelation, God is hidden. + +There is revelation of His Name in all His works. His action must be +all self-manifestation. But after all it is obscure and hidden. + +1. Nature hides while it reveals. + +Nature's revelation is unobtrusive. + +God is concealed behind second causes. + +God is concealed behind regular modes of working (laws). + +Nature's revelation is partial, disclosing only a fragment of the name. + +Nature's revelation is ambiguous. Dark shadows of death and pain in the +sensitive world, of ruin and convulsions, of shivered stars, seem to +contradict the faith that all is very good; so that it has been +possible for men to drop their plummet in the deep and say, 'I find no +God,' and for others to fall into Manichaeism or some form or other of +dualism. + +2. Providence hides while it reveals. + +That is the sphere in which men are most familiar with the idea of +mystery. + +There is much of which we do not see the issue. The process is not +completed, and so the end is not visible. + +Even when we believe that 'to Him' and 'for good' are 'all things,' we +cannot tell how all will come circling round. We are like men looking +only at one small segment of an ellipse which is very eccentric. + +There is much of which we do not see the consistency with the divine +character. + +We are confronted with stumbling-blocks in the allotment of earthly +conditions; in the long ages and many tribes which are without +knowledge of God; in the sore sorrows, national and individual. + +We can array a formidable host. But it is to be remembered that +revelation actually increases these. It is just because we know so much +of God that we feel them so keenly. I suppose the mysteries of the +divine government trouble others outside the sphere of revelation but +little. The darkness is made visible by the light. + +3. Even in 'grace' God is hidden while revealed. + +The Infinite and Eternal cannot be grasped by man. + +The conception of infinity and eternity is given us by revelation, but +it is not comprehended so that its contents are fully known. The words +are known, but their full meaning is not, and no revelation can make +them, known to finite intelligences. + +God dwells in light inaccessible, which is darkness. + +Revelation opens abysses down which we cannot look. It raises and +leaves unsettled as many questions as it solves. + +The telescope resolves many nebulae, but only to bring more +unresolvable ones into the field of vision. + +Now all this is but one side of the truth. There is a tendency in some +minds to underrate what is plain because all is not plain. For some +minds the obscure has a fascination, apart altogether from its nature, +just because it is obscure. It is a noble emulation to press forward +and 'still to be closing up what we know not with what we know.' But +neither in science nor in religion shall we make progress if we do not +take heed of the opposing errors of thinking that all is seen, and of +thinking that what we have is valueless because there are gaps in it. +The constellations are none the less bright nor immortal fires, though +there be waste places in heaven where nothing but opaque blackness is +seen. In these days it is especially needful to insist both on the +incompleteness of all our religious knowledge, and to say that-- + +II. Notwithstanding all obscurity, God has amply revealed Himself. + +Though God hides Himself, still there comes from heaven the voice--'I +have not spoken in secret,' Now these words contain these thoughts-- + +1. That whatever darkness there may be, there is none due to the manner +of the revelation. + +God has not spoken in secret, in a corner. There are no arbitrary +difficulties made or unnecessary darkness left in His revelation. _We_ +have no right to say that He has left difficulties to test our faith. +_He_ Himself has never said so. He deals with us in good faith, doing +all that can be done to enlighten, regard being had to still loftier +considerations, to the freedom of the human will, to the laws which He +has Himself imposed on our nature, and the purposes for which we are +here. It is very important to grasp this. We have been told as much as +_can_ be told. Contrast with such a revelation the cave-muttered +oracles of heathenism and their paltering double sense. Be sure that +when God speaks, He speaks clearly and to all, and that in Christianity +there is no esoteric teaching for a few initiated only, while the +multitude are put off with shows. + +2. That whatever obscurity there may be, there is none which hides the +divine invitation or Him from those who obey it. + +'I have never said ... seek ye Me in vain.' Much is obscure if +speculative completeness is looked for, but the moral relations of God +and man are not obscure. + +All which the heart needs is made known. His revelation is clearly His +seeking us, and His revelation is His gracious call to us to seek Him. +He is ever found by those who seek. They have not to press through +obscurities to find Him, but the desire to possess must precede +possession in spiritual matters. He is no hidden God, lurking in +obscurity and only to be found by painful search. They who 'seek' Him +know where to find Him, and seek because they know. + +3. That whatever may be obscure, the Revelation of righteousness is +clear. + +We have to face speculative difficulties in plenty, but the great fact +remains that in Revelation steady light is focussed on the moral +qualities of the divine Nature and especially on His righteousness. + +And the revelation of the divine righteousness reaches its greatest +brightness, as that of all the divine Nature does, in the Person and +work of Jesus. Very significantly the idea of God's righteousness is +fully developed in the immediately subsequent context. There we find +that attribute linked in close and harmonious conjunction with what +shallower thought is apt to regard as being in antagonism to it. He +declares Himself to be 'a just (righteous) God and a Saviour.' So then, +if we would rightly conceive of His righteousness, we must give it a +wider extension than that of retributive justice or cold, inflexible +aloofness from sinners. It impels God to be man's saviour. And with +similar enlarging of popular conceptions there follows: 'In the Lord is +righteousness and strength,' and therefore, 'In the Lord shall all the +seed of Israel be justified (declared and made righteous) and shall +glory'--then, the divine Righteousness is communicative. + +All these thoughts, germinal in the prophet's words, are set in fullest +light, and certified by the most heart-moving facts, in the Person and +work of Jesus Christ. He 'declares at this time His righteousness, that +He might Himself be righteous and the maker righteous of them that have +faith in Jesus.' Whatever is dark, this is clear, that 'Jehovah our +Righteousness' has come to us in His Son, in whom seeking Him we shall +never seek in vain, but 'be found in Him, not having a righteousness of +our own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith +in Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.' + +If the great purpose of revelation is to make us know that God loves +us, and has given us His Son that in Him we may know Him and possess +His Righteousness, difficulties and obscurities in its form or in its +substance take a very different aspect. What need we more than that +knowledge and possession? Be not robbed of them. + +Many things are not written in the book of the divine Revelation, +whether it be that of Nature, of human history, or of our own spirits, +or even of the Gospel, but these are written that we may believe that +Jesus is the Son of God, and believing, may have life in His name. + + + + +A RIGHTEOUSNESS NEAR AND A SWIFT SALVATION + +'Hearken unto Me, ye stout-hearted, that are far from righteousness: I +bring near My righteousness; it shall not be far off, and My salvation +shall not tarry.'--ISAIAH xlvi. 12,13. + + +God has promised that He will dwell with him that is humble and of a +contrite heart. Jesus has shed the oil of His benediction on the poor +in spirit. It is the men who form the exact antithesis to these +characters who are addressed here. The 'stout-hearted' are those who, +being untouched in conscience and ignorant of their sin, are +self-reliant and almost defiant before God. That temper is branded +here, though, of course, there is a sense in which a stout heart is a +priceless possession, but that sort of stoutness of heart is best +secured by the contrite of heart. Those who are far from righteousness +are those who are not only sinful in act, but do not desire to be +otherwise, having no approximation or drawing towards a nobler life, by +aspiration or effort. + +To such men God speaks, as in the tone of a royal proclamation; and +what should we expect to hear pealing from His lips? Words of rebuke, +warning, condemnation? No; His voice is gentle and wooing, and does not +threaten blows, but proffers blessings: 'I will bring near My +righteousness. It shall not be far off,' though the stout-hearted maybe +'far from' it. Here we have a divine proclamation of a divine Love that +will not let us away from its presence; of a divine Work for us that is +finished without us; of an all-sufficient Gift to us. + +I. A divine proclamation of a divine Love that will not let us away +from its presence. + +There is a great contest between God and man: man seeking to withdraw +from God, and God following in patient, persistent love. + +1. In general terms God keeps near us, however far away we go from Him. + +Think of our forgetfulness of Him and His continual thought of us. +Think of our alienated hearts and His unchanging love. + +We cannot turn away His care, we cannot exhaust His compassion, we +cannot alienate His heart. All men everywhere are objects of these, as +in every corner of the world the sky is overhead, and all lands have +sunshine. + +What a picture of divine patience and placability that truth points for +us! It shows the Father coming after His prodigal son, and so surpasses +even the pearl of the parables. + +2. The special reference to Christ's work. + +That work is the exhibition in manhood and to men of a perfect +righteousness. + +It is the implanting in the corrupt world of a new beginning. It is the +clothing us with Christ's righteousness, for which we are forgiven and +in which we are sanctified. + +So Christ's work is God's coming to bring near His righteousness, and +now 'it is nigh thee in thy mouth and in thy heart.' + +II. A divine proclamation of a divine Work which is finished without us. + +The divine righteousness and its consequence are here represented as +being brought near while men are still 'stout-hearted.' We must feel +the emphasis laid on '_I_ will bring near _My_ righteousness,' and the +impression of merciful speed given by 'My salvation shall not tarry.' +The whole suggests such thoughts as these:-- + +The divine love is not drawn out by anything in us, but pours out on +us, even while we are far off and indifferent to it. His bringing near +of righteousness, and setting His salvation to run very swiftly side by +side with it, originates in Himself. It is the self-impelled and +self-fed flow of a fountain, and we need no pump or machinery to draw +it forth. + +The divine work is accomplished without man's co-operation. + +'It is finished,' was Christ's dying cry. But what is +finished?--Bringing the righteousness near. What still remains to be +done?--Making it mine. And that is accomplished by faith. + +It is mine if by faith I claim it as mine, and knit myself with Him who +is righteousness and salvation for every man that they may be +accessible to and possessed by any man. + +A man may be far from righteousness though it is near him and all +around him. Like Gideon's fleece, he may be dry when all is wet, or +like some rock in a field, barren and sullen, while all around the corn +is waving. + +III. The proclamation of an all-sufficient Gift. + +Righteousness, salvation, glory, are here brought together in +significant sequence. They are but several names for the same divine +gift, looked at from different angles. A diamond flashes varying +prismatic hues from its different facets. + +That encyclopaedical gift, which in regard to man considered as sinful +brings pardon and a new nature 'in righteousness and holiness of +truth,' brings deliverance from peril and from every form of evil and +death, to him considered as exposed to consequences of sin both +physical and moral, and a true though limited participation in the +divine glory, even now, with the hope of entering into the blaze of it +hereafter, to him as considered as made in the divine image and having +lost it. + +And all this wonderful triple hope, rapturous and impossible as it +seems when we think of man as he is, and of each of ourselves as we +each feel ourselves to be, is for us a sober certainty and a fact +sufficiently accomplished, to give firm ground for our largest +expectations if we hold fast by Jesus who brings that all-sufficient +gift of God within reach of each of us. The divine patience and love +follow us in all our wild wanderings, praying us 'with much entreaty +that we should receive the gift.' Jesus, who is God's righteousness and +love incarnate, beseeches us to take Him, and in Him righteousness, +salvation, and glory. + + + + +A RIVER OF PEACE AND WAVES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS + +'Oh that thou hadst hearkened to My commandments! then had thy peace +been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the +sea.'--ISAIAH xlviii. 18. + + +I. The Wonderful Thought of God here. + +This is an exclamation of disappointment; of thwarted love. The good +which He purposed has been missed by man's fault, and He regards the +faulty Israel with sorrow and pity as a would-be benefactor balked of a +kind intention might do. O Jerusalem! 'how often would I have gathered +thee.' 'If thou hadst known ... the things that belong unto thy peace!' + +II. Man's opposition to God's loving purpose for us. + +To have hearkened to His commandments would have enabled Him to let His +kindness have its way. + +It is not only our act contrary to God's Law, but the source of that +act in our antagonistic will, which fatally bars out the possibility of +God's intended good from us. It is 'not hearkening' which is the root +of not doing. + +That possibility of lifting up our puny wills against the +all-sovereign, Infinite Will is the mystery of mysteries. + +The fact that the mysterious possibility becomes an actuality in us is +still more mysterious. If we could solve those two mysteries, we should +be far on the way to solve all the mysteries of man's relation to God, +and God's to man. + +A will absolutely submitted to Him is His great ideal of human nature. +And that ideal we all can thwart, and alas, alas! we all do. It is the +deepest mystery; it is the blackest sin; it is the intensest folly. + +Sin is negative as well as positive. Not to hearken is as bad as to act +in dead opposition to. + +III. The lost good. + +The great purpose of the divine Commandment is to show us, for our own +sakes, the path that leads to all blessedness. + +Peace and Righteousness, or, in more modern words, all well-being and +all goodness, are the sure results of taking God's expressed Will as +the guide of life. + +These two are inseparable. Indeed they are one and the same fact of +human experience, looked at from two points of view. + +The force of the metaphor in both clauses is substantially the same. It +suggests in both--Abundance--Continuity--Uninterrupted Succession. But +regarded separately each has its own fair promise. 'As a +river'--flowing softly, not stagnant--that suggests the calm and gentle +flow of a placid and untroubled stream refreshing and fertilising. 'As +waves of the sea,' these suggest greater force than 'river.' The image +speaks of a righteousness massive and having power and a resistless +swing in it. It is the more striking because the waves of the sea are +the ordinary emblem of rebellious power. But here they stand as emblem +of the strength of a submissive, not of a rebellious, will. In that +obedience human nature rises to a higher type of strength than it ever +attains while in opposition to the Source of all strength. + +Contrast--'Whose waters cast up mire and dirt.' + +IV. The lost good regained. + +God has yet a method to accomplish His loving desire. Even those who +have not hearkened may receive through Christ the good which they have +sinned away. In Him is peace; in Him is Righteousness, which comes from +faith. 'Hear, and your soul shall live.' + + + + +EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE + + +ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. + +ISAIAH AND JEREMIAH + +Isaiah, Chaps. XLIX to End. Jeremiah. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +FEEDING IN THE WAYS (Isaiah xlix. 9) + +THE MOUNTAIN ROAD (Isaiah xlix. 11) + +THE WRITING ON GOD'S HANDS (Isaiah xlix. 16) + +THE SERVANT'S WORDS TO THE WEARY (Isaiah l. 4) + +THE SERVANT'S OBEDIENCE (Isaiah l. 5) + +THE SERVANT'S VOLUNTARY SUFFERINGS (Isaiah l. 6) + +THE SERVANT'S INFLEXIBLE RESOLVE (Isaiah l. 7) + +THE SERVANT'S TRIUMPH (Isaiah l. 8, 9) + +A CALL TO FAITH (Isaiah l. 10) + +DYING FIRES (Isaiah l. 11) + +THE AWAKENING OF ZION (Isaiah lii. 1) + +A PARADOX OF SELLING AND BUYING (Isaiah lii. 3) + +CLEAN CARRIERS (Isaiah lii. 11) + +MARCHING ORDERS (Isaiah lii. 11, 12) + +THE ARM OF THE LORD (Isaiah liii. 1) + +THE SUFFERING SERVANT--I. (Isaiah liii. 2,3) + +THE SUFFERING SERVANT--II. (Isaiah liii. 4-6) + +THE SUFFERING SERVANT--III. (Isaiah liii. 7-9) + +THE SUFFERING SERVANT--IV. (Isaiah liii. 10) + +THE SUFFERING SERVANT--V. (Isaiah liii. 11) + +THE SUFFERING SERVANT--VI. (Isaiah liii. 12) + +THE PASSING AND THE PERMANENT (Isaiah liv. 10) + +THE CALL TO THE THIRSTY (Isaiah lv. 1-13) + +THE GREAT PROCLAMATION (Isaiah lv. 1) + +GOD'S WAYS AND MAN'S (Isaiah lv. 8, 9) + +CAN WE MAKE SURE OF TO-MORROW? (Isaiah lvi. 12) + +FLIMSY GARMENTS (Isaiah lix. 6; Rev. iii. 18) + +THE SUNLIT CHURCH (Isaiah lx. 1-3) + +WALLS AND GATES (Isaiah lx. 18) + +THE JOY-BRINGER (Isaiah lxi. 3) + +THE HEAVENLY WORKERS AND THE EARTHLY WATCHERS (Isaiah lxii. 1, 6, 7) + +MIGHTY TO SAVE (Isaiah lxiii. 1) + +THE WINEPRESS AND ITS TREADER (Isaiah lxiii. 2, 3) + +THE SYMPATHY OF GOD (Isaiah lxiii. 9) + +HOW TO MEET GOD (Isaiah lxiv. 5) + +'THE GOD OF THE AMEN' (Isaiah lxv. 16) + + +THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH + +GOD'S LAWSUIT (Jer. ii. 9) + +STIFF-NECKED IDOLATERS AND PLIABLE CHRISTIANS (Jer. ii. 11) + +FOUNTAIN AND CISTERNS (Jer. ii. 13) + +FORSAKING JEHOVAH (Jer. ii. 19) + +A COLLOQUY BETWEEN A PENITENT AND GOD (Jer. iii. 21, 22) + +A QUESTION FOR THE BEGINNING (Jer. v. 31) + +POSSESSING AND POSSESSED (Jer. x. 16, R.V.) + +CALMS AND CRISES (Jer. xii. 5, R.V.) + +AN IMPOSSIBILITY MADE POSSIBLE (Jer. xiii. 23; 2 Cor. v. 17; Rev. xxi. +5) + +TRIUMPHANT PRAYER (Jer. xiv. 7-9) + +SIN'S WRITING AND ITS ERASURE (Jer. xvii, 1; 2 Cor. iii. 3; Col. ii. 14) + +THE HEATH IN THE DESERT AND THE TREE BY THE RIVER (Jer. xvii. 6, 8) + +A SOUL GAZING ON GOD (Jer. xvii. 12) + +TWO LISTS OF NAMES (Jer. xvii. 13; Luke x. 20) + +YOKES OF WOOD AND OF IRON (Jer. xxviii. 13) + +WHAT THE STABLE CREATION TEACHES (Jer. xxxi. 36) + +WHAT THE IMMENSE CREATION TEACHES (Jer. xxxi. 37) + +A THREEFOLD DISEASE AND A TWOFOLD CURE (Jer. xxxiii. 8) + +THE RECHABITES (Jer. xxxv. 16) + +JEREMIAH'S ROLL BURNED AND REPRODUCED (Jer. xxxvi. 32) + +ZEDEKIAH (Jer. xxxvii. 1) + +THE WORLD'S WAGES TO A PROPHET (Jer. xxxvii. 11-21) + +THE LAST AGONY (Jer. xxxix. 1-10) + +EBEDMELECH THE ETHIOPIAN (Jer. xxxix. 18) + +GOD'S PATIENT PLEADINGS (Jer. xliv. 4) + +THE SWORD OF THE LORD (Jer. xlvii. 6, 7) + +THE KINSMAN-REDEEMER (Jer. 1. 34) + +'As SODOM' (Jer. lii. 1-11) + + + + +FEEDING IN THE WAYS + +'They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high +places.' ISAIAH xlix. 9. + + +This is part of the prophet's glowing description of the return of the +Captives, under the figure of a flock fed by a strong shepherd. We have +often seen, I suppose, a flock of sheep driven along a road, some of +them hastily trying to snatch a mouthful from the dusty grass by the +wayside. Little can they get there; they have to wait until they reach +some green pasture in which they can be folded. This flock shall 'feed +in the ways'; as they go they will find nourishment. That is not all; +the top of the mountains is not the place where grass grows. _There_ +are bare, savage cliffs, from which every particle of soil has been +washed by furious torrents, or the scanty vegetation has been burnt up +by the fierce 'sunbeams like swords.' There the wild deer and the +ravens live, the sheep feed down in the valleys. But '_their_ pasture +shall be in all high places.' The literal rendering is even more +emphatic: 'Their pasture shall be in all _bare heights_,' where a +sudden verdure springs to feed them according to their need. Whilst, +then, this prophecy is originally intended simply to suggest the +abundant supplies that were to be provided for the band of exiles as +they came back from Babylon, there lie in it great and blessed +principles which belong to the Christian pilgrimage, and the flock that +follows Christ. + +They who follow Him, says my text, to begin with, shall find in the +dusty paths of common life, and in all the smallnesses and distractions +of daily duty, nourishment for their spirits. Do you remember what +Jesus said? 'My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to +finish His work.' We, too, may have the same meat to eat which the +world knows not of, and He will give that hidden manna to the combatant +as well as 'to him that overcometh.' In the measure in which 'we follow +the Lamb whithersoever He goeth,' in that measure do we find--like the +stores of provisions that Arctic explorers come upon, _cached_ for +them--food in the wilderness, and nourishment for our highest life in +our common work. That is a great promise, and it is a great duty. + +It is a promise the fulfilment of which is plainly guaranteed by the +very nature of the case. Religion is meant to direct conduct, and the +smallest affairs of life are to come under its imperial control, and +the only way by which a man can get any good out of his Christianity is +by living it. It is when he sets to work on the principles of the +Gospel that the Gospel proves itself to be a reality in his blessed +experience. It is when he does the smallest duties from the great +motives that these great motives are strengthened by exercise, as every +motive is. If you wish to weaken the influence of any principle upon +you, do not work it out, and it will wither and die. If a man would +grasp the fulness of spiritual sustenance which lies in the Gospel of +Jesus Christ, let him go to work on the basis of the Gospel, and he +'shall feed in the ways,' and common duties will minister strength to +him instead of taking strength from him. We can make the smallest daily +incidents subserve our growth and our spiritual strength, because, if +we thus do them, they will bring to us attestations of the reality of +the faith by which we act on them. For convincing a man that a lifebuoy +is reliable there is nothing like having had experience of its power to +hold his head above the waves when he has been cast into them. _Live_ +your Christianity, and it will attest itself. There will come, besides +that, the blessed memory of past times in which we trusted in the Lord +and were lightened, we obeyed God and found His promises true, we +risked all for God and found that we had all more abundantly. It is +only an active Christian life that is a nourished and growing Christian +life. + +The food which God gives us is not only to be taken by faith, but it +has to be made ours more abundantly by work. Saint Augustine said in +another connection, 'Believe, and thou hast eaten.' Yes, that is +blessedly true, but it needs to be supplemented by 'they shall feed _in +the ways_,' and their work will bring them nourishment. + +But this is a great duty as well as a great promise. How many of us +Christian people have but little experience of getting nearer to God +because of our daily occupations? To by far the larger number of us, in +by far the greater space of time in our lives, our daily work is a +distraction, and tends to obscure the face of God to us and to shut us +out from many of the storehouses of sustenance by which a quiet, +contemplative faith is refreshed. Therefore we need times of special +prayer and remoteness from daily work; and there will be very little +realisation of the nourishing power of common duties unless there is +familiar to us also the entrance into the 'secret place of the Most +High,' where He feeds His children on the bread of life. + +We must not neglect either of these two ways by which our souls are +fed, and we must ever remember that the reason why so many Christian +people cannot set to their seal that this promise is true, lies mainly +in this, that the ways on which they go are either not the ways that +the Shepherd has walked in before them, or that they are trodden in +forgetfulness of Him and without looking to His guidance. The work that +is to minister to the Christian life must be work conformed to the +Christian ideal, and if we fling ourselves into our secular business, +as it is called--if you go to your counting-houses and shops, and I go +to my desk and books, and forget the Shepherd--then there is no grass +by the wayside for such sheep. But if we subject our wills to Him, and +if in all that we do we are trying to refer to Him and are working in +dependence on Him, and for Him, then the poorest work, the meanest, the +most entirely secular, will be a source of Christian nourishment and +blessing. We have to settle for ourselves whether we shall be +distracted, torn asunder by pressure of cares and responsibilities and +activities, or whether, far below the agitated surface which is ruffled +by the winds, and borne along by the tidal wave, there will be a great +central depth, still but not stagnant--whether we shall be fed, or +starved in our Christian life, by the pressure of our worldly tasks. +The choice is before us. 'They shall feed in the ways,' if the ways are +Christ's ways, and He is at every step their Shepherd. + +Further, my text suggests that for those who follow the Lamb there +shall be greenness and pasture on the bare heights. Strip that part of +our text of its metaphor, and it just comes to the blessed old thought, +which I hope many of us have known to be a true one, that the times of +sorrow are the times when a Christian may have the most of the presence +and strength of God. 'In the days of famine they shall be satisfied,' +and up among the most barren cliffs, where there is not a bite for any +four-footed creature, they shall find springing grass and watered +pastures. Our prophet puts the same thought, under a kindred though +somewhat different metaphor, in another place in this book, where he +says, 'I will open rivers in high places.' That is clean contrary to +nature. The rivers do not run on the mountain-tops, but down in the low +ground. But for us, as the darkness thickens, the pillar may glow the +brighter; as the gloom increases, the glory may grow; the less of +nutriment or refreshment earth affords, the more abundantly does God +spread His stores before us, if we are wise enough to take them. It is +an experience, I suppose, common to all devout men, that their times of +most rapid growth were their times of trouble. In nature winter stops +all vegetable life. In grace the growing time is the winter. They tell +us that up in the Arctic regions the reindeer will scratch away the +snow, and get at the succulent moss that lies beneath it. When that +Shepherd, Who Himself has known sorrows, leads us up into those barren +regions of perpetual cold and snow, He teaches us, too, how to brush it +away, and find what we need buried and kept safe and warm beneath the +white shroud. It is the prerogative of the Christian soul not to be +without trouble, but to turn the trouble into nourishment, and to feed +on the barest heights. + +May I turn these latter words of our text a somewhat different way, +attaching to them a meaning which does not belong to them, but by way +of accommodation? If Christian people want to have the bread of God +abundantly, they must climb. It is to those who live on the heights +that provision comes according to their need. If you would have your +Christian life starved, go down into the fertile valleys. Remember +Abraham and Lot, and the choice which each made. The one said: 'I want +cattle and wealth, and I am going down to Sodom. Never mind about the +vices of the inhabitants. There is money to be made there.' Abraham +said: 'I am going to stay up here on the heights, the breezy, barren +heights,' and God stayed beside him. If we go down we starve our souls. +If we desire them to be fat and flourishing, nourished with the hidden +manna, then we must go up. 'Their pasture shall be in all high places.' + +Before I finish, let me remind you of the application of the words of +my text, which we owe to the New Testament. The context runs, as you +will remember, 'they shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the +heat nor the sun smite them. For He that hath mercy on them shall lead +them, even by the springs of water shall He guide them.' And you +remember the beautiful variation and deepening of this promise in that +great saying which the Seer in the Apocalypse gives us, when he speaks +of those 'who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth,' and are led 'by +living fountains of water,' where 'God shall wipe away all tears from +their eyes.' So we are entitled to believe that on the loftiest +heights, far above this valley of weeping, there shall be immortal +food, and that on the high places of the mountains of God there shall +be pasture that never withers. The prophet Ezekiel has a similar +variation of my text, and transfers it from the captives on their march +homewards, to the happy pilgrims who have reached home, when he says: +'I will bring them unto their own land, and feed them upon the +mountains of Israel'--when they have reached them at last after the +weary march--' I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the +mountains of Israel shall their fold be; there shall they lie in a good +fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of +Israel.' + + + + +THE MOUNTAIN ROAD + +'And I will make all My mountains a way, and My highways shall be +exalted.'--ISAIAH xlix. 11. + + +This grand prophecy is far too wide to be exhausted by the return of +the exiles. There gleamed through it the wider redemption and the true +return of the real captives. The previous promises all find their +fulfilment in the experiences of the soul on its journey back to God. +Here we have two characteristics of that journey. + +I. The Path through the mountains. + +'_My_ mountains.' That is the claim that all the world is His; and also +the revelation that He is the Lord of Providence. He makes our +difficult and steep places. Submission comes with that thought, and +even 'for the strength of the hills we bless Thee.' There are mountains +which are not His but ours, artificial difficulties of our own creating. + +1. Our way does lie over the mountains. There are difficulties. The +Christian course is like a Roman road which never turned aside, but +went straight up and on. So much the better. A keener air blows, +bracing and health-giving, up there. Mosquitoes and malaria keep to the +lower levels. + +2. There is always a path over the mountains. Some way opens when we +get close up, like a path through heather, which is not seen till +reached. We walk by faith. We foolishly forebode and fancy that we +cannot live if something happens, but there is no _cul de sac_ in our +paths if God's mountain-way is our way, nor does the faint track ever +die out if our faith is keen-sighted and docile. + +II. The Pasture on the mountains--lit. 'bare heights.' + +Pastures in the East are down in bottoms, not, like ours, upon the +hills. But this flock finds supplies on the barren hill-tops. + +Sustenance in Sorrow and Loss. + +1. Promise that whatever be our trials and losses we shall be taken +care of. Not, perhaps, as we should have liked, nor as abundantly fed +as down in the valleys, but still not left to starve. No carcases +strewed on the bleakest bit of road as one sees dead camels by the side +of the tracks in the desert. + +2. Promise of sustenance of a higher kind even in sorrow. The Alpine +flora is specially beautiful, though minute. The blessings of +affliction; the more intimate knowledge of His love, submission of +will. 'Out of the eater came forth meat.' + +'Passing through the valley of weeping they make it a well'; the tears +shed in times of rightly borne sorrow are gathered into a reservoir +from which refreshment, patience, trust and strength may be drawn in +later days. + +But the perfect fulfilment of the promise lies beyond this life. 'On +the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be,' and they who have +found pasture on the barren heights of earthly sorrow shall 'summer +high in bliss upon the hills of God,' and shall at once both lie 'for +ever in a good fold,' and 'follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth,' and +find fountains of living water bursting forth for ever on these fertile +heights. + + + + +THE WRITING ON GOD'S HANDS + +'Behold! I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands; thy walls are +continually before Me.'--ISAIAH xlix. 16. + + +In the preceding context we have the infinitely tender and beautiful +words: 'Zion hath said, The Lord hath forsaken me. Can a woman forget +her sucking child? ... yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget +thee.' There is more than a mother's love in the Father's heart. But +wonderful in their revelation of God, and mighty to strengthen, calm, +and comfort, as these transcendent words are, those of my text, which +follow them, do not fall beneath their loftiness. They are a singularly +bold metaphor, drawn from the strange and half-savage custom, which +lingers still among sailors and others, of having beloved names or +other tokens of affection and remembrance indelibly inscribed on parts +of the body. Sometimes worshippers had the marks of the god thus set on +their flesh; here God writes on His hands the name of the city of His +worshippers. And it is not its name only, but its very likeness that He +stamps there, that He may ever look on it, as those who love bear with +them a picture of one dear face. The prophecy goes on: 'Thy walls are +continually before Me,' but in the prophet's time the walls were in +ruins, and yet they are present to the divine mind. + +I. Now, the first thought suggested by these great words is that here +we have set forth for our strength and peace a divine remembrance, +tender as--yea, more tender than--a mother's. + +When Israel came out of Egypt, the Passover was instituted as 'a +memorial unto all generations,' or, as the same idea is otherwise +expressed, 'it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand.' Here God +represents Himself as doing for Israel what He had bid Israel do for +Him. They were, as it were, to write the supreme act of deliverance in +the Exodus upon their hands, that it might never be forgotten. He +writes Zion on His hands for the same purpose. + +Now, of course, the text does not primarily refer to individuals, but +to the community, whether Zion is understood, as the prophet understood +the name, to be ancient Israel, or as the Christian Church. But the +recognition of that fact should not be allowed to rob us of the +preciousness of this text in its bearing on the individual. For God +remembers the community, not as an abstraction or a generalised +expression, but as the aggregate of all the individuals composing it. +We lose sight of the particulars when we generalise. We cannot see the +trees for the wood. We think of 'the Church,' and do not think of the +thousands of men and women who make it up. We cannot discern the +separate stars in the galaxy. But God's eye resolves what to us is a +nebula, and to Him every single glittering point of light hangs rounded +and separate in the heaven. Therefore this assurance of our text is to +be taken by every single soul that loves God, and trusts Him through +Jesus Christ, as belonging to it, as though there were not another +creature on earth but itself. + + 'The sun whose beams most glorious are, + Disdaineth no beholder.' + +Its light floods the world, yet seems to go straight into the eyeball +of every man that looks at it. And such is the divine love and +remembrance. There is no jostling nor confusion in the wide space of +the heart of God. They that go before shall not hinder them that come +after. The hungry crowd sat down in companies on the green grass, and +the first fifty, no doubt, were envied by the last of the hundred +fifties that made up the five thousand, and wondered whether the five +loaves and the two small fishes could go round, but the last fed full +as did the first. The great promise of our text belongs to me and thee, +and therefore belongs to us all. + +That remembrance which each man may take for himself--and we are poor +Christians if we do not live in its light--is infinitely tender. The +echo of the music of the previous words still haunts the verse, and the +remembrance promised in it is touched with more than a mother's love. +'I am poor and needy,' says the Psalmist, 'yet the Lord thinketh upon +me.' He might have said, 'I am poor and needy, therefore the Lord +thinketh upon me.' That remembrance is in full activity when things are +darkest with us. Israel said, 'My Lord hath forgotten me,' because at +the point of view taken in the second half of Isaiah, it was captive in +a far-off land. You and I sometimes are brought into circumstances in +which we are ready to think 'God has, somehow or other, left me, has +forgotten me.' Never! never! However mirk the night, however apparently +solitary the way, however mysterious and insoluble the difficulties of +our position, let us fall back on this, that the captive Israel was +remembered by God, and let us be sure that no circumstances of our +lives are so dark or mysterious as to warrant the faintest shadow of +suspicion creeping over the brightness of our confidence in this great +promise. His divine remembrance of each of His servants is certain. + +But do not let us forget that it was a very sinful Zion that God thus +remembered. It was because the nation had transgressed that they were +captives, but their very captivity was a proof that they were not +forgotten. The loving divine remembrance had to smite in order to prove +that it was active. Let us neither be puzzled by our sorrows nor made +less confident when we think of our sins. For there is no sin that is +strong enough to chill the divine love, or to erase us from the divine +remembrance. 'Captive Israel! captive because sinful, I have graven +_thee_ on the palms of My hands.' + +II. A second thought here is that the divine remembrance guides the +divine action. + +The palm of the hand is the seat of strength, the instrument of work; +and so, if Zion's name is written there, that means not only +remembrance, but remembrance which is at the helm, as it were, which is +moulding and directing all the work that is done by the hand that bears +the name inscribed upon it. The thought is identical with the one which +is suggested by part of the High Priest's official dress, although +there the thought has a different application. He bore the names of the +twelve tribes graven upon his shoulder, the seat of power, and upon his +breastplate that lay above the heart, the home of love. God holds out +the mighty Hand which works all things, and says to His children: +'Look, you are graven there'--at the very fountain-head, as it were, of +the divine activity. Which, being turned into plain English, is just +this, that for His Church as a whole, He does move amidst the affairs +of nations. You remember the grand words of one of the Psalms,--'He +reproved kings for their sakes, saying, Touch not Mine anointed, and do +My prophets no harm.' It is no fanatical reading of the history of +earthly politics and kingdoms, if we recognise that one of the most +prominent reasons for the divine activities in moulding the kingdoms, +setting up and casting down, is the advancement of the kingdom of +heaven and the building of the City of God. 'I have graven thee on the +palms of My hands'--and when the hands go to work, it is for the Zion +whose likeness they bear. + +But the same truth applies to us individually. 'All things work +together'; they would not do so, unless there was one dominant Will +which turned the chaos into a cosmos. 'All things work,' that is very +plain. The tremendous activities round us both in Nature and in history +are clear to us all. But if all things and events are co-operant, +working into each other, and for one end, like the wheels of a +well-constructed engine, then there must be an Engineer, and they work +together because He is directing them. Thus, because my name is graven +on the palms of the mighty Hand that doeth all things, therefore 'all +things work together for my good.' If we could but carry that quiet +conviction into all the mysteries, as they sometimes seem to be, of our +daily lives, and interpret everything in the light of that great +thought, how different all our days would be! How far above the petty +anxieties and cares and troubles that gnaw away so much of our strength +and joy; how serene, peaceful, lofty, submissive, would be our lives, +and how in the darkest darkness there would be a great light, not only +of hope for a distant future, but of confident assurance for the +present. 'I have graven thee on the palms of My hands '--do Thou, then, +as Thou wilt with me. + +III. A last thought here is that the divine remembrance works all +things, to realise a great ideal end, as yet unreached. + +'Thy walls are continually before Me.' When this prophecy was uttered +the Israelites were in captivity, and the city was a wilderness, 'the +holy and beautiful House'--as this very book says--'where the fathers +praised Thee was burned with fire,' the walls were broken down, rubbish +and solitude were there. Yet on the palms of God's hands were inscribed +the walls which were nowhere else! They were 'before Him,' though +Jerusalem was a ruin. What does that mean? It means that that divine +remembrance sees 'things that are not, as though they were.' In the +midst of the imperfect reality of the present condition of the Church +as a whole, and of us, its actual components, it sees the ideal, the +perfect vision of the perfect future, and 'all the wonder that shall +be.' Zion may be desolate, but 'before Him' stands what will one day +stand on the earth before all men, 'the new Jerusalem, coming down from +heaven,' having walls great and high, and its foundations garnished +with all manner of precious stones. 'Thy walls are before Me,' though +the ruins are there before men. + +So, brethren, the most radiant optimism is the only fitting attitude +for Christian people in looking into the future, either of the Church +as a whole, or of themselves as individual members of it. God's hand is +working for Zion and for me. It is guided by love that does not lose +the individual in the mass, nor ever forgets any of its children, and +it works towards the attainment of unattained perfection. 'This Man' +does not 'begin to build and' prove 'not able to finish.' + +So let us be sure that, if only we keep ourselves in the love, and +continue in the grace of God, He will not slack nor stay His hand on +which Zion is graven, until it has 'perfected that which concerneth +us,' and fulfilled to each of us that 'which He has spoken to us of.' + +I said at the beginning of these remarks that God did what He bids us +do. God bids us do what He does. His name should be on our hands; that +is to say, memory of Him, love of Him, regard to Him, confidence in Him +should mould and guide all our activity, and the aim that we shall be +builded up for a habitation of God through the Spirit should be the +conscious aim of our lives, as it is the aim which He has in view in +all His dealings with us. Our names on His hand; His name on our hands; +so shall we be blessed. + + + + +THE SERVANT'S WORDS TO THE WEARY + +'The Lord God hath given me the tongue of them that are taught, that I +should know how to sustain with words him that is weary; he wakeneth +morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as they that are +taught.'--ISAIAH l. 4. + + +In chapter xlix. 1-6, the beginning of the continuous section of which +these verses are part, a transition is made from Israel as collectively +the ideal servant of the Lord, to a personal Servant, whose office it +is 'to bring Jacob again to Him.' We see the ideal in the very act of +passing to its highest form, and that in which it is finally fulfilled +in history, namely, by the person Jesus. That Jesus was 'Thy Holy +Servant' was the earliest gospel preached by Peter and John before +people and rulers. It is not the most vital conception of our Lord's +nature and work. The prophet does not here pierce to the core, as in +his fifty-third chapter with its vision of the Suffering Servant, but +this is prelude to that, and the office assigned here to the Servant +cannot be fully discharged without that ascribed to Him there, as the +prophet begins to discern almost immediately. The text gives us a +striking view of the purpose of Messiah's mission and of His training +and preparation for it. + +I. The purpose of Christ's mission. + +There is a remarkable contrast between the stately prelude to the +section of the prophecy in chapter xlix., and the ideal in this text. +There the Servant calls the isles and the distant peoples to listen, +and declares that His mouth is 'like a sharp sword'; here all that is +keen and smiting in His word has softened into gentle whispers of +comfort to sustain the weary. + +A mission addressed to 'the weary' is addressed to every man, for who +is not 'weighed upon with sore distress,' or loaded with the burden and +the weight of tasks beyond his power or distasteful to his +inclinations, or monotonous to nausea, or prolonged to exhaustion, or +toiled at with little hope and less interest? Who is not weary of +himself and of his load? What but universal weariness does the +universal secret desire for rest betray? We are all 'pilgrims weary of +time,' and some of us are weary of even prosperity, and some of us are +worn out with work, and some of us buffeted to all but exhaustion by +sorrow, and all of us long for rest, though many of us do not know +where to look for it. + +Jesus may have had this word in mind, when He called to Him all them +'that labour and are heavy laden.' At all events, the prophet's ideal +and the evangelists' story accurately correspond. Christ's words have +other characteristics, but are eminently words that sustain the weary +and comfort the down-hearted. Who can ever calculate the new strength +poured by them into fainting hearts and languid hands, the all but dead +hopes that they have reanimated, the sorrows they have comforted, the +wounds they have stanched? + +What a lesson here as to the noblest use of high endowments! What a +contrast to the use that so many of those to whom God has given 'the +tongue of them that are taught' make of their great gifts! Literature +yields but few examples of great writers who have faithfully employed +their powers for that purpose, which seems so humble and is so lofty, +the help of the weary, the comfort of the sad. Many pages in famous +books would be cancelled if all that had been written without +consideration for these classes were obliterated, as it will be one day. + +But Christ not only speaks by outward words, but has other ways of +lodging sustenance and comfort in souls than by vocables audible to the +ear or visible to the eye on the page. 'The words that I speak unto +you, they are spirit and they are life.' He spoke by His deeds on +earth, and in one and the same set of facts, He 'began to do and to +teach,' the doing being named first. He 'now speaketh from Heaven' by +many an inward whisper, by the communication of His own Spirit, on Whom +this very office of ministering sustenance and comfort is laid, and +whose very name of the Comforter means One who by his being with a man +strengthens him. + +II. The training and preparation of the Messiah for His mission. + +The Messiah is here represented as having the tongue of 'them that are +taught,' and as having it, because morning by morning He has been +wakened to hear God's lessons. He is thus God's scholar--a thought of +which an unreflecting orthodoxy has been shy, but which it is necessary +to admit unhesitatingly and ungrudgingly, if we would not reduce the +manhood of Jesus to a mere phantasm. He Himself has said, 'As the +Father taught Me, I speak these things.' With emphatic repetition, He +was continually making that assertion, as, for instance, 'I have not +spoken of Myself, but the Father which sent Me, He gave Me a +commandment what I should say, and what I should speak ... the things +therefore which I speak, even as the Father hath said unto Me, so I +speak.' + +The Gospels tell us of the prayers of Jesus, and of rare occasions in +which a voice from heaven spoke to Him. But while these are palpable +instances of His communion with God, and precious tokens of His true +brotherhood with us in the indispensable characteristics of the life of +faith, they are but the salient points on which the light falls, and +behind them, all unknown by us, stretches an unbroken chain of like +acts of fellowship. In that subordination as of a scholar to teacher, +both His divine and His human nature concurred, the former in filial +submission, the latter in continual, truly human derivation and +reception. The man Jesus was taught and, like the boy Jesus, 'increased +in wisdom.' + +But while He learned as truly as we learn from God, and exercised the +same communion with the Father, the same submission to Him, which other +men have to exercise, and called 'us brethren, saying, I will put my +trust in Him,' the difference in degree between His close fellowship +with God the Father, and our broken and always partial fellowship, +between His completeness of reception of God's words and our imperfect +comprehension, between His perfect reproduction of the words He had +heard and our faint, and often mistaken echo of them, is so immense as +to amount to a difference in kind. His unity of will and being with the +Father ensured that all His words were God's. 'Never man spake like +this man.' The man who speaks to us once for all God's words must be +more than man. Other men, the highest, give us fragments of that mighty +voice; Jesus speaks its whole message, and nothing but its message. Of +that perfect reproduction He is calmly conscious, and claims to give +it, in words which are at once lowly and instinct with more than human +authority: 'All things that I have heard of My Father I have made known +unto you.' Who besides Him dare make such a claim? Who besides Him +could make it without being met by incredulous scorn? His utterance of +the Father's words was unmarred by defect on the one hand, and by +additions on the other. It was like pure water which tastes of no soil. +His soul was like an open vessel plunged in a stream, filled by the +flow and giving forth again its whole contents. + +That divine communication to Jesus was no mere impartation of +abstractions or 'truths,' still less of the poor words of man's speech, +but was the flowing into His spirit of the living Father by whom He +lived. And it was unbroken. 'Morning by morning' it was going on. The +line was continuous, whereas for the rest of us, at the best, it is a +series of points more or less contiguous, but with dark spaces between. +'God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him.' + +So, then, let us hold fast by Him, the Son in whom God has spoken to +us, and to all voices without and within that would woo us to listen, +let us answer with the only wise answer: 'To whom shall we go? Thou +hast the words of eternal life.' + + + + +THE SERVANT'S OBEDIENCE + +'I was not rebellious, neither turned away back'--ISAIAH l. 5. + + +I. The secret of Christ's life, filial obedience. + +The fact is attested by Scripture. By His own words: 'My meat is to do +the will of My Father'; 'For thus it becometh us to fulfil all +righteousness'; 'I came down from heaven not to do My own will.' By His +servant's words: 'Obedient unto death'; 'Made under the law'; 'He +learned obedience by the things which He suffered.' It is involved in +the belief of His righteous manhood. It is essential to true manhood. +The highest ideal for humanity is conscious dependence on God, and the +very definition of righteousness is conscious conformity to the Will of +God. If Christ had done the noblest acts and yet had not always had +this sense of being a servant, He would not have been pure and holy. + +It is not inconsistent with His true Divinity. We stand afar off, but +we can see this much. + +The completeness of that obedience. It was continuous and it was entire. + +The living heart of it: 'I delight to do Thy Will.' The Father's Will +was not a force without, but Christ's whole being was conformed to it, +and it was shrined within His heart and had become His choice and +delight. + +The expressions of His obedience were His perfect fulfilment of the +divine commands, and His perfect endurance of the divine appointments. + +Thus God's Will was the keynote, to which Christ's will struck the full +chord. + +II. The yet deeper mysteries which that perfect obedience discloses. + +1. A sinless human life must be more than human. The contrast with all +which we have known--the impossibility of retaining belief in the +perfect obedience of Jesus unless we have underlying it the belief in +His divinity. 'There is none good but one, that is God.' + +2. The sinless human life suffers not for itself but for us. The +combination of holiness and sorrow leads on to the mystery of +atonement. The sinlessness is indispensable to the doctrine of His +sacrificial death. + +III. The glorious gifts which flow from that perfect obedience. + +1. It gives us a living law to obey. + +2. It gives us a transforming power to receive. + +3. It gives us a perfect righteousness to trust to. + +This perfect obedience may be ours. Being ours, our lives will be +strong, free, peaceful. + +That obedience becomes ours by faith, which leads to love, and love to +the glad obedience of sons. + +THE SERVANT'S VOLUNTARY SUFFERINGS + +'I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that plucked off +the hair: I hid not My face from shame and spitting.'--ISAIAH l. 6. + +Such words are not to be dealt with coldly. Unless they be grasped by +the heart they are not grasped at all. We do not think of analysing in +the presence of a great sorrow. There can be no greater dishonour to +the name of Christ than an unemotional consideration of His sufferings +for us. The hindrances to a due consideration of these are manifold; +some arising from intellectual, and some from moral, causes. Most men +have difficulty in vivifying any historical event so as to feel its +reality. There is no nobler use of the historical imagination than to +direct it to that great life and death on which the salvation of the +world depends. + +The prophet here has advanced from the first general conception of the +Servant of the Lord as recipient of divine commission, and submissive +to the divine voice, to thoughts of the sufferings which He would meet +with on His path, and of how He bore them. + +I. The sufferings of the Servant. + +The minute particularity is very noteworthy, scourging, plucking the +beard, shame, all sorts of taunts and buffets on the face, and the last +indignity of spitting. Clearly, then, He is not only to suffer +persecution, but is to be treated with insult and to endure that +strange blending, so often seen, of grim infernal laughter with grim +infernal fury, the hyena's laugh and its ferocity. Wherever it occurs, +it implies not only fell hate and cruelty, but also contempt and a +horrible delight in triumphing over an enemy. It is found in all +corrupt periods, and especially in religious persecutions. Here it +implies the rejection of the Servant. + +The prophecy was literally fulfilled, but not in all its traits. This +may give a hint as to the general interpretation of prophecy and may +teach that external fulfilment only points to a deeper correspondence. +The most salient instance is in Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem riding +on an ass, which was but a finger-post to guide men's thoughts to His +fulfilling the ideal of the Messianic King. And yet, the minute +correspondences are worth noticing. What a strange, solemn glimpse they +give into that awful divine omniscience, and into the mystery of the +play of the vilest passions as being yet under control in their +extremest rage! + +We must note the remarkable prominence in the narratives of the +Passion, of signs of contempt and mockery; Judas' kiss, the purple +robe, the crown of thorns, 'wagging their heads,' 'let be, let Elias +come,' etc. + +Think of the exquisite pain of this to Christ. That He was sinless and +full of love made it all the worse to bear. Not the physical pain, but +the consciousness that He was encompassed by such an atmosphere of +evil, was the sharpest pang. We should think with reverent sympathy of +His perfect discernment of the sinful malignant hearts from which the +sufferings came, of His pained and rejected love thrown back on itself, +of His clear sight of what their heartless infliction of tortures would +end in for the inflicters, of His true human feeling which shrank from +being the object of contempt and execration. + +II. His patient submission. + +'I gave,'--purely voluntary. That word originally expressed the patient +submission with which He endured at the moment, when the lash scored +His back, but it may be widened out to express Christ's perfect +voluntariness in all His passion. At any moment He could have abandoned +His work if His filial obedience and His love to men had let Him do so. +His would-be captors fell to the ground before one momentary flash of +His majesty, and they could have laid no hand on Him, if His will had +not consented to His capture. Fra Angelico has grasped the thought +which the prophet here uttered, and which the evangelists emphasise, +that all His suffering was voluntary, and that His love to us +restrained His power, and led Him to the slaughter, silent as a sheep +before her shearers. For he has pourtrayed the majestic figure seated +in passive endurance, with eyes blindfolded but yet wide open behind +the bandage, all-seeing, wistful, sad, and patient, while around are +fragments of rods, and smiting hands, and a cruel face blowing spittle +on the unshrinking cheeks. He seems to be saying: 'These things hast +thou done, and I kept silence.' 'Thou couldest have no power at all +against Me unless it were given thee.' + +III. His submission to suffering in obedience to the Father's Will. + +The context connects His opened ear and His not being rebellious with +His giving His back to the smiters. That involves the idea that these +indignities and insults were part of the divine counsel in reference to +Him. That same combination of ideas is strongly presented in the early +addresses of Peter, recorded in the first chapters of Acts, of which +this is a specimen: 'Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel +and foreknowledge of God, ye with wicked hands have crucified and +slain.' The full significance of Christ's passion as that of the +atoning sacrifice was not yet clear to the apostle, any more than the +Servant's sufferings were to the prophet, but both prophet and apostle +were carried on by fuller experience and reflection on what they +already saw clearly, to discern the inwardness and depth of these. The +one soon came to see that 'by His stripes we are healed,' and the other +finally wrote: 'Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the +tree.' And whoever deeply ponders the startling fact that 'it pleased +the Lord to bruise Him,' sinless and ever obedient as He was, will be +borne, sooner or later, into the full sunlight of the blessed belief +that when Jesus suffered and died, 'He died for all.' His sufferings +were those of a martyr for truth, who is willing to die rather than +cease to witness for it; but they were more. They were the sufferings +of a lover of mankind who will face the extremest wrong that can be +inflicted, rather than abandon His mission; but they were more. They +were not merely the penalty which He had to pay for faithfulness to His +work; they were themselves the crown and climax of His work. The Son of +Man came, indeed, 'not to be ministered to but to minister,' but that, +taken alone, is but a maimed view of what He came for, and we must +whole-heartedly go on to say as He said, 'and to give His life a ransom +for many,' if we would know the whole truth as to the sufferings of +Jesus. + +Again, since Christ suffers according to the will of God, it is clear +that all representations of the scope of His atoning death, which +represent it as moving the will of the Father to love and pardon, are +travesties of the truth and turn cause into effect. God does not love, +because Jesus died, but Jesus died because God loved. + +Further, it is to be noted that His sufferings are the great means by +which He sustains the weary. The word to which His ears were opened, +morning by morning, was the word to which He was docile when He gave +His back to the smiters. It is His passion, regarded as the sacrifice +for a world's sin, from which flow the most powerful stimulants to +service and tonics for weary souls, the tenderest comfortings for +sorrow. He sustains and comforts by the example of His life, but far +more, and more sweetly, more mightily, by that which flows to us +through His death. His sufferings are powerful to sustain, when thought +of as our example, but they are a tenfold stronger source of patience +and strength, when laid on our hearts as the price of our redemption. +The Cross is, in all senses of the expression, the tree of life. + +Wonder, reverence, love, gratitude, should well forth from our hearts, +when we think of these cruel sufferings, but the deepest fountains in +them will not be unsealed, unless we see in the suffering Servant the +atoning Son. + + + + +THE SERVANT'S INFLEXIBLE RESOLVE + +'For the Lord God will help Me; therefore shall I not be confounded: +therefore have I set My face like a flint.'--ISAIAH l. 7. + + +What a striking contrast between the tone of these words and of the +preceding! There all is gentleness, docility, still communion, +submission, patient endurance. Here all is energy and determination, +resistance and martial vigour. It is like the contrast between a priest +and a warrior. And that gentleness is the parent of this boldness. The +same Will which is all submission to God is all resistance in the face +of hostile men. The utmost lowliness and the most resolved resistance +to opposing forces are found in that prophetic image of the Servant of +the Lord--even as they are found in the highest degree and most +perfectly in Jesus Christ. + +The sequence in this context is worth noting. We had first Christ's +communion with God and communications from the Father; then the perfect +submission of His Will; then that submission expressed in His voluntary +sufferings; and now we have His immovable steadfastness of resistance +to the temptation, which lay in these sufferings, to depart from His +attitude of submission, and to abandon His work. + +The former verse led us up to the verge of the great mystery of His +sacrificial death. This gives us a glimpse into the depths of His human +life, and shows Him to us as our example in all holy heroism. + +I. The need which Christ felt to exercise firm resistance. + +The words of the text are found almost reproduced in Jeremiah i. and +Ezekiel iii. All prophets and servants of God have had thus to resist, +and it would be superfluous to show how resistance to opposing +influences is the condition of all noble life and of all true service. + +But was it so with Him? The more accurate translation of the second +clause of our text is to be noticed: 'Therefore I will not suffer +Myself to be overcome by the shame.' + +Then the shame had in it some tendency to divert Him from His course. +Christ's humanity felt natural human shrinking from pain and suffering. +It shrank from the contempt and mockery of those around Him, and did so +with especial sensitiveness because of His pure and sinless nature, His +yearning sympathy, the atmosphere of love in which He dwelt, His clear +sight of the sin, and His prevision of the consequent sorrow. If so, +His sufferings did appeal to His human nature and constituted a +temptation. + +At the beginning the Tempter addressed himself to natural desires to +procure physical gratification (bread), and to the equally natural +desire to avoid suffering and pain, and to secure His kingdom by an +easier method ('All these will I give Thee, if--'). + +And the latter temptation attended Him all through His life, and was +most insistent at its close. The shadow of the cross stretched along +His path from its beginning. But it is to be remembered that he had not +the same need of _self_-control which we have, in that His Will was not +reluctant, and that no rebellious desires had escaped from its control +and needed to be reduced to submission. 'I was not rebellious.' 'The +spirit is willing but the flesh is weak' was true in the fullest extent +only of Him. So the context gives us His perfect submission of will, +and yet the need to harden His face toward externals from which, +instinctively and without breach of filial obedience, His sensitive +nature recoiled. The reality of the temptation, the limits of its +reach, His consciousness of it, and His immovable obedience and +resistance, are all expressed in the deep and wonderful words, 'If it +be possible, let this cup pass from Me, nevertheless not as I will, but +as Thou wilt.' + +II. The perfect inflexible resolve. + +'Face like a flint' seems to be quoted in Luke ix. 51; 'Steadily set +His face.' The whole story of the Gospels gives the one impression of a +life steadfast in its great resolve. There are no traces of His ever +faltering in His purpose, none of His ever suffering Himself to be +diverted from it, no parentheses and no digressions. There are no +blunders either. But what a contrast in this respect to all other +lives! Mark's Gospel, which is eminently the gospel of the Servant, is +full of energy and of this inflexible resolve, which speak in such +sayings as 'I must be about My Father's business'; 'I must work the +works of My Father while it is day.' That last journey, during which He +'steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem,' is but a type of the +whole. Christ's life was a continuous or rather a continually repeated +effort. + +This inflexible resolve is associated in Him with characteristics not +usually allied with it. The gentleness of Christ is so obvious in His +character that little needs to be said to point it out. To the +influence of His character more than to any other cause may be traced +the change in the perspective, so to speak, of Virtue, which +characterises modern notions of perfection as contrasted with antique +ones. Contrast the Greek and Roman type with the mediaeval ascetic, or +with the philanthropic type of modern times. Carlyle's ideal is +retrograde and an anachronism. Women and patient sufferers find example +in Him. But we have in Jesus Christ, too, the highest example of all +the stronger and robuster virtues, the more distinctly heroic, +masculine; and that not merely passive firmness of endurance such as an +American Indian will show in torments, but active firmness which +presses on to its goal, and, immovably resolute, will not be diverted +by anything. In Him we see a resolved Will and a gentle loving Heart in +perfect accord. That is a wonderful combination. We often find that +such firmness is developed at the expense of indifference to other +people. It is like a war chariot, or artillery train, that goes +crashing across the field, though it be over shrieking men and broken +bones, and the wheels splash in blood. Resolved firmness is often +accompanied with self-absorption which makes it gloomy, and with narrow +limitations. Such men gather all their powers together to secure a +certain end, and do it by shutting the eyes of their mind to everything +but the one object, like the painter, who blocks up his studio window +to get a top light, or as a mad bull lowers his head and blindly rushes +on. + +There is none of all this in Christ's firmness. He was able at every +moment to give His whole sympathy to all who needed it, to take in all +that lay around Him, and His resolute concentration of Himself on His +work made Him none the less perfect in all which goes to make up +complete manhood. Not only was Christ's firmness that of a fixed Will +and a most loving Heart, like one of these 'rocking stones,' whose +solid mass can be set vibrating by a poising bird, but the fixed Will +came from the loving Heart. The very compassion and pity of His nature +led to that resolved continuance in His path of redeeming love, though +suffering and mockery waited for Him at each turn. + +And so He is the Joshua, the Warrior-King, as well as the Priest. That +Face, ever ready to kindle into pity, to melt into tenderness, to +express every shade of tender feeling, was 'set as a flint.' That Eye, +ever brimming with tears, was ever fixed on one goal. That Character is +the type of all strength and of all gentleness. + +III. The basis of Christ's fixed resolve in filial confidence. + +'The Lord God will help Me.' So Christ lived by faith. + +That faith led to this heroic resistance and immovable resolution. + +That confidence of divine help was based upon consciousness of +obedience. + +It is most blessed for us to have Him as our example of faith and of +brave opposition to all the antagonistic forces around us. But we need +more than an example. He will but rebuke our wavering purposes of +obedience, if He is no more than our pattern. Thank God, He is more, +even our Fountain of Power, from Whom we can draw life akin to, because +derived from, His own. In Him we can feel strength stealing into +flaccid limbs, and gain 'the wrestling thews that throw the world.' If +we are 'in Christ' and on the path of duty, we too may be able to set +our faces as a flint, and to say truthfully: 'None of these things move +me, neither count I my life dear to myself, that I may finish my course +with joy.' And yet we may withal be gentle, and keep hearts 'open as +day to melting charity,' and have leisure and sympathy to spare for +every sorrow of others, and a hand to help and 'sustain him that is +weary.' + + + + +THE SERVANT'S TRIUMPH + +'He is near that justifieth Me; who will contend with Me? let us stand +together: who is Mine adversary? let him come near to Me. 9. Behold, +the Lord God will help Me; who is he that shall condemn Me? lo, they +all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.'--ISAIAH l. +8, 9. + + +We have reached the final words of this prophecy, and we hear in them a +tone of lofty confidence and triumph. While the former ones sounded +plaintive like soft flute music, this rings out clear like the note of +a trumpet summoning to battle. The Servant of the Lord seems here to be +eager for the conflict, not merely patient and enduring, not merely +setting His face like a flint, but confidently challenging His +adversaries, and daring them to the strife. + +As for the form of the words, the image underlying the whole is that of +a suit at law. It is noteworthy that since Isaiah xli. this metaphor +has run through the whole prophecy. The great controversy is God +_versus_ Idols. God appears at the bar of men, pleads His cause, calls +His witnesses (xliii. 9). 'Let them' (_i.e._ idols) 'bring forth their +witnesses that they may be justified.' + +Possibly the form of the words here is owing to the dominance of that +idea in the context, and implies nothing more than the general notion +of opposition and victory. But it is at least worth remembering that in +the life of Christ we have many instances in which the prophetic images +were literally fulfilled even though their meaning was mainly +symbolical: as _e.g._ the riding on the ass, the birth in Bethlehem, +the silence before accusers, 'a bone of Him shall not be broken,' and +in this very contest, 'shame and spitting.' So here there may be +included a reference to that time when the hatred of opposition reached +its highest point--in the sufferings and death of our Lord. And it is +at least a remarkable coincidence that that highest point was reached +in formal trials before the ecclesiastical and civil authorities, for +the purpose of convicting Him, and that these processes as legal +procedures broke down so signally. + +Keeping up the metaphor, we mark here-- + +I. The Messiah's lofty challenge to His accusers. II. The Messiah's +expectation of divine vindication and acquittal. III. The Messiah's +confidence of ultimate triumph. + +I. Messiah's lofty challenge to His accusers. + +The 'justifying' which He expects may refer either to personal +character or to official functional faithfulness. I think it refers to +both, and that we have here, expressed in prophetic outline, not only +the fact of Christ's sinlessness, but the fact of His consciousness of +sinlessness. + +The words are the strongest assertion of His absolute freedom from +anything that an adversary could lay hold of on which to found a +charge, and not merely so, but they also dare to assert that the +unerring and all-penetrating eye of the Judge of all will look into His +heart, and find nothing there but the mirrored image of His own +perfection. I do not need to dwell on the fact of Christ's sinlessness, +that He is perfect manhood without stain, without defect. I have had +occasion to touch upon that truth in a former sermon on 'I was not +rebellious.' Here we have to do not so much with sinlessness as with +the consciousness of sinlessness. + +Now note that consciousness on Christ's part. + +We have to reckon with the fact of it as expressed in His own words: 'I +do always the things that please Him. Which of you convinceth Me of +sin?' 'The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in Me.' + +In Him there is the absence of all trace of sense of sin. + +No prayer for forgiveness comes from His lips. + +No penitence, no acknowledgment of even weakness is heard from Him. +Even in His baptism, which for others was an acknowledgment of +impurity, He puts His submission to the rite, not on the ground of +needing to be washed from sin, but of 'fulfilling all righteousness.' + +Now, unless Christ was sinless, what do we say of these assertions? 'If +we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not +in us'--are we to apply that canon to Him when He stands before us and +asks, 'Which of you convinceth Me of sin?' Surely it augurs small +self-knowledge or a low moral standard if, from the lips of a religious +teacher, there never comes one word to indicate that he has felt the +hold of evil on him. I make bold to say that if Christ were not +sinless, the Apostle Paul stood far above Him, with his 'of whom I am +chief.' What difference would there be between Him and the Pharisees +who called forth His bitterest words by this very absence in them of +consciousness of sin: 'If ye were blind ye would have no sin, but now +ye say, We see, therefore your sin remaineth.' + +Singularly enough the world has accepted Him at His own estimate, and +has felt that these lofty assertions of absolute perfection were borne +out by His life, and were consistent with the utmost lowliness of heart. + +As to the adversary's failure, I need only recall the close of His +life, which is representative of the whole impression made on the world +by Him. What a wonderful and singular concurrence of testimonies was +borne to His pure and blameless life! After months of hatred and +watching, even the rulers' lynx-eyed jealousy found nothing, and they +had to fall back upon false witnesses. 'Hearest thou not how many +things they witness against Thee?' He stood with unmoved silence, and +the lies fell down dead at His feet. Had He answered, they would have +been preserved and owed their immortality to the Gospels: He held His +peace and they vanished. All attempts failed so signally that at the +last they were fain, in well-simulated holy abhorrence, to base His +condemnation on what He had said in their presence. 'How think ye, ye +have heard the blasphemy?' So all that the adversary, raking through a +life, could find, was that one word. That was His sin; in all else He +was pure. Remember Pilate's acquittal: 'I find no fault in Him,' and +his wife's warning, 'Have thou nothing to do with that just Person.' +Think of Judas, 'I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent +blood.' Listen to the penitent thief's low voice gasping out in his +pangs and almost collapse: 'This man hath done nothing amiss.' Listen +to the Centurion telling the impression made even on his rough nature: +'Truly this was a righteous Man.' + +These are the answers to the Servant's challenge, wrung from the lips +of His adversaries; and they but represent the universal judgment of +humanity. + +There is one Man whose life has been without stain or spot, whose soul +has never been crossed by a breath of passion, nor dimmed by a speck of +sin, whose will has ever been filled with happy obedience, whose +conscience has been undulled by evil and untaught to speak in +condemnation, whose whole nature has been like some fair marble, pure +in hue, perfect in form, and unstained to the very core. There is one +Man who can front the most hostile scrutiny with the bold challenge, +'Which of you convinceth Me of sin?' and His very haters have to +answer, 'I find no fault in Him,' while those that love Him rejoice to +proclaim Him 'holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.' +There is one Man who can front the most rigid Law of Duty and say, 'I +came not to destroy but to fulfil,' and the stony tables seem to glow +with tender light, as of rocky cliffs in morning sunshine, attesting +that He has indeed fulfilled all righteousness. There is one Man who +can stand before God without repentance or confession, and whose claim +'I do always the things that please Him,' the awful voice from the +opening heavens endorses, when it proclaims; 'This is My beloved Son in +whom I am well pleased.' The lowly Servant of God flings out His +challenge to the universe: 'Who will contend with Me?' and that gage +has lain in the lists for nineteen centuries unlifted. + +II. The Messiah's expectation of divine vindication and acquittal. + +Like many another man, Christ had to strengthen Himself against calumny +and slander by turning to God, and finding comfort in the belief that +there was One who would do Him right, and as throughout this context we +have had the true humanity of our Lord in great prominence, it is worth +while to dwell for a moment on that thought of His real sharing in the +pain of misconstruction and groundless charges, and of His too having +to say, as we have so often to say, 'Well, there is one who knows. Men +may condemn but God will acquit.' + +But there is something more than that here. The divine vindication and +acquittal is not a mere hidden thought and judgment in the mind of God. +It is a declaring and showing to be innocent, and that not by word but +by deed. That expectation seemed to be annihilated and made ludicrous +by His death. But the 'justifying' of which our text speaks takes place +in Christ's resurrection and ascension. + +'Manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit' (1 Timothy iii. 16). +'Declared to be the Son of God with power, ... by the resurrection from +the dead' (Rom. i. 4). + +His death seems the entire abandonment of this holy and sinless man. It +seems to demonstrate His claims to be madness, His hope to be futile, +His promises to be wind. No wonder that the sorrowing apostles wailed, +'We trusted that it had been He who should have redeemed Israel.' The +death of Christ, if it were but a martyr's death, and if we had to +believe that that frame had crumbled into dust, and that heart ceased +for ever to beat, would not only destroy the worth of all that He +spoke, but would be the saddest instance in all history of the +irreversible sway that death wields over all mankind, and would deepen +the darkness and sadden the gloom of the grave. True, there were not +wanting even in His dying hours mysterious indications, such as His +promise to the penitent thief. But these only make the disappointment +the deeper, if there was nothing more after His death. + +So Christ's justification is in His resurrection and ascension. + +III. The Messiah's confidence of ultimate triumph. + +In the last words of the text the adversaries are massed together. The +confidence that the Lord God will help and justify leads to the +conviction that all opposition to Him is futile and leads to +destruction. + +We see the historical fulfilment in the fate of the nation. 'His blood +be upon us and upon our children.' + +We have a truth applying universally that antagonism to Him is +self-destructive. + +Two forms of destruction are here named. There is a slow decay going on +in the opponents and their opposition, as a garment waxing old, and +there is a being fretted away by the imperceptible working of external +causes, as by gnawing moths. + +Applied to persons. To opposing systems. + +How many antagonists the Gospel has had, and one after another has been +antiquated, and their books are only known because fragments of them +are preserved in Christian writings. Paganism is gone from Europe, and +its idols are in our museums. Each generation has its own phase of +opposition, which lasts for a little while. The mists round the sun +melt, the clouds piled in the north, surging up to bury it beneath +their banks, are dissipated. The sea roars and smashes on the cliffs, +but it ebbs and calms. Some of us have seen more than one school of +thought which came to the assault of Christianity, with colours flying +and drums rattling, defeated utterly and forgotten, and so it will +always be. One may be sure that each enemy in turn will descend to the +oblivion that has already received so many, and can imagine these +beaten foes rising from their seats to welcome the newcomer with the +sad greeting: 'Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like +unto us?' + +We are 'justified' in His 'justification.' + +The real connection between us and Christ by faith, makes our +justification to be involved in His, so that it is no mere +accommodation but a profound perception of the real relation between +Christ and us, when Paul, in Romans viii. 34, triumphantly claims the +words of our text for Christ's disciples, and rings out their challenge +on behalf of all believers: 'It is God that justifieth, who is he that +condemneth?' + +Do you trust in Christ? Then you too can dare to say: 'The Lord God +will help me; who is he that shall condemn me?' + +'Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his +servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in +the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.'--ISAIAH l. 10. + +The persons addressed in this call to faith are 'those who fear the +Lord,' and 'obey the voice of His Servant.' In that collocation is +implied that these two things are necessarily connected, so that +obedience to Christ is the test of true religion, and the fear of the +Lord does not exist where the word of the Son is neglected or rejected. + +But besides that most fruitful and instructive juxtaposition, other +important thoughts come into view here. The fact that the call to faith +is addressed to those who are regarded as already fearing God suggests +the need for renewed and constantly repeated acts of confidence, at +every stage of the Christian life, and opens up the whole subject of +the growth and progress of individual religion, as secured by the +continuous exercise of faith. The call is addressed to all at every +stage of advancement. Of course it is addressed also to those who are +disobedient and rebellious. But that wider aspect of the merciful +invitation does not come into view here. + +But there is another clause in the description of the persons +addressed, 'Who walketh in darkness and hath no light.' This is, no +doubt, primarily a reference to the great sorrow that filled, like a +gloomy thundercloud, the horizon of Jewish prophets, small and +uninteresting as it seems to us, namely, the captivity of Israel and +their expulsion from their land. The faithful remnant are not to escape +their share in the national calamity. But while it lasts, they are to +wait patiently on the Lord, and not to cast away their confidence, +though all seems dark and dreary. + +The exhortation thus regarded suggests the power and duty of faith even +in times of disaster and sorrow. But another meaning has often been +attached to these words, they have been lifted into another region, the +spiritual, and have been supposed to refer to a state of feeling not +unknown to devout hearts, in which the religious life is devoid of joy +and peace. That is a phase of Christian experience, which meets any one +who knows much of the workings of men's hearts, and of his own, when +faith is exercised with but little of the light of faith, and the fear +of the Lord is cherished with but scant joy in the Lord. Now if it be +remembered that such an application of the words is not their original +purpose, there can be no harm in using them so. Indeed we may say that, +as the words are perfectly general, they include a reference to all +darkness of life or soul, however produced, whether it come from the +night of sorrow falling on us from without, or from mists and gloom +rising like heavy vapours from our own hearts. So considered, the text +suggests the one remedy for all gloom and weakness in the spiritual +life. + +Thus, then, we have three different sets of circumstances in which +faith is enforced as the source of true strength and our all-embracing +duty. In outward sorrow and trial, trust; in inward darkness and +sadness, trust; in every stage of Christian progress, trust. Or + +I. Faith the light in the darkness of the world. II. Faith the light in +the darkness of the soul. III. Faith the light in every stage of +Christian progress. + + * * * * * + +I. Faith our light in the darkness of the world. + +The mystery and standing problem of the Old Testament is the +coexistence of goodness and sorrow, and the mystery still remains, and +ever will remain, a fact. It is partially alleviated if we remember +that one main purpose of all our sorrows is to lead us to this +confidence. + +1. The call to faith is the true voice of all our sorrows. + +It seems easy to trust when all is bright, but really it is just as +hard, only we can more easily deceive ourselves, when physical +well-being makes us comfortable. We are less conscious of our own +emptiness, we mask our poverty from ourselves, we do not seem to need +God so much. But sorrow reveals our need to us. Other props are struck +away, and it is either collapse or Him. We learn the vanity, the +transiency, of all besides. + +Sorrow reveals God, as the pillar of cloud glowed brighter when the +evening fell. Sorrow is meant to awaken the powers that are apt to +sleep in prosperity. + +So the true voice of all our griefs is 'Come up hither.' They call us +to trust, as nightfall calls us to light up our lamps. The snow keeps +the hidden seeds warm; shepherds burn heather on the hillside that +young grass may spring. + +2. The call to faith echoes from the voice of the Servant. + +Jesus in His darkness rested on God, and in all His sorrows was yet +anointed with the oil of gladness. In every pang He has been before us. +The rack is sanctified because He has been stretched upon it. + +3. The substance of the call. + +It is to _trust_, not to anything more. No attempts to stifle tears are +required. There is no sin in sorrow. The emotions which we feel to God +in bright days are not appropriate at such times. There are seasons in +every life when all that we can say is, 'Truly this is a grief, and I +will bear it.' + +What then _is_ required? Assurance of God's loving will sending sorrow. +Assurance of God's strengthening presence in it, assurance of +deliverance from it. These, not more, are required; these are the +elements of the faith here called for. + +Such faith may co-exist with the keenest sense of loss. The true +attitude in sorrow may be gathered from Christ's at the grave of +Lazarus, contrasted with the excessive mourning of the sisters, and the +feigned grief of the Jews. + +There are times when the most that we can do is to trust even in the +great darkness, 'Though He slay me yet will I trust in Him.' Submissive +silence is sometimes the most eloquent confession of faith. 'I was +dumb, I opened not my mouth, because Thou didst it.' + +4. The blessed results of such faith. + +It is implied that we may find all that we need, and more, in God. Have +we to mourn friends? 'In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord +sitting on a throne.' Have we lost wealth? We have in Him a treasure +that moth or rust cannot touch. Are our hopes blasted? 'Happy is He ... +whose hope is in the Lord his God.' Is our health broken? 'I shall yet +praise Him, who is the health of my countenance.' 'The Lord is able to +give thee much more than these.' + +How can we face the troubles of life without Him? God calls us when in +darkness, and by the darkness, to trust in His name and stay ourselves +on Him. Happy are we if we answer 'Though the fig-tree shall not +blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines ... yet I will rejoice in +the Lord, and joy in the God of my salvation.' + +II. Faith, our light in the darkness of the soul. + +No doubt there may be such a thing as true fear of God in the soul +along with spiritual darkness, faith without the joy of faith. Now this +condition seems contradictory of the very nature of the Christian life. +For religion is union with God who is light, and if we walk in Him, we +are in the light. How then can such experience be? + +We must dismiss the notion of God's desertion of the trusting soul. He +is always the same; He has 'never said to the seed of Jacob, Seek ye Me +in vain.' But while putting aside that false explanation, we can see +how such darkness may be. If our religious life was in more vigorous +exercise, more pure, perfect and continuous, there would be no +separation of faith and the joy of faith. But we have not such +unruffled, perfect, uninterrupted faith, and hence there may be, and +often is, faith without much joy of faith. I would not say that such +experience is always the fruit of sin. But certainly we are not to +blame Him or to think of Him as breaking His promises, or departing +from His nature. No principles, be they ever so firmly held, ever so +undoubtingly received, ever so passionately embraced, exert their whole +power equally at all moments in a life. There come times of languor +when they seem to be mere words, dead commonplaces, as unlike their +former selves as sapless winter boughs to their summer pride of leafy +beauty. The same variation in our realising grasp affects the truths of +the Gospel. Sometimes they seem but words, with all the life and power +sucked out of them, pale shadows of themselves, or like the dried bed +of a wady with blazing, white stones, where flashing water used to +leap, and all the flowerets withered, which once bent their meek little +heads to drink. No facts are always equally capable of exciting their +correspondent emotions. Those which most closely affect our personal +life, in which we find our deepest joys, are not always present in our +minds, and when they are, do not always touch the springs of our +feelings. No possessions are always equally precious to us. The rich +man is not always conscious with equal satisfaction of his wealth. If, +then, the way from the mind to the emotions is not always equally open, +there is a reason why there may be faith without light of joy. If the +thoughts are not always equally concentrated on the things which +produce joy, _there_ is a reason why there may be the habit of fearing +God, though there be not the present vigorous exercise of faith, and +consequently but little light. + +Another reason may lie in the disturbing and saddening influence of +earthly cares and sorrows. There are all weathers in a year. And the +highest hope and nearest possible approach to joy is sometimes 'Unto +the upright there ariseth light in the darkness.' Our lives are +sometimes like an Arctic winter in which for many days is no sun. + +Another reason may be found in the very fact that we are apt to look +impatiently for peace and joy, and to be more exercised with these than +with that which produces them. + +Another may be errors or mistakes about God and His Gospel. + +Another may be absorption with our own sin instead of with Him. To all +these add temperament, education, habit, example, influence of body on +the mind, and of course also positive inconsistencies and a low tone of +Christian life. + +It is clear then that, if these be the causes of this state, the one +cure for it is to exercise our faith more energetically. + +Trust, do not look back. We are tempted to cast away our confidence and +to say: What profit shall I have if I pray unto Him? But it is on +looking onwards, not backwards, that safety lies. + +Trust, do not think about your sins. + +Trust, do not think so much about your joy. + +It is in the occupation of heart and mind with Jesus that joy and peace +come. To make them our direct aim is the way not to attain them. Though +now there seems a long wintry interval between seed time and harvest, +yet 'in due season we shall reap if we faint not.' + +'In the fourth watch of the night Jesus came unto them.' + +III. Faith our guiding light in every stage of Christian progress. + +Those who already 'fear God' are in the text exhorted to trust. + +In the most advanced Christian life there are temptations to abandon +our confidence. We never on earth come to such a point as that, without +effort, we are sure to continue in the way. True, habit is a wonderful +ally of goodness, and it is a great thing to have it on our side, but +all our lives long, there will be hindrances without and within which +need effort and self-repression. On earth there is no time when it is +safe for us to go unarmed. The force of gravitation acts however high +we climb. Not till heaven is reached will 'love' be 'its own security,' +and nature coincide with grace. And even in heaven faith 'abideth,' but +there it will be without effort. + +1. The most advanced Christian life needs a perpetual renewal and +repetition of past acts of faith. + +It cannot live on a past any more than the body can subsist on last +year's food. The past is like the deep portions of coral reefs, a mere +platform for the living present which shines on the surface of the sea, +and grows. We must gather manna daily. + +The life is continued by the same means as that by which it was begun. +There is no new duty or method for the most advanced Christian; he has +to do just what he has been doing for half a century. We cannot +transcend the creatural position, we are ever dependent. 'To hoar hairs +will I carry you.' The initial point is prolonged into a continuous +line. + +2. The most advanced and mature faith is capable of increase, in regard +to its knowledge of its object, and in intensity, constancy, power. At +first it may be a tremulous trust, afterwards it should become an +assured confidence. At first it may be but a dim recognition, as in a +glass darkly, of the great love which has redeemed us at a great price; +afterwards it should become the clear vision of the trusted Friend and +lifelong companion of our souls, who is all in all to us. At first it +may be an interrupted hold, afterwards it should become such a grasp as +the roots of a tree have on the soil. At first it may be a feeble power +ruling over our rebel selves, like some king beleaguered in his +capital, who has no sway beyond its walls, afterwards it should become +a peaceful sovereign who guides and sways all the powers of the soul +and outgoings of the life. At first it may be like a premature rose +putting forth pale petals on an almost leafless bough, afterwards the +whole tree should be blossomed over with fragrant flowers, the homes of +light and sweetness. The highest faith may be heightened, and the +spirits before the throne pray the prayer, 'Lord, increase our faith.' + +For us all, then, the merciful voice of the servant of the Lord calls +to His light. Our faith is our light in darkness, only as a window is +the light of a house, or the eye, of the body, because it admits and +discerns that true light. He calls us each from the darkness. Do not +try to make fires for yourselves, ineffectual and transient, but look +to Him, and you shall not walk in darkness, even amid the gloom of +earth, but shall have light in your darkness, till the time come when, +in a clearer heaven and a lighter air, 'Thy sun shall no more go down, +neither shall thy moon withdraw itself, for the Lord shall be thine +everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.' + + + + +DYING FIRES + +'Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that gird yourselves about with +firebrands: walk ye in the flame of your fire, and among the brands +that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie +down in sorrow.'--ISAIAH l. 11. + + +The scene brought before us in these words is that of a company of +belated travellers in some desert, lighting a little fire that glimmers +ineffectual in the darkness of the eerie waste. They huddle round its +dying embers for a little warmth and company, and they hope it will +scare wolf and jackal, but their fuel is all burned, and they have to +go to sleep without its solace and security. The prophet's imaginative +picture is painted from life, and is a sad reality in the cases of all +who seek to warm themselves at any fire that they kindle for +themselves, apart from God. + +I. A sad, true picture of human life. + +It does not cover, nor is presented by the prophet as covering, all the +facts of experience. Every man has his share of sunshine, but still it +is true of all who are not living in dependence on and communion with +God, that they are but travellers in the dark. + +Scripture uses the image of darkness as symbolic of three sad facts of +our experience: ignorance, sin, sorrow. Are not all these the +characteristics of godless lives? + +As for ignorance--a godless man has no key to the awful problems that +front him. He knows not God, who is to him a dread, a name, a mystery. +He knows not himself, the depths of his nature, its possibilities for +good or evil, whence it cometh nor whither it goeth. He has no solution +for the riddle of the universe. It is to him a chaos, and darkness is +upon the face of the deep. + +As to sin, the darkness of ignorance is largely due to the darkness of +sin. In every heart comes sometimes the consciousness that it is thus +darkened by sin. The sense of sin is with all men more or less--much +perverted, often wrong in its judgments, feeble, easily silenced, but +for all that it is there--and it is great part of the cold obstruction +that shuts out the light. Sin weaves the pall that shrouds the world. + +As for darkness of sorrow--we must beware that we do not exaggerate. +God makes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and there is +gladness in every life, much that arises from fulfilled desires, from +accomplished purposes, from gratified affections. But when all this has +been freely admitted, still sadness crouches somewhere in all hearts, +and over every life the storm sometimes stoops. + +We need nothing beyond our own experience and the slightest knowledge +of other hearts to know how shallow and one-sided a view of life that +is which sees only the joy and forgets the sorrow, which ignores the +night and thinks only of the day; which, looking out on nature, is +blind to the pain and agony, the horror and the death, which are as +real parts of it as brightness and beauty, love and life. Every little +valley that lies in lovely loneliness has its scenes of desolation, and +tempest has broken over the fairest scenes. Every river has drowned its +man. Over every inch of blue sky the thunder cloud has rolled. Every +summer has its winter, every day its night, every life its death. All +stars set, all moons wane. 'Bare ruined choirs where late the sweet +birds sang' come after every leafy June. + +Sorrow is as deeply embedded in the necessity and constitution of +things as joy. 'God hath set one over against another, and hath made +all things double.' + +II. The vain attempts at light. + +There is bitter irony in the prophet's description of the poor +flickering spot of light in the black waste and of its swift dying out. +The travellers without a watch-fire are defenceless from midnight +prowlers. How full of solemn truth about godless lives the vivid +outline picture is! + +Men try to free themselves from the miseries of ignorance, sin, and +sorrow. + +Think of the insufficiency of all such attempts, the feeble flicker +which glimmers for an hour, and then fuel fails and it goes out. Then +the travellers can journey no further, but 'lie down in sorrow,' and +without a watchfire they become a prey to all the beasts of the field. +It is a little picture taken from the life. + +It vividly paints how men _will_ try to free themselves from the +miseries of their condition, how insufficient all their attempts are, +how transient the relief, and how bitter and black the end. + +We may apply these thoughts to-- + +1. Men-made grounds of hope before God. + +2. Men-made attempts to read the mysteries. + +We do not say this of all human learning, but of that which, apart from +God's revelation, deals with the subjects of that revelation. + +3. Men-made efforts at self-reformation. + +4. Men-made attempts at alleviating sorrow. + +Scripture abounds in other metaphors for the same solemn spiritual +facts as are set before us in this picture of the dying watchfire and +the sad men watching its decline. Godless lives draw from broken +cisterns out of which the water runs. They build with untempered +mortar. They lean on broken reeds that wound the hand pressed on them. +They spend money for that which is not bread. But all these metaphors +put together do not tell all the vanity, disappointments, and final +failure and ruin of such a life. That last glimpse given in the text of +the sorrowful sleeper stretched by the black ashes, with darkness round +and hopeless heaviness within, points to an issue too awful to be dwelt +on by a preacher, and too awful not to be gravely considered by each of +us for himself. + +III. The light from God. + +What would the dead fire and the ring of ashes on the sand matter when +morning dawned? Jesus is our Sun. He rises, and the spectres of the +night melt into thin air, and 'joy cometh in the morning.' He floods +our ignorance with knowledge of the Father whose name He declares, with +knowledge of ourselves, of the world, of our destiny and our duty, our +hopes and our home. He takes away the sin of the world. He gives the +oil of joy for mourning. For every human necessity He is enough. Follow +Him and your life's pilgrimage shall not be a midnight one, but +accomplished in sunshine. 'I am the light of the world; he that +followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of +life.' + + + + +THE AWAKENING OF ZION + +'Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the +ancient days, in the generations of old.'--ISAIAH li. 9. + +'Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion.'--ISAIAH lii. 1. + + +Both these verses are, I think, to be regarded as spoken by one voice, +that of the Servant of the Lord. His majestic figure, wrapped in a +light veil of obscurity, fills the eye in all these later prophecies of +Isaiah. It is sometimes clothed with divine power, sometimes girded +with the towel of human weakness, sometimes appearing like the +collective Israel, sometimes plainly a single person. + +We have no difficulty in solving the riddle of the prophecy by the +light of history. Our faith knows One who unites these diverse +characteristics, being God and man, being the Saviour of the body, +which is part of Himself and instinct with His life. If we may suppose +that He speaks in both verses of the text, then, in the one, as priest +and intercessor, He lifts the prayers of earth to heaven in His own +holy hands--and in the other, as messenger and Word of God, He brings +the answer and command of heaven to earth on His own authoritative +lips--thus setting forth the deep mystery of His person and double +office as mediator between man and God. But even if we put aside that +thought, the correspondence and relation of the two passages remain the +same. In any case they are intentionally parallel in form and connected +in substance. The latter is the answer to the former. The cry of Zion +is responded to by the call of God. The awaking of the arm of the Lord +is followed by the awaking of the Church. He puts on strength in +clothing us with His might, which becomes ours. + +The mere juxtaposition of these verses suggests the point of view from +which I wish to treat them on this occasion. I hope that the thoughts +to which they lead may help to further that quickened earnestness and +expectancy of blessing, without which Christian work is a toil and a +failure. + +We have here a common principle underlying both the clauses of our +text, to which I must first briefly ask attention, namely-- + +I. The occurrence in the Church's history of successive periods of +energy and of languor. + +It is freely admitted that such alternation is not the highest ideal of +growth, either in the individual or in the community. Our Lord's own +parables set forth a more excellent way--the way of uninterrupted +increase, whereof the type is the springing corn, which puts forth +'first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear,' +and passes through all the stages from the tender green spikelets that +gleam over the fields in the spring-tide to the yellow abundance of +autumn, in one unbroken season of genial months. So would our growth be +best, healthiest, happiest. So _might_ our growth be, if the mysterious +life in the seed met no checks. But, as a matter of fact, the Church +has not thus grown. Rather at the best, its emblem is to be looked for, +not in corn, but in the forest tree-the very rings in whose trunk tell +of recurring seasons when the sap has risen at the call of spring, and +sunk again before the frowns of winter. I have not to do now with the +causes of this. These will fall to be considered presently. Nor am I +saying that such a manner of growth is inevitable. I am only pointing +out a fact, capable of easy verification and familiar to us all. Our +years have had summer and winter. The evening and the morning have +completed all the days since the first. + +We all know it only too well. In our own hearts we have known such +times, when some cold clinging mist wrapped us round and hid all the +heaven of God's love and the starry lights of His truth; when the +visible was the only real, and He seemed far away and shadowy; when +there was neither confidence in our belief, nor heat in our love, nor +enthusiasm in our service; when the shackles of conventionalism bound +our souls, and the fetters of the frost imprisoned all their springs. +And we have seen a like palsy smite whole regions and ages of the +Church of God, so that even the sensation of impotence was dead like +all the rest, and the very tradition of spiritual power had faded away. +I need not point to the signal historical examples of such times in the +past. Remember England a hundred years ago--but what need to travel so +far? May I venture to draw my example from nearer home, and ask, have +we not been living in such an epoch? I beseech you, think whether the +power which the Gospel preached by us wields on ourselves, on our +churches, on the world, is what Christ meant it and fitted to exercise. +Why, if we hold our own in respect to the material growth of our +population, it is as much as we do. Where is the joyful buoyancy and +expansive power with which the Gospel burst into the world? It looks +like some stream that leaps from the hills, and at first hurries from +cliff to cliff full of light and music, but flows slower and more +sluggish as it advances, and at last almost stagnates in its flat +marshes. Here we are with all our machinery, our culture, money, +organisations--and the net result of it all at the year's end is but a +poor handful of ears. 'Ye sow much and bring home little.' Well may we +take up the wail of the old Psalm, 'We see not our signs. There is no +more any prophet; neither is there any among us that knoweth how +long--arise, O Lord, plead Thine own cause.' + +If, then, there are such recurring seasons of languor, they must either +go on deepening till sleep becomes death, or they must be broken by a +new outburst of vigorous life. It would be better if we did not need +the latter. The uninterrupted growth would be best; but if that has not +been attained, then the ending of winter by spring, and the suppling of +the dry branches, and the resumption of the arrested growth, is the +next best, and the only alternative to rotting away. + +And it is by such times that the Kingdom of Christ always has grown. +Its history has been one of successive impulses gradually exhausted, as +by friction and gravity, and mercifully repeated just at the moment +when it was ceasing to advance and had begun to slide backwards. And in +such a manner of progress, the Church's history has been in full +analogy with that of all other forms of human association and activity. +It is not in religion alone that there are 'revivals,' to use the word +of which some people have such a dread. You see analogous phenomena in +the field of literature, arts, social and political life. In them all, +there come times of awakened interest in long-neglected principles. +Truths which for many years had been left to burn unheeded, save by a +faithful few watchers of the beacon, flame up all at once as the +guiding pillars of a nation's march, and a whole people strike their +tents and follow where they lead. A mysterious quickening thrills +through society. A contagion of enthusiasm spreads like fire, fusing +all hearts in one. The air is electric with change. Some great advance +is secured at a stride; and before and after that supreme effort are +years of comparative quiescence; those before being times of +preparation, those after being times of fruition and exhaustion--but +slow and languid compared with the joyous energy of that moment. One +day may be as a thousand years in the history of a people, and a nation +may be born in a day. + +So also is the history of the Church. And thank God it is so, for if it +had not been for the dawning of these times of refreshing, the steady +operation of the Church's worldliness would have killed it long ago. + +Surely, dear brethren, we ought to desire such a merciful interruption +of the sad continuity of our languor and decay. The surest sign of its +coming would be a widespread desire and expectation of its coming, +joined with a penitent consciousness of our heavy and sinful slumber. +For we believe in a God who never sends mouths but He sends meat to +fill them, and in whose merciful providence every desire is a prophecy +of its own fruition. This attitude of quickened anticipation, diffusing +itself silently through many hearts, is like the light air that springs +up before sunrise, or like the solemn hush that holds all nature +listening before the voice of the Lord in the thunder. + +And another sign of its approach is the extremity of the need. 'If +winter come, can spring be far behind?' For He who is always with Zion +strikes in with His help when the want is at its sorest. His 'right +early' is often the latest moment before destruction. And though we are +all apt to exaggerate the urgency of the hour and the severity of _our_ +conflict, it certainly does seem that, whether we regard the languor of +the Church or the strength of our adversaries, succour delayed a little +longer would be succour too late. 'The tumult of those that rise up +against Thee increaseth continually. It is time for Thee to work.' + +The juxtaposition of these passages suggests for us-- + +II. The twofold explanation of these variations. + +That bold metaphor of God's sleeping and waking is often found in +Scripture, and generally expresses the contrast between the long years +of patient forbearance, during which evil things and evil men go on +their rebellious road unchecked but by Love, and the dread moment when +some throne of iniquity, some Babylon cemented by blood, is smitten to +the dust. Such is the original application of the expression here. But +the contrast may fairly be widened beyond that specific form of it, and +taken to express any apparent variations in the forth-putting of His +power. The prophet carefully avoids seeming to suggest that there are +changes in God Himself. It is not He but His arm, that is to say. His +active energy, that is invoked to awake. The captive Church prays that +the dormant might which could so easily shiver her prison-house would +flame forth into action. + +We may, then, see here implied the cause of these alternations, of +which we have been speaking, on its divine side, and then, in the +corresponding verse addressed to the Church, the cause on the human +side. + +As to the former, it is true that God's arm sometimes slumbers, and is +not clothed with power. There are, as a fact, apparent variations in +the energy with which He works in the Church and in the world. And they +are real variations, not merely apparent. But we have to distinguish +between the power, and what Paul calls 'the might of the power.' The +one is final, constant, unchangeable. It does not necessarily follow +that the other is. The rate of operation, so to speak, and the amount +of energy actually brought into play may vary, though the force remains +the same. + +It is clear from experience that there are these variations; and the +only question with which we are concerned is, are they mere arbitrary +jets and spurts of a divine power, sometimes gushing out in full flood, +sometimes trickling in painful drops, at the unknown will of the unseen +hand which controls the flow? Is the 'law of the Spirit of life' at all +revealed to us; or are the reasons occult, if there be any reasons at +all other than a mere will that it shall be so? Surely, whilst we never +can know all the depths of His counsels and all the solemn concourse of +reasons which, to speak in man's language, determine the energy of His +manifested power, He has left us in no doubt that this is the +weightiest part of the law which it follows--the might with which God +works on the world through His Church varies according to the Church's +receptiveness and faithfulness. + +Our second text tells us that if God's arm seems to slumber and really +does so, it is because Zion sleeps. In itself that immortal energy +knows no variableness. 'He fainteth not, neither is weary.' 'The Lord's +arm is not shortened that He cannot save.' 'He that keepeth Israel +shall neither slumber nor sleep.' But He works through us; and we have +the solemn and awful power of checking the might which would flow +through us; of restraining and limiting the Holy One of Israel. It +avails nothing that the ocean stretches shoreless to the horizon; a jar +can hold only a jarful. The receiver's capacity determines the amount +received, and the receiver's desire determines his capacity. The law +has ever been, 'according to your faith be it unto you.' God gives as +much as we will, as much as we can hold, as much as we use, and far +more than we deserve. As long as we will bring our vessels the golden +oil will flow, and after the last is filled, there yet remains more +that we might have had, if we could have held it, and might have held +if we would. 'Ye are not straitened in Me, ye are straitened in +yourselves.' + +So, dear brethren, if we have to lament times of torpor and small +success, let us be honest with ourselves, and recognise that all the +blame lies with us. If God's arm seems to slumber, it is because we are +asleep. His power is invariable, and the Gospel which is committed to +our trust has lost none of its ancient power, whatsoever men may say. +If there be variations, they cannot be traced to the divine element in +the Church, which in itself is constant, but altogether to the human, +which shifts and fluctuates, as we only too sadly know. The light in +the beacon-tower is steady, and the same; but the beam it throws across +the waters sometimes fades to a speck, and sometimes flames out clear +and far across the heaving waves, according to the position of the +glasses and shades around it. The sun pours out heat as profusely and +as long at midwinter as on midsummer-day, and all the difference +between the frost and darkness and glowing brightness and flowering +life, is simply owing to the earth's place in its orbit and the angle +at which the unalterable rays fall upon it. The changes are in the +terrestrial sphere; the heavenly is fixed for ever the same. + +May I not venture to point an earnest and solemn appeal with these +truths? Has there not been poured over us the spirit of slumber? Does +it not seem as if an opium sky had been raining soporifics on our +heads? We have had but little experience of the might of God amongst us +of late years, and we need not wonder at it. There is no occasion to +look far for the reason. We have only to regard the low ebb to which +religious life has been reduced amongst us to have it all and more than +all accounted for. I fully admit that there has been plenty of +activity, perhaps more than the amount of real life warrants, not a +little liberality, and many virtues. But how languid and torpid the +true Christian life has been! how little enthusiasm! how little depth +of communion with God! how little unworldly elevation of soul! how +little glow of love! An improvement in social position and +circumstances, a freer blending with the national life, a full share of +civic and political honours, a higher culture in our pulpits, fine +chapels, and applauding congregations--are but poor substitutes for +what many of us have lost in racing after them. We have the departed +prophets' mantle, the outward resemblance to the fathers who have gone, +but their fiery zeal has passed to heaven with them; and softer, weaker +men, we stand timidly on the river's brink, invoking the Lord God of +Elijah, and too often the flood that obeyed them has no ear for our +feebler voice. + +I speak to many who are in some sort representatives of the churches +throughout the land, and they can tell whether my words are on the +whole true or overstrained. We who labour in our great cities, what say +we? If one of the number may speak for the rest, we have to acknowledge +that commercial prosperity and business cares, the eagerness after +pleasure and the exigencies of political strife, diffused doubt and +widespread artistic and literary culture, are eating the very life out +of thousands in our churches, and lowering their fervour till, like +molten iron cooling in the air, what was once all glowing with ruddy +heat is crusted over with foul black scoriae ever encroaching on the +tiny central warmth. You from rural churches, what say you? Have you +not to speak of deepening torpor settling down on quiet corners, of the +passing away of grey heads which leave no successors, of growing +difficulties and lessened power to meet them, that make you sometimes +all but despair? + +I am not flinging indiscriminate censures. I know that there are lights +as well as shades in the picture. I am not flinging censures at all. +But I am giving voice to the confessions of many hearts, that our +consciousness of our blame may be deepened, and we may hasten back to +that dear Lord whom we have left to serve alone, as His first disciples +left Him once to agonise alone under the gnarled olives in Gethsemane, +while they lay sleeping in the moonlight. Listen to His gentle rebuke, +full of pain and surprised love, 'What, could ye not watch with Me one +hour?' Listen to His warning call, loving as the kiss with which a +mother wakes her child, 'Arise, let us be going'--and let us shake the +spirit of slumber from our limbs, and serve Him as those unsleeping +spirits do, who rest not day nor night from vision and work and praise. + +III. The beginning of all awaking is the Church's earnest cry to God. + +It is with us as with infants, the first sign of whose awaking is a +cry. The mother's quick ear hears it through all the household noises, +and the poor little troubled life that woke to a scared consciousness +of loneliness and darkness, is taken up into tender arms, and comforted +and calmed. So, when we dimly perceive how torpid we have been, and +start to find that we have lost our Father's hand, the first instinct +of that waking, which must needs be partly painful, is to call to Him, +whose ear hears our feeble cry amid the sound of praise like the voice +of many waters, that billows round His throne, and whose folding arms +keep us 'as one whom his mother comforteth.' The beginning of all true +awaking must needs be prayer. + +For every such stirring of quickened religious life must needs have in +it bitter penitence and pain at the discovery flashed upon us of the +wretched deadness of our past--and, as we gaze like some wakened +sleepwalker into the abyss where another step might have smashed us to +atoms, a shuddering terror seizes us that must cry, 'Hold Thou me up, +and I shall be safe.' And every such stirring of quickened life will +have in it, too, desire for more of His grace, and confidence in His +sure bestowal of it, which cannot but breathe itself in prayer. + +Nor is Zion's cry to God only the beginning and sign of all true +awaking: it is also the condition and indispensable precursor of all +perfecting of recovery from spiritual languor. + +I have already pointed out the relation between the waking of God and +the waking of His Church, from which that necessarily follows. God's +power flows into our weakness in the measure and on condition of our +desires. We are sometimes told that we err in praying for the +outpouring of His Holy Spirit, because ever since Pentecost His Church +has had the gift. The objection alleges an unquestioned fact, but the +conclusion drawn from it rests on an altogether false conception of the +manner of that abiding gift. The Spirit of God, and the power which +comes from Him, are not given as a purse of money might be put into a +man's hand once and for all, but they are given in a continuous +impartation and communication and are received and retained moment by +moment, according to the energy of our desires and the faithfulness of +our use. As well might we say, Why should I ask for natural life, I +received it half a century ago? Yes, and at every moment of that +half-century I have continued to live, not because of a past gift, but +because at each moment God is breathing into my nostrils the breath of +life. So is it with the life which comes from His Spirit. It is +maintained by constant efflux from the fountain of Life, by constant +impartation of His quickening breath. And as He must continually +impart, so must we continually receive, else we perish. Therefore, +brethren, the first step towards awaking, and the condition of all true +revival in our own souls and in our churches, is this earnest cry, +'Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord. + +Thank God for the outpouring of a long unwonted spirit of prayer in +many places. It is like the melting of the snows in the high Alps, at +once the sign of spring and the cause of filling the stony river beds +with flashing waters, that bring verdure and growth wherever they come. +The winter has been long and hard. We have all to confess that we have +been restraining prayer before God. Our work has been done with but +little sense of our need of His blessing, with but little ardour of +desire for His power. We have prayed lazily, scarcely believing that +answers would come; we have not watched for the reply, but have been +like some heartless marksman who draws his bow and does not care to +look whether his arrow strikes the target. These mechanical words, +these conventional petitions, these syllables winged by no real desire, +inspired by no faith, these expressions of devotion, far too wide for +their real contents, which rattle in them like a dried kernel in a nut, +are these prayers? Is there any wonder that they have been dispersed in +empty air, and that we have been put to shame before our enemies? +Brethren in the ministry, do we need to be surprised at our fruitless +work, when we think of our prayerless studies and of our faithless +prayers? Let _us_ remember that solemn word, 'The pastors have become +brutish, and have not sought the Lord, therefore they shall not +prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.' And let us all, +brethren, betake ourselves, with penitence and lowly consciousness of +our sore need, to prayer, earnest and importunate, believing and +persistent, like this heaven-piercing cry which captive Israel sent up +from her weary bondage. + +Look at the passionate earnestness of it--expressed in the short, sharp +cry, thrice repeated, as from one in mortal need; and see to it that +our drowsy prayers be like it. Look at the grand confidence with which +it founds itself on the past, recounting the mighty deeds of ancient +days, and looking back, not for despair but for joyful confidence, to +the generations of old; and let our faint-hearted faith be quickened by +the example, to expect great things of God. The age of miracles is not +gone. The mightiest manifestations of God's power in the spread of the +Gospel in the past remain as patterns for His future. We have not to +look back as from low-lying plains to the blue peaks on the horizon, +across which the Church's path once lay, and sigh over the changed +conditions of the journey. The highest watermark that the river in +flood has ever reached will be reached and overpassed again, though +to-day the waters may seem to have hopelessly subsided. Greater +triumphs and deliverances shall crown the future than have signalised +the past. Let our faithful prayer base itself on the prophecies of +history and on the unchangeableness of God. + +Think, brethren, of the prayers of Christ. Even He, whose spirit needed +not to be purged from stains or calmed from excitement, who was ever in +His Father's house whilst He was about His Father's business, blending +in one, action and contemplation, had need to pray. The moments of His +life thus marked are very significant. When He began His ministry, the +close of the first day of toil and wonders saw Him, far from gratitude +and from want, in a desert place in prayer. When He would send forth +His apostles, that great step in advance, in which lay the germ of so +much, was preceded by solitary prayer. When the fickle crowd desired to +make Him the centre of political revolution, He passed from their hands +and beat back that earliest attempt to secularise His work, by prayer. +When the seventy brought the first tidings of mighty works done in His +name, He showed us how to repel the dangers of success, in that He +thanked the Lord of heaven and earth who had revealed these things to +babes. When He stood by the grave of Lazarus, the voice that waked the +dead was preceded by the voice of prayer, as it ever must be. When He +had said all that He could say to His disciples, He crowned all with +His wonderful prayer for Himself, for them, and for us all. When the +horror of great darkness fell upon His soul, the growing agony is +marked by His more fervent prayer, so wondrously compact of shrinking +fear and filial submission. When the cross was hid in the darkness of +eclipse, the only words from the gloom were words of prayer. When, +Godlike, He dismissed His spirit, manlike He commended it to His +Father, and sent the prayer from His dying lips before Him to herald +His coming into the unseen world. One instance remains, even more to +our present purpose than all these--'It came to pass, that Jesus also +being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost +descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him.' Mighty mystery! In +Him, too, the Son's desire is connected with the Father's gift, and the +unmeasured possession of the Spirit was an answer to _His_ prayer. + +Then, brethren, let us lift our voices and our hearts. That which +ascends as prayer descends as blessing, like the vapour that is drawn +up by the kiss of the sun to fall in freshening rain. 'Call upon Me, +and I will answer thee, and show thee great and hidden things which +thou knowest not.' + +IV. The answering call from God to Zion. + +Our truest prayers are but the echo of God's promises. God's best +answers are the echo of our prayers. As in two mirrors set opposite to +each other, the same image is repeated over and over again, the +reflection of a reflection, so here, within the prayer, gleams an +earlier promise, within the answer is mirrored the prayer. + +And in that reverberation, and giving back to us our petition +transformed into a command, we are not to see a dismissal of it as if +we had misapprehended our true want. It is not tantamount to, Do not +ask me to put on my strength, but array yourselves in your own. The +very opposite interpretation is the true one. The prayer of Zion is +heard and answered. God awakes, and clothes Himself with might. Then, +as some warrior king, himself roused from sleep and girded with +flashing steel, bids the clarion sound through the grey twilight to +summon the prostrate ranks that lie round his tent, so the sign of +God's awaking and the first act of His conquering might is this trumpet +call--'The night is far spent, the day is at hand, let us put off the +works of darkness,'--the night gear that was fit for slumber--'and put +on the armour of light,' the mail of purity that gleams and glitters +even in the dim dawn. God's awaking is our awaking. He puts on strength +by making us strong; for His arm works through us, clothing itself, as +it were, with our arm of flesh, and perfecting itself even in our +weakness. + +Nor is it to be forgotten that this, like all God's commands, carries +in its heart a promise. That earliest word of God's is the type of all +His latter behests: 'Let there be light,' and the mighty syllables were +creative and self-fulfilling. So ever, with Him, to enjoin and to +bestow are one and the same, and His command is His conveyance of +power. He rouses us by His summons, He clothes us with power in the +very act of bidding us put it on. So He answers the Church's cry by +stimulating us to quickened zeal, and making us more conscious of, and +confident in, the strength which, in answer to our cry, He pours into +our limbs. + +But the main point which I would insist on in what remains of this +sermon, is the practical discipline which this divine summons requires +from us. + +And first, let us remember that the chief means of quickened life and +strength is deepened communion with Christ. + +As we have been saying, our strength is ours by continual derivation +from Him. It has no independent existence, any more than a sunbeam +could have, severed from the sun. It is ours only in the sense that it +flows through us, as a river through the land which it enriches. It is +His whilst it is ours, it is ours when we know it to be His. Then, +clearly, the first thing to do must be to keep the channels free by +which it flows into our souls, and to maintain the connection with the +great Fountainhead unimpaired. Put a dam across the stream, and the +effect will be like the drying up of Jordan before Israel: 'the waters +that were above rose up upon an heap, and the waters that were beneath +failed and were cut off,' and the foul oozy bed was disclosed to the +light of day. It is only by constant contact with Christ that we have +any strength to put on. + +That communion with Him is no mere idle or passive attitude, but the +active employment of our whole nature with His truth, and with Him whom +the truth reveals. The understanding must be brought into contact with +the principles of His word, the heart must touch and beat against His +heart, the will meekly lay its hand in His, the conscience draw at once +its anodyne and its stimulus from His sacrifice, the passions know His +finger on the reins, and follow, led in the silken leash of love. Then, +if I may so say, Elisha's miracle will be repeated in nobler form, and +from Himself, the Life thus touching all our being, life will flow into +our deadness. 'He put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his +eyes, and his hands upon his hands, and he stretched himself upon the +child, and the flesh of the child waxed warm.' So, dear brethren, all +our practical duty is summed up in that one word, the measure of our +obedience to which is the measure of all our strength-'Abide in Me, and +I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in +the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in Me.' + +Again, this summons calls us to the faithful use of the power which, on +condition of that communion, we have. + +There is no doubt a temptation, in all times like the present, to look +for some new and extraordinary forms of blessing, and to substitute +such expectation for present work with our present strength. There is +nothing new to look for. There is no need to wait for anything more +than we possess. Remember the homely old proverb, 'You never know what +you can do till you try,' and though we are conscious of much +unfitness, and would sometimes gladly wait till our limbs are stronger, +let us brace ourselves for the work, assured that in it strength will +be given to us that equals our desire. There is a wonderful power in +honest work to develop latent energies and reveal a man to himself. I +suppose, in most cases, no one is half so much surprised at a great +man's greatest deeds as he is himself. They say that there is dormant +electric energy enough in a few raindrops to make a thunderstorm, and +there is dormant spiritual force enough in the weakest of us to flash +into beneficent light, and peal notes of awaking into many a deaf ear. +The effort to serve your Lord will reveal to you strength that you know +not. And it will increase the strength which it brings into play, as +the used muscles grow like whipcord, and the practised fingers become +deft at their task, and every faculty employed is increased, and every +gift wrapped in a napkin melts like ice folded in a cloth, according to +that solemn law, 'To him that hath shall be given, and from him that +hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.' + +Then be sure that to its last particle you are using the strength you +have, ere you complain of not having enough for your tasks. Take heed +of the vagrant expectations that wait for they know not what, and the +apparent prayers that are really substitutes for possible service. 'Why +liest thou on thy face? Speak unto the children of Israel that they go +forward.' + +The Church's resources are sufficient for the Church's work, if the +resources are used. We are tempted to doubt it, by reason of our +experience of failure and our consciousness of weakness. We are more +than ever tempted to doubt it to-day, when so many wise men are telling +us that our Christ is a phantom, our God a stream of tendency, our +Gospel a decaying error, our hope for the world a dream, and our work +in the world done. We stand before our Master with doubtful hearts, +and, as we look along the ranks sitting there on the green grass, and +then at the poor provisions which make all our store, we are sometimes +tempted almost to think that He errs when He says with that strange +calmness of His, 'They need not depart, give ye them to eat.' But go +out among the crowds and give confidently what you have, and you will +find that you have enough and to spare. If ever our stores seem +inadequate, it is because they are reckoned up by sense, which takes +cognizance of the visible, instead of by faith which beholds the real. +Certainly five loaves and two small fishes are not enough, but are not +five loaves and two small fishes and a miracle-working hand behind +them, enough? It is poor calculation that leaves out Christ from the +estimate of our forces. The weakest man and Jesus to back him are more +than all antagonism, more than sufficient for all duty. Be not seduced +into doubt of your power, or of your success, by others' sneers, or by +your own faint-heartedness. The confidence of ability is ability. +'Screw your courage to the sticking place,' and you will _not_ +fail--and see to it that you use the resources you have, as good +stewards of the manifold grace of God. 'Put on _thy_ strength, O Zion.' + +So, dear brethren, to gather all up in a sentence, let us confidently +look for times of blessing, penitently acknowledge that our own +faithlessness has hindered the arm of the Lord, earnestly beseech Him +to come in His rejoicing strength, and, drawing ever fresh power from +constant communion with our dear Lord, use it to its last drop for Him. +Then, like the mortal leader of Israel, as he pondered doubtingly with +sunken eyes on the hard task before his untrained host, we shall look +up and be aware of the presence of the sworded angel, the immortal +Captain of the host of the Lord, standing ready to save, 'putting on +righteousness as a breastplate, an helmet of salvation on His head, and +clad with zeal as a cloak.' From His lips, which give what they +command, comes the call, 'Take unto you the whole armour of God, that +ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to +stand.' Hearkening to His voice, the city of the strong ones shall be +made an heap before our wondering ranks, and the land shall lie open to +our conquering march. + +Wheresoever _we_ lift up the cry, 'Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm +of the Lord,' there follows, swift as the thunderclap on the lightning +flash, the rousing summons, 'Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion; +put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem!' Wheresoever it is obeyed +there will follow in due time the joyful chorus, as in this context, +'Sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem; the Lord hath made bare +His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the +earth have seen the salvation of our God.' + + + + +A PARADOX OF SELLING AND BUYING + +'Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without +money.'--ISAIAH iii. 3. + + +THE first reference of these words is of course to the Captivity. They +come in the midst of a grand prophecy of freedom, all full of leaping +gladness and buoyant hope. The Seer speaks to the captives; they had +'sold themselves for nought.' What had they gained by their departure +from God?--bondage. What had they won in exchange for their +freedom?--only the hard service of Babylon. As Deuteronomy puts it: +'Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness... by +reason of the abundance of all things, therefore shalt thou serve thine +enemies...in want of all things.' A wise exchange! a good market they +had brought their goods to! In striking ironical parallel the prophet +goes on to say that so should they be redeemed. They had got nothing by +bondage, they should give nothing for liberty. This text has its +highest application in regard to our captivity and our redemption. + +I. The reality of the captivity. + +The true idea of bondage is that of coercion of will and conscience, +the dominance and tyranny of what has no right to rule. So men are +really in bondage when they think themselves most free. The only real +slavery is that in which we are tied and bound by our own passions and +lusts. 'He that committeth sin is the slave of sin.' He thinks himself +master of himself and his actions, and boasts that he has broken away +from the restraints of obedience, but really he has only exchanged +masters. What a Master to reject--and what a master to prefer! + +II. The voluntariness of the captivity. + +'Ye have sold _yourselves_,' and become authors of your own bondage. No +sin is forced upon any man, and no one is to blame for it but himself. +The many excuses which people make to themselves are hollow. Now-a-days +we hear a great deal of heredity, how a man is what his ancestors have +made him, and of organisation, how a man is what his body makes him, +and of environment, how a man is what his surroundings make him. There +is much truth in all that, and men's guilt is much diminished by +circumstances, training, and temperament. The amount of responsibility +is not for us to settle, in regard to others, or even in regard to +ourselves. But all that does not touch the fact that we ourselves have +sold ourselves. No false brethren have sold us as they did Joseph. + +The strong tendency of human nature is always to throw the blame on +some one else; God or the devil, the flesh or the world, it does not +matter which. But it remains true that every man sinning is 'drawn away +of _his own_ lust and enticed.' + +After all, conscience witnesses to the truth, and by that mysterious +sense of guilt and gnawing of remorse which is quite different from the +sense of mistake, tears to tatters the sophistries. Nothing is more +truly my own than my sin. + +III. The profitlessness of the captivity. + +'For nought'; that is a picturesque way of putting the truth that all +sinful life fails to satisfy a man. The meaning of one of the Hebrew +words for sin is 'missing the mark.' It is a blunder as well as a +crime. It is trying to draw water from broken cisterns. It is 'as when +a hungry man dreameth and behold he eateth, but he awaketh and his soul +is empty.' Sin buys men with fairy money, which looks like gold, but in +the morning is found to be but a handful of yellow and faded leaves. +'Why do ye spend your money for that which is not bread?' It cannot but +be so, for only God can satisfy a man, and only in doing His will are +we sure of sowing seed which will yield us bread enough and to spare, +and nothing but bread. In all other harvests, tares mingle and they +yield poisoned flour. We never get what we aim at when we do wrong, for +what we aim at is not the mere physical or other satisfaction which the +temptation offers us, but rest of soul--and that we do _not_ get. And +we are sure to get something that we did not aim at or look for--a +wounded conscience, a worsened nature, often hurts to health or +reputation, and other consequent ills, that were carefully kept out of +sight, while we were being seduced by the siren voice. The old story of +the traitress, who bargained to let the enemies into the city, if they +would give her 'what they wore on their left arms,' meaning bracelets, +and was crushed to death under their shields heaped on her, is repeated +in the experience of every man who listens to the 'juggling fiends, who +keep the word of promise to the ear, but break it to the hope.' The +truth of this is attested by a cloud of witnesses. Conscience and +experience answer the question, 'What fruit had ye then in those things +whereof ye are now ashamed?' Wasted lives answer; tyrannous evil habits +answer; diseased bodies, blighted reputations, bitter memories answer. + +IV. The unbought freedom. + +'Ye shall be redeemed without money.' You gained nothing by your +bondage; you need give nothing for your emancipation. The original +reference is, of course, to the great act of divine power which set +these literal captives free, not for price nor reward. As in the Exodus +from Egypt, so in that from Babylon, no ransom was paid, but a nation +of bondsmen was set at liberty without war or compensation. That was a +strange thing in history. The paradox of buying back without buying is +a symbol of the Christian redemption. + +(1) A price has been paid. + +'Ye were redeemed not with corruptible things as silver and gold, but +with the precious blood of Christ.' The New Testament idea of +redemption, no doubt, has its roots in the Old Testament provisions for +the Goel or kinsman redeemer, who was to procure the freedom of a +kinsman. But whatever figurative elements may enter into it, its core +is the ethical truth that Christ's death is the means by which the +bonds of sin are broken. There is much in the many-sided applications +and powers of that Death which we do not know, but this is clear, that +by it the power of sin is destroyed and the guilt of sin taken away. + +(2) That price has been paid for all. + +We have therefore nothing to pay. A slave cannot redeem himself, for +all that he has is his master's already. So, no efforts of ours can set +ourselves free from the 'cords of our sins.' Men try to bring something +of their own. 'I do my best and God will have mercy.' We will bring our +own penitence, efforts, good works, or rely on Church ordinances, or +anything rather than sue _in forma pauperis_. How hard it is to get men +to see that 'It is finished,' and to come and rest only on the mere +mercy of God. + +How do we ally ourselves with that completed work? By simple faith, of +which an essential is the recognition that we have nothing and can do +nothing. + +Suppose an Israelite in Babylon who did not choose to avail himself of +the offered freedom; he must die in bondage. So must we if we refuse to +have eternal life as the gift of God. The prophet's paradoxical +invitation, 'He that hath no money, come ye, buy...without money,' is +easily solved. The price is to give up ourselves and forsake all +self-willed striving after self-purchased freedom which is but subtler +bondage. 'If the Son make you free, ye shall be free indeed.' If not, +then are ye slaves indeed, having 'sold yourselves for nought,' and +declined to be 'redeemed without money.' + + + + +CLEAN CARRIERS + +'Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord.'--ISAIAH lii. 11. + + +The context points to a great deliverance. It is a good example of the +prophetical habit of casting prophecies of the future into the mould of +the past. The features of the Exodus are repeated, but some of them are +set aside. This deliverance, whatever it be, is to be after the pattern +of that old story, but with very significant differences. Then, the +departing Israelites had spoiled the Egyptians and come out, laden with +silver and gold which had been poured into their hands; now there is to +be no bringing out of anything which was tainted with the foulness of +the land of captivity. Then the priests had borne the sacred vessels +for sacrifice, now they are to exercise the same holy function, and for +its discharge purity is demanded. Then, they had gone out in haste; +now, there is to be no precipitate flight, but calmly, as those who are +guided by God for their leader, and shielded from all pursuit by God as +their rearward, the men of this new Exodus are to take their march from +the new Egypt. + +No doubt the nearest fulfilment is to be found in the Return from +Babylon, and the narrative in Ezra may be taken as a remarkable +parallel to the prophecy here. But the restriction to Babylon must seem +impossible to any reader who interprets aright the significance of the +context, and observes that our text follows the grand words of verse +10, and precedes the Messianic prophecy of verse 13 and of ch. liii. To +such a reader the principle will not be doubtful according to which +Egypt and Babylon are transparencies through which mightier forms +shine, and a more wonderful and world-wide making bare of the arm of +the Lord is seen. Christ's great redemption is the highest +interpretation of these words; and the trumpet-call of our text is +addressed to all who have become partakers of it. + +So Paul quotes the text in 2 Cor. vi. 17, blending with it other words +which are gathered from more than one passage of Scripture. We may then +take the whole as giving the laws of the new Exodus, and also as +shadowing certain great peculiarities connected with it, by which it +surpasses all the former deliverances. + +I. The Pilgrims of this new Exodus. + +A true Christian is a pilgrim, not only because he, like all men, is +passing through a life which is transient, but because he is +consciously detached from the Visible and Present, as a consequence of +his conscious attachment to the Unseen and Eternal. What is said in +Hebrews of Abraham is true of all inheritors of his faith: 'dwelling in +tabernacles, for he looked for the city.' + +II. The priests. + +Priests and Levites bore the sacred vessels. All Christians are +priests. The only true priesthood is Christ's, ours is derived from +Him. In that universal priesthood of believers are included the +privileges and obligations of + +a. Access to God--Communion. + +b. Offering spiritual sacrifices. Service and self-surrender. + +c. Mediation with men. + +Proclamation. Intercession. Thus follows + +d. Bearing the holy vessels. A sacred deposit is entrusted to them--the +honour and name of God; the treasure of the Gospel. + +III. The separation that becomes pilgrims. + +'Come out and be ye separate.' The very meaning of our Christian +profession is separation. There is ludicrous inconsistency in saying +that we are Christians and not being pilgrims. Of course, the +separation is not to be worked out by mere external asceticism or +withdrawal from the world. That has been so thoroughly preached and +practised of late years that we much need the other side to be put. +There should be some plain difference between the life of Christians +and that of men whose portion is in this life. They should differ in +the aspect under which all outward things are regarded. + +To a Christian they are to be means to an end, and ever to be felt to +be evanescent. They should differ in the motive for action, which +should, for a Christian, ever be the love of God. They should differ in +that a Christian abstains from much which non-Christians feel free to +do, and often has to say, 'So did not I, because of the fear of the +Lord.' He who marches light marches quickly and marches far; to bring +the treasures of Egypt along with us, is apt to retard our steps. + +IV. The purity that becomes priests. + +The Levites would cleanse themselves before taking up the holy vessels. +And for us, clean hands and a pure heart are essential. There is no +communion with God without these; a small speck of dust in the eye +blinds us. There is no sacrificial service without them. No efficient +work among men can be done without them. One main cause of the weakness +of our Christian testimony is the imperfection of character in the +witnesses, which is more powerful than all talk and often neutralises +much effort. Keen eyes are watching us. + +The consciousness of our own impurity should send us to Jesus, with the +prayer and the confidence, 'Cleanse me and I shall be clean.' 'The +blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.' 'He hath loosed us from +our sins and made us kings and priests to God.' + + + + +MARCHING ORDERS + +'Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; +go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of +the Lord. 12. For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for +the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your +reward.'--ISAIAH iii. 11, 12. + + +These ringing notes are parts of a highly poetic picture of that great +deliverance which inspired this prophet's most exalted strains. It is +described with constant allusion to the first Exodus, but also with +significant differences. Now no doubt the actual historical return of +the Jews from the Babylonish captivity is the object that fills the +foreground of this vision, but it by no means exhausts its +significance. The restriction of the prophecy to that more immediate +fulfilment may well seem impossible when we note that my text follows +the grand promise that 'all the ends of the earth shall see the +salvation of our God,' and immediately precedes the Messianic prophecy +of the fifty-third chapter. Egypt was transparent, and through it shone +Babylon; Babylon was transparent, and through it shone Christ's +redemption. That was the real and highest fulfilment of the prophet's +anticipations, and the trumpet-calls of my text are addressed to all +who have a share in it. We have, then, here, under highly metaphorical +forms, the grand ideal of the Christian life; and I desire to note +briefly its various features. + +I. First, then, we have it set forth as a march of warrior priests. + +Note that phrase--'Ye that bear the vessels of the Lord.' The returning +exiles as a whole are so addressed, but the significance of the +expression, and the precise metaphor which it is meant to convey, may +be questionable. The word rendered 'vessel' is a wide expression, +meaning any kind of equipment, and in other places of the Old Testament +the whole phrase rendered here, 'ye that bear the vessels,' is +translated 'armour-bearers.' Such an image would be quite congruous +with the context here, in which warlike figures abound. And if so, the +picture would be that of an army on the march, each man carrying some +of the weapons of the great Captain and Leader. But perhaps the other +explanation is more likely, which regards 'the vessels of the Lord' as +being an allusion to the sacrificial and other implements of worship, +which, in the first Exodus, the Levites carried on the march. And if +that be the meaning, as seems more congruous with the command of purity +which is deduced from the function of bearing the vessels, then the +figure here, of course, is that of a company of priests. I venture to +throw the two ideas together, and to say that we may here find an ideal +of the Christian community as being a great company of warrior-priests +on the march, guarding a sacred deposit which has been committed to +their charge. + +Look, then, at that combination in the true Christian character of the +two apparently opposite ideas of warrior and priest. It suggests that +all the life is to be conflict, and that all the conflict is to be +worship; that everywhere, in the thick of the fight, we may still bear +the remembrance of the 'secret place of the most High.' It suggests, +too, that the warfare is worship, that the offices of the priest and of +the warrior are one and the same thing, and both consist in their +mediating between man and God, bringing God in His Gospel to men, and +bringing men through their faith to God. The combination suggests, +likewise, how, in the true Christian character, there ought ever to be +blended, in strange harmony, the virtues of the soldier and the +qualities of the priest; compassion for the ignorant and them that are +out of the way, with courage; meekness with strength; a quiet, placable +heart hating strife, joined to a spirit that cheerily fronts every +danger and is eager for the conflict in which evil is the foe and God +the helper. The old Crusaders went to battle with the Cross on their +hearts, and on their shoulders, and on the hilts of their swords; and +we, too, in all our warfare, have to remember that its weapons are not +carnal but spiritual, and that only then do we fight as the Captain of +our salvation fought, when our arms are meekness and pity, and our +warfare is waged in gentleness and love. + +Note, further, that in this phrase we have the old, old metaphor of +life as a march, but so modified as to lose all its melancholy and +weariness and to become an elevating hope. The idea which runs through +all poetry, of life as a journey, suggests effort, monotonous change, a +uniform law of variety and transiency, struggle and weariness, but the +Christian thought of life, while preserving the idea of change, +modifies it into the blessed thought of progress. Life, if it is as +Christ meant it to be, is a journey in the sense that it is a +continuous effort, not unsuccessful, toward a clearly discerned goal, +our eternal home. The Christian march is a march from slavery to +freedom, and from a foreign land to our native soil. + +Again, this metaphor suggests that this company of marching priests +have in charge a sacred deposit. Paul speaks of the 'glorious Gospel +which was committed to my trust.' 'That good thing which was committed +unto thee by the Holy Ghost, keep.' The history of the return from +Babylon in the Book of Ezra presents a remarkable parallel to the +language of my text, for there we are told how, in the preparation for +the march, the leader entrusted the sacred vessels of the temple, which +the liberality of the heathen king had returned to him, to a group of +Levites and priests, weighing them at the beginning, and bidding them +keep them safe until they were weighed again in the courts of the +Lord's house in Jerusalem. + +And, in like manner, to us Christians is given the charge of God's +great weapons of warfare, with which He contends with the wickedness of +the world--viz. that great message of salvation through, and in, the +Cross of Jesus Christ. And there are committed to us, further, to guard +sedulously, and to keep bright and untarnished and undiminished in +weight and worth, the precious treasures of the Christian life of +communion with Him. And we may give another application to the figure +and think of the solemn trust which is put into our hands, in the gift +of our own selves, which we ourselves can either waste, and stain, and +lose, or can guard and polish into vessels 'meet for the Master's use.' + +Gathering, then, these ideas together, we take this as the ideal of the +Christian community--a company of priests on the march, with a sacred +deposit committed to their trust. If we reflected more on such a +conception of the Christian life, we should more earnestly hearken to, +and more sedulously discharge, the commands that are built thereon. To +these commands I now turn. + +II. Note the separation that befits the marching company. + +'Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing, +go ye out of the midst of her.' In the historical fulfilment of my +text, separation from Babylon was the preliminary of the march. Our +task is not so simple; our separation from Babylon must be the constant +accompaniment of our march. And day by day it has to be repeated, if we +would lift a foot in advance upon the road. There is still a Babylon. +The order in the midst of which we live is not organised on the +fundamental laws of Christ's Kingdom. And wherever there are men who +seek to order their lives as Christ would have them to be ordered, the +first necessity for them is, 'Come out from amongst them, and be ye +separate, saith the Lord.' There is no need in this day to warn +Christian people against an exaggerated interpretation of these +commandments. I almost wish there were more need. We have been told so +often, in late years, of how Christian men ought to mingle with all the +affairs of life, and count nothing that is human foreign to themselves, +that it seems to me there is vast need for a little emphasis being put +on the other side of the truth, and for separation being insisted upon. +Wherever there is a real grasp of Jesus Christ for a man's own personal +Saviour, and a true submission to Him as the Pattern and Guide of life, +a broad line of demarcation between that man and the irreligious life +round him will draw itself. If the heart have its tendrils twined round +the Cross, it will have detached them from the world around. Separation +by reason of an entirely different conception of life, separation +because the present does not look to you as it looks to the men who see +only it, separation because you and they have not only a different +ideal and theory of life, but are living from different motives and for +different ends and by different powers, will be the inevitable result +of any real union with Jesus Christ. If I am joined to Him I am +separated from the world; and detachment from it is the simple and +necessary result of any real attachment to Him. There will always be a +gulf in feeling, in purpose, in view, and therefore there will often +have to be separation outward things. 'So did not I because of the fear +of the Lord' will have to be said over and over again by any real and +honest follower of the Master. + +This separation will not only be the result of union with Jesus Christ, +but it is the condition of all progress in our union with Him. We must +be unmoored before we can advance. Many a caravan has broken down in +African exploration for no other reason than because it was too well +provided with equipments, and so collapsed of its own weight. +Therefore, our prophet in the context says, 'Touch no unclean thing.' +_There_ is one of the differences between the new Exodus and the old. +When Israel came out of Egypt they spoiled the Egyptians, and came away +laden with gold and jewels; but it is dangerous work bringing anything +away from Babylon with us. Its treasure has to be left if we would +march close behind our Lord and Master. We must touch 'no unclean +thing,' because our hands are to be filled with the 'vessels of the +Lord.' I am preaching no impossible asceticism, no misanthropical +withdrawal from the duties of life, and the obligations that we owe to +society. God's world is a good one; man's world is a bad one. It is +man's world that we have to leave, but the lofties, sanctity requires +no abstention from anything that God has ordained. + +Now, dear friends, I venture to think that this message is one that we +all dreadfully need to-day. There are a great many Christians, +so-called, in this generation, who seem to think that the main object +they should have in view is to obliterate the distinction between +themselves and the world of ungodly men, and in occupation and +amusements to be as like people that have no religion as they possibly +can manage. So they get credit for being 'liberal' Christians, and +praise from quarters whose praise is censure, and whose approval ought +to make a Christian man very uncomfortable. Better by far the narrowest +Puritanism--I was going to say better by far monkish austerities--than +a Christianity which knows no self-denial, which is perfectly at home +in an irreligious atmosphere, and which resents the exhortation to +separation, because it would fain keep the things that it is bidden to +drop. God's reiteration of the text through Paul to the Church in +luxurious, corrupt, wealthy Corinth is a gospel for this day for +English Christians, 'Come out from among them, and I will receive you.' + +III. Further, note the purity which becomes the bearers of the vessels +of the Lord. + +'Be ye clean.' The priest's hands must be pure, which figure, being +translated, is that transparent purity of conduct and character is +demanded from all Christian men who profess to bear God's sacred +deposit. You cannot carry it unless your hands are clean, for all the +gifts that God gives us glide from our grasp if our hands be stained. +Monkish legends tell of sacred pictures and vessels which, when an +impure touch was laid upon them, refused to be lifted from their place, +and grew there, as rooted, in spite of all efforts to move them. +Whoever seeks to hold the gifts of God in His Gospel in dirty hands +will fail miserably in the attempt; and all the joy and peace of +communion, the assurance of God's love, and the calm hope of immortal +life will vanish as a soap bubble, grasped by a child, turns into a +drop of foul water on its palm, if we try to hold them in foul hands. +Be clean, or you cannot bear the vessels of the Lord. + +And further, remember that no priestly service nor any successful +warfare for Jesus Christ is possible, except on the same condition. One +sin, as well as one sinner, destroys much good, and a little +inconsistency on the part of us professing Christians neutralises all +the efforts that we may ever try to put forth for Him. Logic requires +that God's vessels should be carried with clean hands. God requires it, +men require it, and have a right to require it. The mightiest witness +for Him is the witness of a pure life, and if we go about the world +professing to be His messengers, and carrying His epistle in our dirty +fingers, the soiled thumb-mark upon it will prevent men from caring for +the message; and the Word will be despised because of the unworthiness +of its bearers. 'Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord.' + +IV. Lastly, notice the leisurely confidence which should mark the march +that is guarded by God. 'Ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by +flight, for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be +your reward.' + +This is partly an analogy and partly a contrast with the story of the +first Exodus. The unusual word translated 'with haste' is employed in +the Pentateuch to describe the hurry and bustle, not altogether due to +the urgency of the Egyptians, but partly also to the terror of Israel, +with which that first flight was conducted. And, says my text, in this +new coming out of bondage there shall be no need for tremor or +perturbation, lending wings to any man's feet; but, with quiet +deliberation, like that with which Peter was brought out of his +dungeon, because God knew that He could bring him out safely, the new +Exodus shall be carried on. + +'He that believeth shall not make haste.' Why should he? There is no +need for a Christian man ever to be flurried, or to lose his +self-command, or ever to be in an undignified and unheroic hurry. His +march should be unceasing, swift, but calm and equable, as the motions +of the planets, unhasting and unresting. + +There is a very good reason why we need not be in any haste due to +alarm. For, as in the first Exodus, the guiding pillar led the march, +and sometimes, when there were foes behind, as at the Red Sea, shifted +its place to the rear, so 'the Lord will go before you, and the God of +Israel will be your rereward.' He besets us behind and before, going in +front to be our Guide, and in the rear for our protection, gathering up +the stragglers, so that there shall not be 'a hoof left behind,' and +putting a wall of iron between us and the swarms of hovering enemies +that hang on our march. Thus encircled by God, we shall be safe. Christ +fulfils what the prophet pledged God to do; for He goes before us, the +Pattern, the Captain of our salvation, the Forerunner, 'the Breaker is +gone up before them '; and He comes behind us to guard us from evil; +for He is 'the _Alpha_ and _Omega_, the beginning and the ending, the +Almighty.' + +Dear brethren, life for us all must be a weary pilgrimage. We cannot +alter that. It is the lot of every son of man. But we have the power of +either making it a dreary, solitary tramp over an undefended desert, to +end in the great darkness, or else of making it a march in which the +twin sisters Joy and Peace shall lead us forth, and go out with us, and +the other pair of angel-forms, 'Goodness and Mercy,' shall follow us +all the days of our lives. We may make it a journey with Jesus for +Guide and Companion, to Jesus as our Home. 'The ransomed of the Lord +shall return, and come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon +their heads.' + + + + +THE ARM OF THE LORD + +'To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?'---ISAIAH liii 1. + + +In the second Isaiah there are numerous references to 'the arm of the +Lord.' It is a natural symbol of the active energy of Jehovah, and is +analogous to the other symbol of 'the Face of Jehovah,' which is also +found in this book, in so far as it emphasises the notion of power in +manifestation, though 'the Face' has a wider range and may be explained +as equivalent to that part of the divine Nature which is turned to men. +The latter symbol will then be substantially parallel with 'the Name.' +But there are traces of a tendency to conceive of 'the arm of the Lord' +as personified, for instance, where we read (ch. lxiii. 12) that +Jehovah 'caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses.' +Moses was not the true leader, but was himself led and sustained by the +divine Power, dimly conceived as a person, ever by his side to sustain +and direct. There seems to be a similar imperfect consciousness of +personification in the words of the text, especially when taken in +their close connection with the immediately following prophecy of the +suffering servant. It would be doing violence to the gradual +development of Revelation, like tearing asunder the just-opening petals +of a rose, to read into this question of the sad prophet full-blown +Christian truth, but it would be missing a clear anticipation of that +truth to fail to recognise the forecasting of it that _is_ here. + +I. We have here a prophetic forecast that the arm of the Lord is a +person. + +The strict monotheism of the Old Testament does not preclude some very +remarkable phenomena in its modes of conception and speech as to the +divine Nature. We hear of the 'angel of His face,' and again of 'the +angel in whom is His Name.' We hear of 'the angel' to whom divine +worship is addressed and who speaks, as we may say, in a divine dialect +and does divine acts. We meet, too, with the personification of Wisdom +in the Book of Proverbs, to which are ascribed characteristics and are +attributed acts scarcely distinguishable from divine, and eminently +associated in the creative work. Our text points in the same direction +as these representations. They all tend in the direction of preparing +for the full Christian truth of the personal 'Power of God.' What was +shown by glimpses 'at sundry times and in divers manners,' with many +gaps in the showing and much left all unshown, is perfectly revealed in +the Son. The New Testament, by its teaching as to 'the Eternal Word,' +endorses, clears, and expands all these earlier dimmer adumbrations. +That Word is the agent of the divine energy, and the conception of +power as being exercised by the Word is even loftier than that of it as +put forth by 'the arm,' by as much as intelligent and intelligible +utterance is more spiritual and higher than force of muscle. The +apostolic designation of Jesus as 'the power of God and the wisdom of +God' blends the two ideas of these two symbols. The conception of Jesus +Christ as the arm of the Lord, when united with that of the Eternal +Word, points to a threefold sphere and manner of His operations, as the +personal manifestation of the active power of God. In the beginning, +the arm of the Lord stretched out the heavens as a tent to dwell in, +and without Him 'was not anything made that was made.' In His +Incarnation, He carried into execution all God's purposes and fulfilled +His whole will. From His throne He wields divine power, and rules the +universe. 'The help that is done on earth, He doeth it all Himself,' +and He works in the midst of humanity that redeeming work which none +but He can effect. + +II. We have here a prophetic paradox that the mightiest revelation of +the arm of the Lord is in weakness. + +The words of the text stand in closest connection with the great +picture of the Suffering Servant which follows, and the pathetic figure +portrayed there is the revealing of the arm of the Lord. The close +bringing together of the ideas of majesty and power and of humiliation, +suffering, and weakness, would be a paradox to the first hearers of the +prophecy. Its solution lies in the historical manifestation of Jesus. +Looking on Him, we see that the growing up of that root out of a dry +ground was the revelation of the great power of God. In Jesus' lowly +humanity God's power is made perfect in man's weakness, in another and +not less true sense than that in which the apostle spoke. There we see +divine power in its noblest form, in its grandest operation, in its +widest sweep, in its loftiest purpose. That humble man, lowly and poor, +despised and rejected in life, hanging faint and pallid on the Roman +cross, and dying in the dark, seems a strange manifestation of the +'glory' of God, but the Cross is indeed His throne, and sublime as are +the other forms in which Omnipotence clothes itself, this is, to human +eyes and hearts, the highest of them all. In Jesus the arm of the Lord +is revealed in its grandest operation. Creation and the continual +sustaining of a universe are great, but redemption is greater. It is +infinitely more to say, 'He giveth power to the faint,' than to say, +'For that He is strong in might, not one faileth,' and to +principalities and powers in heavenly places who have gazed on the +grand operations of divine power for ages, new lessons of what it can +effect are taught by the redemption of sinful men. The divine power +that is enshrined in Jesus' weakness is power in its widest sweep, for +it is to every one that believeth, and in its loftiest purpose, for it +is 'unto salvation.' + +III. We have here a prophetic lament that the power revealed to all is +unseen by many. + +The text is a wail over darkened eyes, blind at noonday. The prophet's +radiant anticipations of the Servant's exaltation, and of God's holy +arm being made bare in the eyes of all nations, are clouded over by the +thought of the incredulity of the multitude to 'our report.' Jehovah +had indeed 'made bare His arm,' as a warrior throws back his loose +robe, when he would strike. But what was the use of that, if dull eyes +would not look? The 'report' had been loudly proclaimed, but what was +the use of that, if ears were obstinately stopped? Alas, alas! nothing +that God can do secures that men shall see what He shows, or listen to +what He speaks. The mystery of mysteries is that men can, the tragedy +of tragedies is that they will, make any possible revelation of none +effect, so far as they are concerned. + +The Arm is revealed, but only by those who have 'believed our report' +does the prophet deem it to be actually beheld. Faith is the individual +condition on which the perfected revelation becomes a revelation to me. +The 'salvation of our God' is shown in splendour to 'all the ends of +the earth,' but only they who exercise faith in Jesus, who is the power +of God, will see that far-shining light. If we are not of those who +'believe the report,' we shall, notwithstanding that 'He hath made bare +His holy arm,' be of those who grope at noonday as in the dark. + + + + +THE SUFFERING SERVANT-I + +'For He grew up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a +dry ground He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we see Him, there +is no beauty that we should desire Him. 3. He was despised, and +rejected of men, a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and as +one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we esteemed Him +not.'--ISAIAH liii, 2, 3. + + +To hold fast the fulfilment of this prophecy of the Suffering Servant +in Jesus it is not necessary to deny its reference to Israel. Just as +offices, institutions, and persons in it were prophetic, and by their +failures to realise to the full their own _role_, no less than by their +partial presentation of it, pointed onwards to Him, in whom their idea +would finally take form and substance, so this great picture of God's +Servant, which was but imperfectly reproduced even by the Israel within +Israel, stood on the prophet's page a fair though sad dream, with +nothing corresponding to it in the region of reality and history, till +He came and lived and suffered. + +If we venture to make it the theme of a short series of sermons, our +object is simply to endeavour to bring out clearly the features of the +wonderful portrait. If they are fully apprehended, it seems to us that +the question of who is the original of the picture answers itself. We +must note that the whole is introduced by a 'For,' that is to say, that +it is all explanatory of the unbelief and blindness to the revealed arm +of the Lord, which the prophet has just been lamenting. This close +connection with the preceding words accounts for the striking way in +which the description of the person of the Servant is here blended +with, or interrupted by, that of the manner in which he was treated. + +I. The Servant's lowly origin and growth. + +'He _grew_,'--not '_shall_ grow.' The whole is cast into the form of +history, and to begin the description with a future tense is not only +an error in grammar but gratuitously introduces an incongruity. The +word rendered 'tender plant' means a sucker, and 'root' probably would +more properly be taken as a shoot from a root, the tree having been +felled, and nothing left but the stump. There is here, then, at the +outset, an unmistakable reference to the prophecy in ch. xi. 1, which +is Messianic prophecy, and therefore there is a presumption that this +too has a Messianic reference. In the original passage the stump or +'stock' is explained as being the humiliated house of David, and it is +only following the indications supplied by the fact of the second +Isaiah's quotation of the first, if we take the implication in his +words to be the same. Royal descent, but from a royal house fallen on +evil days, is the plain meaning here. + +And the eclipse of its glory is further brought out in that not only +does the shoot spring from a tree, all whose leafy honours have long +been lopped away, but which is 'in a dry ground.' Surely we do not +force a profounder meaning than is legitimate into this feature of the +picture when we think of the Carpenter's Son 'of the house and lineage +of David,' of the Son of God 'who was found in fashion as a man,' of +Him who was born in a stable, and grew up in a tiny village hidden away +among the hills of Galilee, who, as it were, stole into the world 'not +with observation,' and opened out, as He grew, the wondrous blossom of +a perfect humanity such as had never before been evolved from any root, +nor grown on the most sedulously cultured plant. Is this part of the +prophet's ideal realised in any of the other suggested realisations of +it? + +But there is still another point in regard to the origin and growth of +the lowly shoot from the felled stump--it is 'before Him.' Then the +unnoticed growth is noticed by Jehovah, and, though cared for by no +others, is cared for, tended, and guarded, by Him. + +II. The Servant's unattractive form. + +Naturally a shoot springing in a dry ground would show but little +beauty of foliage or flower. It would be starved and colourless beside +the gaudy growths in fertile, well-watered gardens. But that +unattractiveness is not absolute or real; it is only 'that _we_ should +desire Him.' We are but poor judges of true 'form or comeliness,' and +what is lustrous with perfect beauty in God's eyes may be, and +generally is, plain and dowdy in men's. Our tastes are debased. +Flaunting vulgarities and self-assertive ugliness captivate vulgar +eyes, to which the serene beauties of mere goodness seem insipid. +Cockatoos charm savages to whom the iridescent neck of a dove has no +charms. Surely this part of the description fits Jesus as it does no +other. The entire absence of outward show, or of all that pleases the +spoiled tastes of sinful men, need not be dwelt on. No doubt the world +has slowly come to recognise in Him the moral ideal, a perfect man, but +He has been educating it for nineteen hundred years to get it up to +that point, and the educational process is very far from complete. The +real desire of most men is for something much more pungent and dashing +than Jesus' meek wisdom and stainless purity, which breed in them ennui +rather than longing. 'Not this man but Barabbas,' was the approximate +realisation of the Jewish ideal then; not this man but--some type or +other of a less oppressive perfection, and that calls for less effort +to imitate it, is the world's real cry still. Pilate's scornfully +wondering question: Art _Thou_--such a poor-looking creature--the King +of the Jews? is very much of a piece with the world's question still: +Art Thou the perfect instance of manhood? Art Thou the highest +revelation of God? + +III. The Servant's reception by men. + +The two preceding characteristics naturally result in this third. For +lowliness of condition and lack of qualities appealing to men's false +ideals will certainly lead to being 'despised and rejected.' The latter +expression is probably better taken, as in the margin of the Rev. Ver. +as 'forsaken.' But whichever meaning is adopted, what an Iliad of woes +is condensed into these two words! 'The spurns that patient merit of +the unworthy takes,' the loneliness of one who, in all the crowd +descries none to trust--these are the wages that the world ever gives +to its noblest, who live but to help it and be misunderstood by it, and +as these are the wages of all who with self-devotion would serve God by +serving the world for its good, they were paid in largest measure to +'_the_ Servant of the Lord.' His claims were ridiculed, His words of +wisdom thrown back on Himself; none were so poor but could afford to +despise Him as lower than they, His love was repulsed, surely He drank +the bitterest cup of contempt. All His life He walked in the solitude +of uncomprehended aims, and at His hour of extremest need appealed in +vain for a little solace of companionship, and was deserted by those +whom He trusted most. His was a lifelong martyrdom inflicted by men. +His was a lifelong solitude which was most utter at the last. And He +brought it all on Himself because He _would_ be God's Servant in being +men's Saviour. + +IV. The Servant's sorrow of heart. + +The remarkable expression 'acquainted with grief' seems to carry an +allusion to the previous clause, in which men are spoken of as +despising and rejecting the Servant. They left Him alone, and His only +companion was 'grief'--a grim associate to walk at a man's side all his +days! It is to be noted that the word rendered 'grief' is literally +sickness. That description of mental or spiritual sorrows under the +imagery of bodily sicknesses is intensified in the subsequent terrible +picture of Him as one from whom men hide their faces with disgust at +His hideous appearance, caused by disease. Possibly the meaning may +rather be that He hides His face, as lepers had to do. + +Now probably the 'sorrows' touched on at this point are to be +distinguished from those which subsequently are spoken of in terms of +such poignancy as laid on the Servant by God. Here the prophet is +thinking rather of those which fell on Him by reason of men's rejection +and desertion. We shall not rightly estimate the sorrowfulness of +Christ's sorrows, unless we bring to our meditations on them the other +thought of His joys. How great these were we can judge, when we +remember that He told the disciples that by His joy remaining in them +their joy would be full. As much joy then as human nature was capable +of from perfect purity, filial obedience, trust, and unbroken communion +with God, so much was Jesus' permanent experience. The golden cup of +His pure nature was ever full to the brim with the richest wine of joy. +And that constant experience of gladness in the Father and in Himself +made more painful the sorrows which He encountered, like a biting wind +shrieking round Him, whenever He passed out from fellowship with God in +the stillness of His soul into the contemptuous and hostile world. His +spirit carrying with it the still atmosphere of the Holy Place, would +feel more keenly than any other would have done the jarring tumult of +the crowds, and would know a sharper pain when met with greetings in +which was no kindness. Jesus was sinless, His sympathy with all sorrow +was thereby rendered abnormally keen, and He made others' griefs His +own with an identification born of a sympathy which the most +compassionate cannot attain. The greater the love, the greater the +sorrow of the loving heart when its love is spurned. The intenser the +yearning for companionship, the sharper the pang when it is repulsed. +The more one longs to bless, the more one suffers when his blessings +are flung off. Jesus was the most sensitive, the most sympathetic, the +most loving soul that ever dwelt in flesh. He saw, as none other has +ever seen, man's miseries. He experienced, as none else has ever +experienced, man's ingratitude, and, therefore, though God, even His +God, 'anointed Him with the oil of gladness above His fellows,' He was +'a Man of Sorrows,' and grief was His companion during all His life's +course. + + + + +THE SUFFERING SERVANT-II + +'Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did +esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5. But He was +wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the +chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are +healed. 6. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one +to his own way; and the Lord hath laid (made to light) on Him the +iniquity of us all.'--ISAIAH liii. 4-6. + + +The note struck lightly in the close of the preceding paragraph becomes +dominant here. One notes the accumulation of expressions for suffering, +crowded into these verses--griefs, sorrows, wounded, bruised, smitten, +chastisement, stripes. One notes that the cause of all this multiform +infliction is given with like emphasis of reiteration--our griefs, our +sorrows, and that these afflictions are invested with a still more +tragic and mysterious aspect, by being traced to our transgressions, +our iniquities. Finally, the deepest word of all is spoken when the +whole mystery of the servant's sufferings is referred to Jehovah's +making the universal iniquity to lie, like a crushing burden, on Him. + +I. The Burdened Servant. + +It is to be kept in view that the 'griefs' which the servant is here +described as bearing are literally 'sicknesses,' and that, similarly, +the 'sorrows' may be diseases. Matthew in his quotation of the verse +(viii. 17) takes the words to refer to bodily ailments, and finds their +'fulfilment' in Christ's miracles of healing. And that interpretation +is part of the whole truth, for Hebrew thought drew no such sharp line +of distinction between diseases of the body and those of the soul as we +are accustomed to draw. All sickness was taken to be the consequence of +sin, and the intimate connection between the two was, as it were, set +forth for all forms of bodily disease by the elaborate treatment +prescribed for leprosy, as pre-eminently fitted to stand as type of the +whole. But the fulfilment through the miracles is but a parable of the +deeper fulfilment in regard to the more virulent and deadly diseases of +the soul. Sin is the sickness, as it is also the grief, which most +afflicts humanity. Of the two words expressing the Servant's taking +their burden on His shoulders, the former implies not only the taking +of it but the bearing of it away, and the latter emphasises the weight +of the load. + +Following Matthew's lead, we may regard Christ's miracles of healing as +one form of His fulfilment of the prophecy, in which the principles +that shape all the forms are at work, and which, therefore, may stand +as a kind of pictorial illustration of the way in which He bears and +bears away the heavier burden of sin. And one point which comes out +clearly is that, in these acts of healing, He felt the weight of the +affliction that He took away. Even in that region, the condition of +ability to remove it, was identifying Himself with the sorrow. Did He +not 'sigh and look up' in silent appeal to heaven before He could say, +Ephphatha? Did He not groan in Himself before He sent the voice into +the tomb which the dead heard? His miracles were not easy, though He +had all power, for He felt all that the sufferers felt, by the +identifying power of the unparalleled sympathy of a pure nature. In +that region His pain on account of the sufferers stood in vital +relation with His power to end their sufferings. The load must gall His +shoulders, ere He could bear it away from theirs. + +But the same principles as apply to these deeds of mercy done on +diseases apply to all His deeds of deliverance from sorrow and from +sin. In Him is set forth in highest fashion the condition of all +brotherly help and alleviation. Whoever would lighten a brother's load +must stoop his own shoulders to carry it. And whilst there is an +element in our Lord's sufferings, as the text passes on to say, which +is not explained by the analogy with what is required from all human +succourers and healers, the extent to which the lower experience of +such corresponds with His unique work should always be made prominent +in our devout meditations. + +II. The Servant's sufferings in their reason, their intensity, and +their issue. + +The same measure that was meted out to Job by his so-called friends was +measured to the servant, and at the Impulse of the same heartless +doctrinal prepossession. He must have been had to suffer so much; that +is the rough and ready verdict of the self-righteous. With crashing +emphasis, that complacent explanation of the Servant's sufferings and +their own prosperity is shivered to atoms, by the statement of the true +reason for both the one and the other. You thought that He was +afflicted because He was bad and you were spared because you were +good--no, He was afflicted because _you_ were bad, and you were spared +because He was afflicted. + +The reason for the Servant's sufferings was 'our transgressions.' More +is suggested now than sympathetic identification with others' sorrows. +This is an actual bearing of the consequences of sins which He had not +committed, and that not merely as an innocent man may be overwhelmed by +the flood of evil which has been let loose by others' sins to sweep +over the earth. The blow that wounds Him is struck directly and solely +at Him. He is not entangled in a widespread calamity, but is the only +victim. It is pre-supposed that all transgression leads to wounds and +bruises; but the transgressions are done by us, and the wounds and +bruises fall on Him. Can the idea of vicarious suffering be more +plainly set forth? + +The intensity of the Servant's sufferings is brought home to our hearts +by the accumulation of epithets, to which reference has already been +made. He was 'wounded' as one who is pierced by a sharp sword; +'bruised' as one who is stoned to death; beaten and with livid weales +on His flesh. A background of unnamed persecutors is dimly seen. The +description moves altogether in the region of physical violence, and +that violence is more than symbol. + +It is no mere coincidence that the story of the Passion reproduces so +many of the details of the prophecy, for, although the fulfilment of +the latter does not depend on such coincidences, they are not to be +passed by as of no importance. Former generations made too much of the +physical sufferings of Jesus; is not this generation in danger of +making too little of them? + +The issue of the Servant's sufferings is presented in a startling +paradox. His bruises and weales are the causes of our being healed. His +chastisement brings our peace. Surely it is very hard work, and needs +much forcing of words and much determination not to see what is set +forth in as plain light as can be conceived, to strike the idea of +atonement out of this prophecy. It says as emphatically as words can +say, that we have by our sins deserved stripes, that the Servant bears +the stripes which we have deserved, and that therefore we do not bear +them. + +III. The deepest ground of the Servant's sufferings. + +The sad picture of humanity painted in that simile of a scattered flock +lays stress on the universality of transgression, on its divisive +effect, on the solitude of sin, and on its essential characteristic as +being self-willed rejection of control. But the isolation caused by +transgression is blessedly counteracted by the concentration of the sin +of all on the Servant. Men fighting for their own hand, and living at +their own pleasure, are working to the disruption of all sweet bonds of +fellowship. But God, in knitting together all the black burdens into +one, and loading the Servant with that tremendous weight, is preparing +for the establishment of a more blessed unity, in experience of the +healing brought about by His sufferings. + +Can one man's 'iniquity,' as distinguished from the consequences of +iniquity, be made to press upon any other? It is a familiar and not +very profound objection to the Christian Atonement that guilt cannot be +transferred. True, but in the first place, Christ's nature stands in +vital relations to every man, of such intimacy that what is impossible +between two of us is not impossible between Christ and any one of us; +and, secondly, much in His life, and still more in His passion, is +unintelligible unless the black mass of the world's sin was heaped upon +Him, to His own consciousness. In that dread cry, wrung from Him as He +hung there in the dark, the consciousnesses of possessing God and of +having lost Him are blended inextricably and inexplicably. The only +approach to an explanation of it is that then the world's sin was felt +by Him, in all its terrible mass and blackness, coming between Him and +God, even as our own sins come, separating us from God. That grim +burden not only came on Him, but was _laid_ on Him by God. The same +idea is expressed by the prophet in that awful representation and by +Jesus in that as awful cry, 'Why hast Thou _forsaken_ Me?' + +The prophet constructs no theory of Atonement. But no language could be +chosen that would more plainly set forth the fact of Atonement. And it +is to be observed that, so far as this prophecy is concerned, the +Servant's sole form of service is to suffer. He is not a teacher, an +example, or a benefactor, in any of the other ways in which men need +help. His work is to bear our griefs and be bruised for our healing. + +'He was oppressed, yet He humbled Himself and opened not His mouth; as +a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before her +shearers is dumb; yea, He opened not His mouth. 8. By oppression and +judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who among them +considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living? for the +transgression of my people was He stricken. 9. And they made His grave +with the wicked, and with the rich in His death; although He had done +no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth'--ISAIAH liii, 7-9. R. +V. + +In this section of the prophecy we pass from contemplating the +sufferings inflicted on the Servant to the attitude of Himself and of +His contemporaries towards these, His patience and their blindness. To +these is added a remarkable reference to His burial, which strikes one +at first sight as interrupting the continuity of the prophecy, but on +fuller consideration assumes great significance. + +I. The unresisting endurance of the Servant. + +The Revised Version's rendering of the first clause is preferable to +that of the Authorised Version. 'Afflicted' would be little better than +tautology, but 'humbled Himself' strikes the keynote of the verse, +which dwells not on the Servant's afflictions, but on His bearing under +them. Similarly, the pathetic imagery of the lamb led and the sheep +dumb gives the same double representation, first of the indignities, +and next of His demeanour in enduring them, as is conveyed in 'He was +oppressed, yet He humbled Himself.' Unremonstrating, unresisting +endurance, then, is the point emphasised in the lovely metaphor. + +We recall the fact that this emphatically reduplicated phrase 'opened +not His mouth' was verbally fulfilled in our Lord's silence before each +of the three authorities to whom He was presented, before the Jewish +rulers, before Pilate, and before Herod. Only when adjured by the +living God and when silence would have been tantamount to withdrawal of +His claims, did He speak before the Sanhedrin. Only when silence would +have been taken as disowning His Kingship, did He speak before Pilate. +And Herod, who had no right to question Him, received no answer at all. +Jesus' lips were opened in witness but never in complaint or +remonstrance. No doubt, the prophecy would have been as really +fulfilled though there had been no such majestic silences, for its +substance is patient endurance, not mere abstinence from speech. Still, +as with other events in His life, the verbal correspondence with +prophetic details may help, and be meant to help, to bring out more +clearly, for purblind eyes, the true fulfilment. So we may meditate on +the wonder and the beauty of that picture which the evangelists draw, +and which the world has recognised, with whatever differences as to its +interpretation, as the most perfect, pathetic, and majestic picture of +meek endurance that has ever been painted. + +But we gather only the most superficial of its lessons, if that is all +that we find to say about it. For the main point for us to lay to heart +is not merely the fact of that silent submission, but the motive which +led to it. He opened not His mouth, because He willingly embraced the +Cross, and He willingly embraced the Cross because He loved the Father +and would do His will, because He loved the world and would be its +Saviour, + +That touching imagery of the dumb lamb has manifold felicities and +significances beyond serving to figure meekness. And we are not forcing +unintended meanings into a mere piece of poetic imagination when we +note how remarkably the metaphor links on to that of strayed sheep in +the preceding verse, or when we venture to recall John Baptist's first +proclamation of the Lamb of God, and Peter's quotation of this very +prophecy, and the continual recurrence in the Apocalypse of the name of +The Lamb as _the_ title of honour of 'Him who sitteth on the throne.' A +kind of nimbus or aureole shines round the humble figure as drawn by +the prophet. + +II. The misunderstood end of the Servant's life. + +The difficult expressions of verse 8 are rendered in the Revised +Version with clearness and so as to yield a profound meaning. We may +note that here, for the first time, is spoken out that end to which all +the preceding description of sufferings has been leading up, and yet it +is spoken with a kind of solemn reticence, very impressive. The Servant +is 'taken away,' 'cut off,' 'stricken.' Not yet is the grim word +'death' plainly uttered; that comes in the next verse, only after the +Servant's death is supposed to be past. The three words suggest, at all +events, though in half-veiled language, violence and suddenness in the +Servant's fate. Who were the agents who took Him, cut Him off and +struck Him, is left in impressive obscurity. But the fact that His +death was a judicial murder is set in clear light. Whether we read 'By' +or 'From--oppression and judgment He was taken away,' the forms of law +are represented as wrested to bring about flagrant injustice. And, if +it were my object now to defend the Messianic interpretation, one might +ask where any facts corresponding to this element in the picture are to +be found in regard to either the national Israel, or the Israel within +the nation. + +That unjust death by illegal violence under the mask of law was, +further, wholly misunderstood by 'His generation.' We need not do more +than remark in a sentence how that feature corresponds with the facts +in regard to Jesus, and ask whether it does so on any other theory of +'fulfilment.' Neither friends nor foes had even the faintest conception +of what the death of Jesus was or was to effect. And it is worth while +to dwell for a moment on this, because we are often told that there is +no trace of the doctrine of an atoning sacrifice in the Gospels, and +the inference is drawn that it was an afterthought of the apostles, and +therefore to be set aside as an excrescence on Christianity according +to Christ. The silence of Jesus on that subject is exaggerated; but +certainly no thought of His being the Sacrifice for the sins of the +world was in the minds of the sad watchers by the Cross, nor for many a +day thereafter. Is it not worth noting that precisely such a blindness +to the meaning of His death had been prophesied eight hundred years +before? + +But the reason why this feature is introduced seems mainly to be to +underscore the lesson, that those who exercised the violence which +hurried the Servant from the land of the living were blind instruments +of a higher power. And may we not also see in it a suggestion of the +great solitude of sorrow in which the Servant was to die, even as He +had lived in it? Misapprehended and despised He lived, misapprehended +He died. Jesus was the loneliest man that ever breathed human breath. +He gave up His breath in a more awful solitude than ever isolated any +other dying man. Utterly solitary, He died that none of us need ever +face death alone. + +III. The Servant's Grave. + +Following on the mystery of the uncomprehended death comes the enigma +of the burial. The words are an enigma, but they seem meaningless on +any hypothesis but the Messianic one. As they stand, they assert that +unnamed persons gave Him a grave with the wicked, as they would do by +putting Him to death under strained forms of law, and that then, +somehow, the criminal destined to be buried with other criminals in a +dishonoured grave was laid in a tomb with the rich. It seems a +singularly minute trait to find place in such a prophecy. The remarks +already made as to similar minute correspondences in details of the +prophecy with purely external facts in Christ's life need not be +repeated now. One does not see that it is a self-evident axiom needing +only to be enunciated in order to be accepted, that such minute +prophecies are beneath the dignity of revelation. It might rather seem +that, as one element in prophecy, they are eminently valuable. The +smaller the detail, the more remarkable the prevision and the more +striking the fulfilment. For a keen-sighted man may forecast tendencies +and go far to anticipate events on the large scale, but only God can +foresee trifles. The difficulty in which this prediction of the +Servant's grave being 'with the rich' places those who reject the +Messianic reference of the prophecy to our Lord may be measured by the +desperate attempts to evade it by suggesting other readings, or by +making 'rich' to be synonymous with 'wicked.' The words as they stand +have a clear and worthy meaning on one interpretation, and we even +venture to say, on one interpretation only, namely, that they refer to +the reverent laying of the body of the Lord in the new tomb belonging +to 'a certain rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph.' + +If in the latter clause of verse 9 we render 'Because' rather than +'Although,' we get the thought that the burial was a sign that the +Servant, slain as a criminal, yet was not a criminal. The criminals +were either left unburied or disgraced by promiscuous interment in an +unclean place. But that body reverently bedewed with tears, wrapped in +fine linen clean and white, softly laid down by loving hands, watched +by love stronger than death, lay in fitting repose as the corpse of a +King till He came forth as a Conqueror. So once more the dominant note +is struck, and this part of the prophecy closes with the emphatic +repetition of the sinlessness of the Suffering Servant, which makes His +sufferings a deep and bewildering mystery, unless they were endured +because of 'our transgressions.' + + + + +THE SUFFERING SERVANT--IV + +'It pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief: when Thou +shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He +shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in +His hand.'--ISAIAH liii. 10. + + +We have seen a distinct progress of thought in the preceding verses. +There was first the outline of the sorrows and rejection of the +Servant; second, the profound explanation of these as being for us; +third, the sufferings, death and burial of the Servant. + +We have followed Him to the grave. What more can there be to be said? +Whether the Servant of the Lord be an individual or a collective or an +ideal, surely all fitness of metaphor, all reality of fact would +require that His work should be represented as ending with His life, +and that what might follow His burial should be the influence of His +memory, the continued operation of the principles He had set agoing and +so on, but nothing more. + +Now observe that, however we may explain the fact, this is the fact to +be explained, that there is a whole section, this closing one, devoted +to the celebration of His work after His death and burial, and, still +more remarkable, that the prophecy says nothing about His activity on +the world till _after_ death. In all the former portion there is not a +syllable about His doing anything, only about His suffering; and then +when He is dead He begins to work. That is the subject of these last +three verses, and it would be proper to take them all for our +consideration now, but fur two reasons, one, because of their great +fulness and importance, and one because, as you will observe, the two +latter verses are a direct address of God's concerning the Servant. The +prophetic words, spoken as in his own person, end with verse 10, and, +catching up their representations, expanding, defining, glorifying +them, comes the solemn thunder of the voice of God. I now deal only +with the prophet's vision of the work of the Servant of the Lord. + +One other preliminary remark is that the work of the Servant after +death is described in these verses with constant and very emphatic +reference to His previous sufferings. The closeness of connection +between these two is thus thrown into great prominence. + +I. The mystery of God's treatment of the sinless Servant. + +The first clause is to be read in immediate connection with the +preceding verse. The Servant was of absolute sinlessness, and yet the +Divine Hand crushed and bruised Him. Certainly, if we think of the +vehemence of prophetic rebukes, and of the standing doctrine of the Old +Testament that Israel was punished for its sin, we shall be slow to +believe that this picture of the Sinless One, smitten for the sins of +others, can have reference to the nation in any of its parts, or to any +one man. However other poetry may lament over innocent sufferers, the +Old Testament always takes the ground: 'Our iniquities, like the wind, +have carried us away.' But mark that here, however understood, the +prophet paints a figure so sinless that God's bruising Him is an +outstanding wonder and riddle, only to be solved by regarding these +bruises as the stripes by which our sins were healed, and by noting +that 'the pleasure of the Lord' is carried on through Him, after and +through His death. What conceivable application have such +representations except to Jesus? We note, then, here:-- + +1. The solemn truth that His sufferings were divinely inflicted. That +is a truth complementary to the other views in the prophecy, according +to which these sufferings are variously regarded as either inflicted by +men ('By oppression and judgment He was taken away') or drawn on Him by +His own sacrificial act ('His soul shall make an offering for sin'). It +was the divine counsel that used men as its instruments, though they +were none the less guilty. The hands that 'crucified and slew' were no +less 'the hands of lawless men,' because it was 'the determinate +counsel and foreknowledge of God' that 'delivered Him up.' + +But a still deeper thought is in these words. For we can scarcely avoid +seeing in them a glimpse into that dim region of eclipse and agony of +soul from which, as from a cave of darkness, issued that last cry: +'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani?' The bruises inflicted by the God, who +made to meet on Him the iniquities of us all, were infinitely more +severe than the weales of the soldiers' rods, or the wounds of the +nails that pierced His hands and feet. + +2. The staggering mystery of His sinlessness and sufferings. + +The world has been full from of old of stories of goodness tortured and +evil exalted, which have drawn tears and softened hearts, but which +have also bewildered men who would fain believe in a righteous Governor +and loving Father. But none of these have cast so black a shadow of +suspicion on the government of the world by a good God as does the fate +of Jesus, unless it is read in the light of this prophecy. Standing at +the cross, faith in God's goodness and providence can scarcely survive, +unless it rises to be faith in the atoning sacrifice of Him who was +wounded there for our transgressions. + +II. The Servant's work in His sufferings. + +The margin of the Revised Version gives the best rendering--'His soul +shall make an offering for sin.' The word employed for 'offering' means +a trespass offering, and carries us at once back to the sacrificial +system. The trespass offering was distinguished from other offerings. +The central idea of it seems to have been to represent sin or guilt as +_debt_, and the sacrifice as making compensation. We must keep in view +the variety of ideas embodied in His sacrifice, and how all correspond +to realities in our wants and spiritual experience. + +Now there are three points here:-- + +a. The representation that Christ's death is a sacrifice. Clearly +connecting with whole Mosaic system--and that in the sense of a +trespass offering. Christ seems to quote this verse in John x. 15, when +He speaks of laying down His life, and when He declares that He came to +'give His life a _ransom_ for many.' At any rate here is the great +word, sacrifice, proclaimed for the first time in connection with +Messiah. Here the prophet interprets the meaning of all the types and +shadows of the law. + +That sacrificial system bore witness to deep wants of men's souls, and +prophesied of One in whom these were all met and satisfied. + +b. His voluntary surrender. + +He is sacrifice, but He is Priest also. His soul makes the offering, +and His soul is the offering and offers itself in concurrence with the +Divine Will. It is difficult and necessary to keep that double aspect +in view, and never to think of Jesus as an unwilling Victim, nor of God +as angry and needing to be appeased by blood. + +c. The thought that the true meaning of His sufferings is only reached +when we contemplate the effects that have flowed from them. The +pleasure of the Lord in bruising Him is a mystery until we see how +pleasure of the Lord prospers in the hand of the Crucified. + +III. The work of the Servant after death. + +Surely this paradox, so baldly stated, is meant to be an enigma to +startle and to rouse curiosity. This dead Servant is to see of the +travail of His soul, and to prolong His days. All the interpretations +of this chapter which refuse to see Jesus in it shiver on this rock. +What a contrast there is between platitudes about the spirit of the +nation rising transformed from its grave of captivity (which was only +very partially the case), and the historical fulfilment in Jesus +Christ! Here, at any rate, hundreds of years before His Resurrection, +is a word that seems to point to such a fact, and to me it appears that +all fair interpretation is on the side of the Messianic reference. + +Note the singularity of special points. + +a. Having died, the Servant sees His offspring. + +The sacrifice of Christ is the great power which draws men to Him, and +moves to repentance, faith, love. His death was the communication of +life. Nowhere else in the world's history is the teacher's death the +beginning of His gathering of pupils, and not only has the dead Servant +children, but He _sees_ them. That representation is expressive of the +mutual intercourse, strange and deep, whereby we feel that He is truly +with us, 'Jesus Christ, whom having not seen we love.' + +b. Having died, the Servant prolongs His days. + +He lives a continuous life, without an end, for ever. The best +commentary is the word which John heard, as he felt the hand of the +Christ laid on his prostrate form: 'I became dead, and lo, I am alive +for evermore.' + +c. Having died, the Servant carries into effect the divine purposes. + +'Prosper' implies progressive advancement. Christ's Sacrifice carried +out the divine pleasure, and by His Sacrifice the divine pleasure is +further carried out. + +If Christ is the means of carrying out the divine purpose, consider +what this implies of divinity in His nature, of correspondence between +His will and the divine. + +But Jesus not only carries into effect the divine purpose as a +consequence of a past act, but by His present energy this dead man is a +living power in the world today. Is He not? + +The sole explanation of the vitality of Christianity, and the sole +reason which makes its message a gospel to any soul, is Christ's death +for the world and present life in the world. + + + + +THE SUFFERING SERVANT--V + +'He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied: by +His knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many; and He shall +bear their iniquities'--ISAIAH liii. 11. + + +These are all but the closing words of this great prophecy, and are the +fitting crown of all that has gone before. We have been listening to +the voice of a member of the race to whom the Servant of the Lord +belonged, whether we limit that to the Jewish people or include in it +all humanity. That voice has been confessing for the speaker and his +brethren their common misapprehensions of the Servant, their blindness +to the meaning of His sufferings and the mystery of His death. It has +been proclaiming the true significance of these as now he had learned +them, and has in verse 10 touched the mystery of the reward and triumph +of the Servant. + +That note of His glory and coronation is caught up in the two closing +verses, which, in substance, are the continuation of the idea of verse +10. But this identity of substance makes the variety of form the more +emphatic. Observe the '_My_ Servant' of verse 11, and the '_I_ will +divide' of verse 12. These oblige us to take this as the voice of God. +The confession and belief of earth is hushed, that the recognition and +the reward of the Servant may be declared from heaven. An added +solemnity is thus given to the words, and the prophecy comes round +again to the keynote on which it started in chapter lii, 13, '_My_ +Servant.' Notice, too, how the same characteristic is here as in verse +10--that the recapitulation of the sufferings is almost equally +prominent with the description of the reward. The two are so woven +together that no power can part them. We may take these two verses as +setting forth mainly two things--the divine promise that the Servant +shall give righteousness to many, and the divine promise that the +Servant shall conquer many for Himself. + +As to the exposition, 'of' here is probably casual, not partitive, as +the Authorised Version has it; 'travail' is not to be understood in the +sense of childbirth, but of toil and suffering; 'soul' is equivalent to +_life_. This fruit of His soul's travail is further defined in the +words which follow. The great result which will be beheld by Him and +will fill and content His heart is that 'by His knowledge He shall +justify many.' 'By _His_ knowledge' certainly means, by the knowledge +of Him on the part of others. The phrase might be taken either +objectively or subjectively, but it seems to me that only the former +yields an adequate sense. 'My righteous servant' is scarcely emphatic +enough. The words in the original stand in an unusual order, which +might be represented by 'the righteous one, My servant,' and is +intended to put emphasis on the Servant's righteousness, as well as to +suggest the connection between His righteousness and His 'justifying,' +in virtue of His being righteous. 'Justify' is an unusual form, and +means to procure for, or impart righteousness to. '_The_ many' has +stress on the article, and is the antithesis not to _all_, but to +_few_. We might render it 'the masses,' an indefinite expression, which +if not declaring universality, approaches very near to it, as in Romans +v. 19 and Matthew xxvi. 28. 'He shall bear,' a future referring to the +Servant in a state of exaltation, and pointing to His continuous work +after death. This bearing is the root of our righteousness. + +We may put the thoughts here in a definite order. + +I. The great work which the Servant carries on. + +It consists in giving or imparting righteousness. It seems to me that +it is out of place to be too narrow here in interpreting so as to draw +distinctions between righteousness imparted and righteousness bestowed. +We should rather take the general idea of _making righteous_, making, +in fact, like Himself. Note that this is the work which is Christ's +characteristic one. All thoughts of His blessings to the world which +omit that are imperfect. + +II. The preparation for that making of us righteous. + +The roots of our being made righteous by the righteous Servant are +found in His bearing our sins. His sin-bearing work is basis of our +righteousness. Christ justifies men by giving to them His own +righteousness, and taking in turn their sins on Himself that He may +expiate them. + +Not only 'did He bear our sins in His own body on the tree,' but He +_will_ bear them in His exaltation to the Throne, and only because He +continuously and eternally does so are we justified on earth and shall +we be sanctified in heaven. + +III. The condition on which He imparts righteousness. + +'His knowledge,' which is to be taken in the profound Biblical sense as +including not only understanding but experience also. + +Parallels are found in 'This is life eternal to know Thee' (John xvii. +3), and in 'That I may know Him' (Phil. iii. 10). So this prophecy +comes very near to the New Testament proclamation of righteousness by +faith. + +IV. The grand sweep of the Servant's work. + +'The many' is indefinite, and its very indefiniteness approximates it +to universality. A shadowy vision of a great multitude that no man can +number stretches out, as to the horizon, before the prophet. How many +they are he knows not. He knows that they are numerous enough to +'satisfy' the Servant for all His sufferings. He knows, too, that there +is no limit to the happy crowd except that which is set by the +necessary condition of joining the bands of 'the justified'--namely, +'the knowledge of Him.' They who receive the benefits which the Servant +has died and will live to bring cannot be few; they may be all. If any +are shut out, they are self-excluded. + +V. The Servant's satisfaction. + +It may be that the word employed means 'full,' rather than 'content,' +but the latter idea can scarcely be altogether absent from it. We have, +then, the great hope that the Servant, gazing on the results of His +sufferings, will be content, content to have borne them, content with +what they have effected. + +'The glory dies not and the grief is past.' + +And the 'grief' has had for fruit not only 'glory' gathering round the +thorn-pierced head, but reflected glory shining on the brows of 'the +many,' whom He has justified and sanctified by their experience of Him +and His power. The creative week ended with the 'rest' of the Creator, +not because His energy was tired and needed repose, but because He had +fully carried out His purpose, and saw the perfected idea embodied in a +creation that was 'very good.' The redemptive work ends with the +Servant's satisfied contemplation of the many whom He has made like +Himself, His better creation. + + + + +THE SUFFERING SERVANT--VI + +'Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall +divide the spoil with the strong; because He hath poured out His soul +unto death: and was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the +sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.'--ISAIAH +liii. 12. + + +The first clause of this verse is somewhat difficult. There are two +ways of understanding it. One is that adopted in A. V., according to +which the suffering Servant is represented as equal to the greatest +conquerors. He is to be as gloriously successful in His victory as they +have been in theirs. But there are two very strong objections to this +rendering-first, that it takes 'the many' in the sense of _mighty_, +thus obscuring the identity of the expression here and in the previous +verse and in the end of this verse; and secondly, that it gives a very +feeble and frigid ending to the prophecy. It does not seem a worthy +close simply to say that the Servant is to be like a Cyrus or a +Nebuchadnezzar in His conquests. + +The other rendering, though there are some difficulties, is to be +preferred. According to it 'the many' and 'the strong' are themselves +the prey or spoil. The words might be read, 'I will apportion to Him +the many, and He shall apportion to Himself the strong ones.' + +This retains the same meaning of 'many' for the same expression +throughout the context, and is a worthy ending to the prophecy. The +force of the clause is then to represent the suffering Servant as a +conqueror, leading back from His conquests a long train of captives, a +rich booty. + +Notice some points about this closing metaphor. + +Mark its singular contrast to the tone of the rest of the prophecy. +Note the lowliness, the suffering, the minor key of it all, and then, +all at once, the leap up to rapture and triumph. The special form of +the metaphor strikes one as singular. Nothing in the preceding context +even remotely suggests it. Even the previous clause about 'making the +many righteous' does not do much to prepare the way for it. Whatever be +our explanation of the words, it must be one that does full justice to +this metaphor, and presents some conquering power or person, whose +victories are brilliant and real enough to be worthy to stand at the +close of such a prophecy. We must keep in mind, too, what has been +remarked on the two previous verses, that this victorious campaign and +growing conquest is achieved after the Servant is dead. That is a +paradox. And note that the strength of language representing His +activity can scarcely be reconciled with the idea that it is only the +post-mortem influence of His life which is meant. + +Note, too, the singular blending of God's power and the Servant's own +activity in the winning of this extended sovereignty. Side by side the +two are put. The same verb is used in order to emphasise the intended +parallel. 'I will divide,' 'He shall divide.' I will give Him--He shall +conquer for Himself. Remember the intense vehemence with which the Old +Testament guards the absolute supremacy of divine power, and how +strongly it always puts the thought that God is everything and man +nothing. Look at the contrast of the tone when a human conqueror, whose +conquests are the result of God's providence, is addressed (xlv. 1-3). +There is an entire suppression of his personality, not a word about his +bravery, his military genius, or anything in him. It is all _I, I, I_. +Remember how, in chapter x., one of the sins for which the Assyrian is +to be destroyed is precisely that he thought of his victories as due to +his own strength and wisdom. So he is indignantly reminded that he is +only 'a staff in Mine hand,' the axe with which God hewed the nations, +whereas here the voice of God Himself speaks, and gives a strange place +beside Himself to the will and power of this Conqueror. This feature of +the prophecy should be accounted for in any satisfactory interpretation. + +Note, too, the wide sweep of the Servant's dominion, which carries us +back to the beginning of this prophecy in chapter lii. 15, where we +hear of the Servant as 'sprinkling' (or startling') many nations, and +the 'kings' is parallel with the 'strong' in this verse. No bounds are +assigned to the Servant's conquests, which are, if not declared to be +universal, at least indefinitely extended and striding on to world-wide +empire. + +These points are plainly here. I do not dilate upon them. But I ask +whether any of the interpretations of these words, except one, gives +adequate force to them? Is there anything in the history of the +restored exiles which corresponds to this picture? Even if you admit +the violent hypothesis that there was a better part of the nation, so +good that the national sorrows had no chastisement for them, and the +other violent hypothesis that the devoutest among the exiles suffered +most, and the other that the death and burial and resurrection of the +Servant only mean the reformation wrought on Israel by captivity. What +is there in the history of Israel which can be pointed at as the +conquest of the world? Was the nation that bore the yokes of a Ptolemy, +an Antiochus, a Herod, a Caesar, the fulfiller of this dream of +world-conquest? There is only one thing which can be called the Jew +conquering the world. It is that which, as I believe, is meant here, +viz. Christ's conquest. Apart from that, I know of nothing which would +not be ludicrously disproportionate if it were alleged as fulfilment of +this glowing prophecy. + +This prophetic picture is at least four hundred years before Christ, by +the admission of those who bring it lowest down, in their eagerness to +get rid of prophecy. The life of Christ does correspond to it, in such +a way that, clause by clause, it reads as if it were quite as much a +history of Jesus as a prophecy of the Servant. This certainly is an +extraordinary coincidence if it be not a prophecy. And there is really +no argument against the Messianic interpretation, except dogmatic +prejudice--'there cannot be prophecy.' + +No straining is needed in order to fit this great prophetic picture of +the world-Conqueror to Jesus. Even that, at first sight incongruous, +picture of a victor leading long lines of captives, such as we see on +Assyrian slabs and Egyptian paintings, is historically true of Him who +'leads captivity captive,' and is, through the ages, winning ever fresh +victories, and leading His enemies, turned into lovers, in His +triumphal progress. He, and He only, really owns men. His slaves have +made real self-surrenders to Him. Other conquerors may imprison or load +with irons or deport to other lands, but they are only lords of bodies. +Jesus' chains are silken, and bind hearts that are proud of their +bonds. He carries off His free prisoners 'from the power of darkness' +into His kingdom of light. His slaves rejoice to say, 'I am not my +own,' and he only truly possesses himself who has given himself away to +the Conquering Christ. For all these centuries He has been conquering +hearts, enthralling and thereby liberating wills, making Himself the +life of lives. There is nothing else the least like the bond between +Jesus and millions who never saw him. Who among all the leaders of +thought or religious teachers has been able to impress his personality +on others and to dominate them in the fashion that Jesus has done and +is doing to-day? How has He done this thing, which no other man has +been able in the least to do? What is His charm, the secret of His +power? The prophet has no doubt what it is, and unfolds it to us with a +significant 'For.' We turn, then, to the prophetic explanation of that +worldwide empire and note-- + +II. The foundation of the Servant's dominion. + +That explanation is given in four clauses which fall into two pairs. +They remarkably revert to the thought of the Servant's sufferings, but +in how different a tone these are now spoken of, when they are no +longer regarded as the results of man's blind failure to see His +beauty, or as inflicted by the mysterious 'pleasure of Jehovah,' but as +the causes of His triumph! Echoes of both the two first clauses are +heard from the lips of Jesus. As He passed beneath the tremulous shadow +of the olives of Gethsemane, He appealed for the companionship of the +three, by an all but solitary revelation of His weakness and sorrow, +'My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; abide ye here and +watch with Me.' And even more distinctly did He lay His hand on this +prophecy when He ended all His words in the upper room with 'This which +is written must be fulfilled in Me, And He was reckoned with +"transgressors."' May we not claim Jesus as endorsing the Messianic +interpretation of this prophecy? He gazed on the portrait painted ages +before that night of sorrow, and saw in it His own likeness, and said, +That is meant for Me. Some of us feel that, _kenosis_ or no _kenosis_, +He is the best judge of who is the original of the prophet's portrait. + +The two final clauses are separated from the preceding by the emphatic +introduction of the pronominal nominative, and cohere closely as +gathering up for the last time all the description of the Servant, and +as laying broad and firm the basis of His dominion, in the two great +facts which sum up His office and between them stretch over the past +and the future. 'He bare the sin of many, and maketh intercession for +the transgressors.' The former of these two clauses brings up the +pathetic picture of the scapegoat who 'bore upon him all their +iniquities into a solitary land.' The Servant conquers hearts because +He bears upon Him the grim burden which a mightier hand than Aaron's +has made to meet on His head, and because He bears it away. The ancient +ceremony, and the prophet's transference of the words describing it to +his picture of the Servant who was to be King, floated before John the +Baptist, when he pointed his brown, thin finger at Jesus and cried: +'Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.' The +goat had borne the sins of one nation; the prophet had extended the +Servant's ministry indefinitely, so as to include unnumbered 'many'; +John spoke the universal word, 'the world.' So the circles widened. + +But it is not enough to bear away sins. We need continuous help in the +present. Our daily struggles, our ever-felt weakness, all the ills that +flesh is heir to, cry aloud for a mightier than we to be at our sides. +So on the Servant's bearing the sins of the many there follows a +continuous act of priestly intercession, in which, not merely by +prayer, but by meritorious and prevailing intervention, He makes His +own the cause of the many whose sins He has borne. + +On these two acts His dominion rests. Sacrifice and Intercession are +the foundations of His throne. + +The empire of men's hearts falls to Him because of what He has done and +is doing for them. He who is to possess us absolutely must give Himself +to us utterly. The empire falls to Him who supplies men's deepest need. +He who can take away men's sins rules. He who can effectually undertake +men's cause will be their King. + +If Jesus is or does anything less or else, He will not rule men for +ever. If He is but a Teacher and a Guide, oblivion, which shrouds all, +will sooner or later wrap Him in its misty folds. That His name should +so long have resisted its influence is due altogether to men having +believed Him to be something else. He will exercise an everlasting +dominion only if He have brought in an everlasting righteousness. He +will sit King for ever, if and only if He is a priest for ever. All +other rule is transient. + +A remarkable characteristic of this entire prophecy is the frequent +repetition of expressions conveying the idea of sufferings borne for +others. In one form or another that thought occurs, as we reckon, +eleven times, and it is especially frequent in the last verses of the +chapter. Why this perpetual harking back to that one aspect? It is to +be further noticed that throughout there is no hint of any other kind +of work which this Servant had to do. He fulfils His service to God and +man by being bruised for men's iniquities. He came not to be ministered +unto but to minister, and the chief form of His ministry was that He +gave His life a ransom for the many. He came not to preach a gospel, +but to die that there might be a gospel to preach. The Cross is the +centre of His work, and by it He becomes the Centre of the world. + +Look once more at the sorrowful, august figure that rose before the +prophet's eye--with its strange blending of sinlessness and sorrow, +God's approval and God's chastisement, rejection and rule, death and +life, abject humiliation and absolute dominion. Listen to the last +echoes of the prophet's voice as it dies on our ear--'He bore the sins +of the many.' And then hearken how eight hundred years after another +voice takes up the echoes--but instead of pointing away down the +centuries, points to One at his side, and cries, 'Behold the Lamb of +God, which taketh away the sin of the world.' Look at that life, that +death, that grave, that resurrection, that growing dominion, that +inexhaustible intercession--and say, 'Of whom speaketh the prophet +this?' + +May we all be able to answer with clear confidence, 'These things saith +Esaias when he saw _His_ glory and spake of _Him_.' May we all take up +the ancient confession: 'Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried +our sorrows.... He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised +for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and +with His stripes we are healed.' + + + + +THE PASSING AND THE PERMANENT + +'For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but My +kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of My +peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.'--ISAIAH liv, +10.-- + + +There is something of music in the very sound of these words. The +stately march of the grand English translation lends itself with +wonderful beauty to the melody of Isaiah's words. But the thought that +lies below them, sweeping as it does through the whole creation, and +parting all things into the transient and eternal, the mortal and +immortal, is still greater than the music of the words. These are +removed; this abides. And the thing in God which abides is all-gentle +tenderness, that strange love mightier than all the powers of Deity +beside, permanent with the permanence of His changeless heart. The +mountains shall depart, the emblems of eternity shall crumble and +change and pass, and the hills be removed; but this immortal, +impalpable, and, in some men's minds, fantastic and unreal something, +'My loving kindness and the covenant of My peace,' shall outlast them +all. And this great promise is stamped with the sign manual of Heaven, +being spoken by the Lord that hath mercy on thee.' + +So then, dear friends, I think I shall most reverentially deal with +these words if I handle them in the simplest possible way, and think, +first of all, of that great antithesis that is set before us here--what +passes and what abides; and, secondly, draw two or three plain, homely +lessons and applications from the thoughts thus suggested. + +I. First, then, we have to deal with the contrast between the +apparently enduring which passes, and that which truly abides. + +'The mountains depart, the hills remove, My loving-kindness shall not +depart, neither shall the covenant of My peace be removed.' Let me then +say a word or two about that first thought--'the mountains shall +depart.' There they tower over the plains, looking down upon the flat +valley beneath as they did when the prophet spoke. The eternal +buttresses of the hills stand to the eyes of the fleeting generations +as emblems of permanence, and yet winter storms and summer heats, and +the slow processes of decay which we call the gnawing of time, are ever +working upon them, and changing their forms, and at last they shall +pass. Modern science, whilst it has all but incalculably enlarged our +conceptions of the duration of the material universe, emphasises, as +faith alone never could, the thought of the ultimate perishing of this +material world. For geology tells us that 'where rears the cliff there +rolled the sea,' that through the cycles of the shifting history of the +world there have been elevations and depressions so that the ancient +hills in many places are the newest of all things, and the world's form +has changed many and many a time since first it circled as a planet. +And researches into the ultimate constitution of matter have taught us +to think of solids and liquids and gases, as being an infinite +multitude of atoms all in rapid motion with inconceivable velocity, and +have shown us the very atoms in the act of breaking up. So that the old +guess of the infancy of physical science which divined that 'all things +are in a state of flux' is confirmed by its last utterances. Science +prophesies too, and bids us expect that the earth shall one day become, +like some of the stars, a burnt out mass of uniform temperature, +incapable of change or of sustaining life, and shall end by falling +into the diminished sun, and so the old word will be fulfilled that +'the earth and the works that are therein shall be burnt up.' None +should be able to utter the words of my text, 'The mountains shall +depart and the hills be removed,' with such emphasis of certitude as +the present students of physical science. + +But our text does not stop there. It brings into view the transiency of +the transient, in order to throw into greater relief and prominence the +perpetuity of the abiding. If we had nothing abiding beyond this +perishable material universe, it would indeed be misery to exist. Life +would be not only insignificant but wretched, and a ghastly irony, a +meaningless, aimless ripple on the surface of that silent, shoreless +sea. The great 'But' of this text lifts the oppression from humanity +with which the one-sided truth of the passing of all the Visible loads +it. + +And so turn for a moment to the other side of this great text. There +stands out above all that is mortal, which, although it counts its +existence by millenniums, is but for an instant, visible to the eye of +faith, the Great Spirit who moves all the material universe, Himself +unmoved, and lives undiminished by creation, and undiminished if +creation were swept out of existence. Let that which may pass, pass; +let that which can perish, perish; let the mountains crumble and the +hills melt away; beyond the smoke and conflagration, and rising high +above destruction and chaos, stands the calm throne of God, with a +loving Heart upon it, with a council of peace and purpose of mercy for +you and for me, the creatures of a day indeed, but who are to live when +the days shall cease to be. 'My kindness!' What a wonderful word that +is, so far above all the cold delusion of so-called theism! 'My +kindness!' the tender-heartedness of an infinite love, the abounding +favour of the Father of my spirit, His gentle goodness bending down to +me, His tenderness round about me, eternal love that never can die; the +thing that lasts in the universe is His kindness, which continues from +everlasting to everlasting. What a revelation of God! Oh, dear friends, +if only our hearts could open to the full acceptance of that thought, +sorrow and care and anxiety, and every other form of trouble, would +fade away and we should be at rest. The infinite, undying, imperishable +love of God is mine. Older than the mountains, deeper than their roots, +wider than the heavens, and stronger than all my sin, is the love that +grasps me and keeps me and will not let me go, and lavishes its +tenderness upon me, and beseeches me, and pleads with me, and woos me, +and rebukes me, and corrects me when I need, and sent His Son to die +for me. 'My kindness shall not depart from thee.' + +But even that great conception does not exhaust the encouragement which +the prophet has to give to souls weighed upon with the transiency of +the material. He speaks of 'the covenant of My peace.' We are to think +of this great, tender, changeless love of God, which underlies all +things and towers above all things, which overlaps them all and fills +eternity, as being placed, so to speak, under the guarantee of a solemn +obligation. God's covenant is a great thought of Scripture which we far +too little apprehend in the depth and power of its meaning. His +covenant with you and me, poor creatures, is this, 'I promise that My +love shall never leave thee.' He makes Himself a constitutional +monarch, so to speak, giving us a plighted word to which we can appeal +and go to Him and say, 'There, that is the charter given by Thyself, +given irrevocably for ever, and I hold Thee to it. Fulfil it, O Thou +God of Truth.' + +'My covenant of peace.' Dear friends, the prophet spoke a deeper thing +than he knew when he uttered these words. Let me remind you of the +large meaning which the New Testament puts into them. 'Now the God of +Peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the Great +Shepherd of the Sheep, through the blood of the everlasting Covenant, +make us perfect in every good work, to do His will.' God has bound +Himself by His promise to give you and me the peace that belongs to His +own nature, and that covenant is sealed to us in the blood of Jesus +Christ upon the Cross, and so we sinful men, with all the burden of our +evil upon us, with all our sins known to us, with all our manifest +failings and infirmities, can turn to Him and say, 'Thou hast pledged +Thyself to forgive and accept, and that covenant is made sure to me +because Thy Son hath died, and I come and ask Thee to fulfil it.' And +be sure of this, that no poor creature upon earth, however lame his +hand, who puts out that hand to grasp that peaceful covenant--that new +covenant in the blood of Christ--can plead in vain. + +My brother, have you done that? Have you entered into this covenant of +peace with God--peace in believing, peace by the blood of Christ, peace +that fills a new heart, peace that rules amidst all the perturbations +and disappointments of life? Then you may be sure that that covenant +will stand for evermore, though the mountains depart and the hills be +removed. + +II. Now turn with me to a few practical lessons which we may gather +from these great contrasts here, between the perishable mortal and the +immortal divine love. + +Surely the first plain one is a warning against fastening our love, our +hope, or our trust on these transient things. + +What folly it is for a man to risk his peace and the strength and the +joy of his life upon things that crumble and change, when all the while +there is lying before him open for his entrance, and wooing him to come +into the eternal home of his spirit, this covenant! Here are we, from +day to day, plunged into these passing vanities, and always tempted to +think that they are the true abiding things, and it needs great +discipline and watchfulness to live the better life. There is nothing +that will help us to do it like a firm grasp of the love of God in +Jesus Christ. Then we can hold these mortal joys with a loose hand, +knowing that they are only for a little time, and feeling that they are +passing whilst we look at them, and are changing like the scenery in +the sky on a summer's night, with its cliffs and hills in the clouds, +even while we gaze. Where there was a mountain a moment ago up there, +there is now a depression, and the world and everything in it lasts +very little longer than these. It is only a film on the surface of the +great sea of eternity--there is no reality about it. It is but a +dream--a vision, slipping, slipping, slipping away, and you and I +slipping along with it. How foolishly, how obstinately, we all cling to +it, though even the very grasp of our hands tends to make it pass away, +as the children coming in from the fields with their store of +buttercups and daisies in their hot hands, which by their very clutch +hasten the withering. And that is just our position. We have them for a +brief moment, and they all perish in the using. Oh, brother, have you +set your heart on that which is not, when all the while there, longing +to bless and love us, stands the Eternal God, with His unchanging love +and faithful covenant of His perpetual peace? Surely it were +wiser--wiser, to put it on the lowest ground--to seek the things that +are above, and, knowing as we do that the mountains shall depart and +the hills be removed, so make our portion the kindness which shall not +depart, and seek our share in the peace that shall not pass away. + +But there is another lesson to be put in the same simple fashion. +Surely we ought to use thoughts like these of my text in order to stay +the soul in seasons which come to every one sometimes, when we are made +painfully conscious of the transiency of this Present. Meditative hours +come to us all--moments when perhaps some strain of music gives us back +childhood's days; when perhaps some perfume of a flower reminds us of +long-vanished gardens and hands that have crumbled into dust; when some +touch of a sunset sky, or some word of a book, or some providence of +our lives, comes upon the heart and mind, reminding us how everything +is passing. You have all had these thoughts. Some of us stifle +them--they are not pleasant to many of us; some of us brood over them +unwholesomely, and that is not wise; but the best use of them is to +bear us onward into the peaceful region where we clasp to our troubled +hearts that which cannot go. If any of us are making experience to-day +of earthly change, if any of us have hearts heavy with earthly losses, +if any of us are bending under the weight of that awful law, that +everything becomes part and parcel of that dreadful past, if any of us +are looking at our empty hands and saying, 'They have taken away my god +and what have I more?' let us listen to the better voice that says, 'My +kindness shall not depart from thee, and so, whatever goes, thou canst +not be desolate if thou hast Me.' + +And then, still further, let me remind you that this same thought may +avail to give to us hopes of years as immortal as itself. We do not +belong to the mountains and hills that shall depart, or to the order of +things to which they belong. There is coming a very solemn day, I +believe, not by any mere processes of natural decay as I take it, but +by the action of God Himself, the Judge that 'day of the Lord that +shall come as a thief in the night'--when the mountains shall depart, +and the hills be removed, and the throne of judgment shall be set, and +you and I will be there. My brother, lay your hand on that covenant of +peace which is made for us all in Christ Jesus the Lord, and then 'calm +as the summer's ocean we shall be, and all the wreck of nature' cannot +disturb us, for we shall abide unshaken as the throne of God. The +mountains may pass, the hills be removed, but herein is our love made +perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of 'judgment,' for that +kindness shall not depart from us, and God's gentle tenderness is +eternal as Himself. Then we shall not depart from it either, and we are +immortal as the tenderness that encloses us. God's endless love must +have undying creatures on whom to pour itself out, and if to-day I +possess--as we all may possess in however feeble a measure--some sips +and prelibations of that great flood of love that is in God, I can look +unblanched right into the eyes of death and say, 'Thou hast no power at +all over me, I am eternal because the God that loves me is so, and +since He hath loved me with an everlasting love, His loving-kindness +shall not depart from me. Therefore, seeing that all these things shall +be dissolved, I know that I have a building of God, a house not made +with hands, eternal in the heavens, and because He lives I shall live +also.' The hope that is built upon the eternal love of God in Christ is +the true guarantee to me of immortal existence, and this hope is ours +if, and only if, we come into the covenant--the covenant of peace. God +says, 'I will love thee, I will bless thee, I will keep thee, I will +pardon thee, I will save thee, I will glorify thee, and there is My +bond on that Cross, the new covenant in His blood.' Close with the +covenant that God is ready to make with you, and then 'life and death, +principalities and powers, things present and things to come, height +and depth, and every other creature shall be impotent to separate you +from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.' + +'Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath +no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without +money and without price. 2. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which +is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken +diligently unto Me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul +delight itself in fatness. 3. Incline your ear, and come unto Me, hear, +and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with +you, even the sure mercies of David. 4. Behold, I have given him for a +witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. 5. Behold, +thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew +not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God, and for the +Holy One of Israel; for He hath glorified thee. 6. Seek ye the Lord +while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near: 7. Let the +wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let +him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our +God, for He will abundantly pardon. 8. For My thoughts are not your +thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. 9. For as the +heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your +ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. 10. For as the rain cometh +down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth +the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to +the sower, and bread to the eater: 11. So shall My word be that goeth +forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall +accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing +whereto I sent it. 12. For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth +with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you +into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. +13. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the +brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a +name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.'--ISAIAH lv. +1-13. + +The call to partake of the blessings of the Messianic salvation +worthily follows the great prophecy of the suffering Servant. No doubt +the immediate application of this chapter is to the exiled nation, who +in it are summoned from their vain attempts to find satisfaction in the +material prosperity realised in exile, and to make the only true +blessedness their own by obedience to God's voice. But if ever the +prophet spoke to the world he does so here. It is no unwarranted +spiritualising of his invitation which hears in it the voice which +invites all mankind to share the blessings of the gospel feast. + +The glorious words need little exposition. What we have to do is to see +that they do not fall on our ears in vain. They may be roughly divided +into two sections--the invitation to the feast, with the promises to +the obedient Israel (verses 1-5), and the summons to the necessary +preparation for the feast, namely, repentance, with the reason for its +necessity, and the encouragements to it in the might of God's faithful +promises (verses 6-13). + +I. Whose voice sounds so beseechingly and welcoming in this great call, +which rings out to all thirsty souls? If we note the 'Me' and 'I' which +follow, we shall hear God Himself thus taking the office of summoner to +His own feast. By whatever media the gospel call reaches us, it is in +reality God's own voice to our hearts, and that makes the +responsibility of hearing more tremendous, and the folly of refusing +more inexcusable. + +Who are invited? There are but two conditions expressed in verse 1, and +these are fulfilled in every soul. All are summoned who are thirsty and +penniless. If we have in our souls desires that all the broken cisterns +of earth can never slake-and we all have these-and if we have nothing +by which we can procure what will still the gnawing hunger and burning +thirst of our souls--and none of us has--then we are included in the +call. Universal as are the craving for blessedness and the +powerlessness to satisfy it, are the adaptation and destination of the +gospel. + +What is offered? Water, wine, milk--all the beverages of a simple +civilisation, differing in their operation, but all precious to a +thirsty palate. Water revives, wine gladdens and inspirits, milk +nourishes. All that any man needs or desires is to be found in Christ. +We shall not understand the nature of the feast unless we remember that +He Himself is the 'gift of God.' What these three draughts mean is best +perceived when we listen to Him saying, in a plain quotation of this +call, 'If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.' Nothing +short of Himself can satisfy the thirst of one soul, much less of all +the thirsty. Like the flow from the magic fountain of the legend, Jesus +becomes to each what each most desires. + +How does He become ours? The paradox of buying with what is not money +is meant, by its very appearance of contradiction, to put in strongest +fashion that the possession of Him depends on nothing in us but the +sense of need and the willingness to accept. We buy Christ when we part +with self, which is all that we have, in order to win Him. We must be +full of conscious emptiness and desire, if we are to be filled with His +fulness. Jesus interpreted the meaning of 'come to the waters' when He +said, 'He that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth +on Me shall never thirst.' Faith is coming, faith is drinking, faith is +buying. + +The universal call, with is clear setting forth of blessing and +conditions of possessing, is followed by a pleading remonstrance as to +the folly of lavishing effort and money on what is not bread. It is +strange that men will cheerfully take more pains to continue thirsty +than to accept the satisfaction which God provides. They toil and +continue unsatisfied. Experience does not teach them, and all the while +the one real good is waiting to be theirs for nothing. + + ''Tis heaven alone that is given away; + 'Tis only God may be had for the asking.' + +Christ goes a-begging, and we spend our strength in vain toil to +acquire what we turn away from when it is offered us in Him. When the +great Father offers bread for nothing, we will not have it, but we are +ready to give any price for a stone. It is not the wickedness, but the +folly, of unbelief, which is the marvel. + +The contrast between the heavy price at which men buy hunger, and the +easy rate at which they may have full satisfaction, is further set +forth by the call to 'incline the ear,' which is all that is needed in +order that life and nourishment which delights the soul may be ours. +'Hearken, and eat' is equivalent to 'Hearken, and ye shall eat.' The +real 'good' for man is only to be found in listening to and obeying the +divine voice, whether it sound in invitation, promise, or command. The +true life of the soul lies in that listening receptiveness which takes +for one's own God's great gift of Christ, and yields glad obedience to +His every word. + +The exiled Israel was promised an 'everlasting covenant' as the result +of their acceptance of the invitation; and we know whose blood it is +that has sealed the new covenant, which abides as long as Christ's +fulness and men's need shall last. That covenant, of which we seldom +hear in Isaiah, but which fills a prominent place in Jeremiah and +Ezekiel, is further explained as being 'the sure mercies of David.' +This phrase and its context are difficult, but the general meaning is +clear. The great promises of God's unfailing mercy, made to the +historical founder of the royal house, shall be transferred and +continued, with inviolable faithfulness, to those who drink of the gift +of God. + +This parallel between the great King and the whole mass of the true +Israel is further set forth in verses 4 and 5. Each begins with +'Behold,' and the similar form indicates similarity in contents. The +son of Jesse was in some degree God's witness to the heathen nations, +as is expressed in several psalms; and, what he was imperfectly, the +ransomed Israel would be to the world. The office of the Christian +Church is to draw nations that it knew not, to follow in the blessed +path, in which it has found satisfaction and the dawnings of a more +than natural glory transfiguring it. They who have themselves drunk of +the unfailing fountain in Christ are thereby fitted and called to cry +to others, 'Come ye to the waters.' Experience of Christ's +preciousness, and of the rest of soul which comes from partaking of His +salvation, impels and obliges to call others to share the bliss. + +II. The second part of the chapter begins with an urgent call to +repentance, based upon the difference between God's ways and man's, and +on the certainty that the divine promises will be fulfilled. The +summons in verses 6 and 7 is first couched in most general terms, which +are then more closely defined. To 'seek the Lord' is to direct conduct +and heart to obtain possession of God as one's own. Of that seeking, +the chief element is calling upon Him; since such is His desire to be +found of us that it only needs our asking in order to receive. As +surely as the mother hears her child's cry, so surely does He catch the +faintest voice addressed to Him. But, men being what they are, a change +of ways and of their root in thoughts is indispensable. Seeking which +is not accompanied by forsaking self and an evil past is no genuine +seeking, and will end in no finding. But this forsaking is only one +side of true repentance; the other is return to God, as is expressed in +the New Testament word for it, which implies a change of mind, purpose, +and conduct. The faces which were turned earthward and averted from God +are to be turned God-ward and diverted from earth. Whosoever thus seeks +may be confident of finding and of abundant pardon. The belief in God's +loving forgivingness is the strongest motive to repentance, and the +most melting argument to listen to the call to seek Him. But there is +another motive of a more awful kind; namely, the consideration that the +period of mercy is limited, and that a time may come, and that soon, +when God no longer 'may be found' nor 'is near.' + +The need for such a radical change in conduct and mind is further +enforced, in verses 8 and 9, by the emphatic statement of present +discord between the exiled Israel and God. Mark that the deepest seat +of the discord is first dealt with, and then the manifestation of it in +active life. Mark also that the order of comparison is inverted in the +two successive clauses in verse 8. God's thoughts have not entered into +Israel's mind and become theirs. The 'thinkings' not being regulated +according to God's truth, nor the desires and sentiments brought into +accord with His will and mind, a contrariety of 'ways' must follow, and +the paths which men choose for themselves cannot run parallel with +God's, nor be pleasing to Him. Therefore the stringent urgency of the +call to forsake 'the crooked, wandering ways in which we live,' and to +come back to the path of righteousness which is traced by God for our +feet. + +But divergence which necessitates repentance is not the only relation +between our ways and God's. There is elevation, transcendency, like +that of the eternal heavens, high, boundless, the home of light, the +storehouse of beneficent influences which fertilise. If we think of the +dreary, flat plains where the exiles were, and the magnificent sweep of +the sky over them, we shall feel the beauty of the figure. If 'My +thoughts are not your thoughts' was all that was to be said, repentance +would be of little use, and there would be little to encourage to it; +but if God's thoughts of love and ways of blessing arch themselves +above our low lives as the sky bends, pitying and bestowing, above +squalor, barrenness, and darkness, then penitence is not in vain, and +the low earth may be visited with gifts from the highest heaven. + +The certainty that such gifts will be bestowed is the last thought of +this magnificent summons. The prophet dilates on that assurance to the +end of the chapter. He seems to catch fire, as it were, from the +introduction of that grand figure of the lofty heavens domed above the +flat earth. In effect, what he says is: They are high and inaccessible, +but think what pours down from them, and how all fertility depends on +their gifts of rain and snow, and how the moisture which they drop is +turned into 'seed to the sower, and bread to the eater.' Thinking of +that continuous benefaction and miracle, we should see in it a symbol +of the better gifts from the higher heavens. So does God's word come +down from His throne. So does it turn barrenness into nodding harvest. +So does it quicken undreamed of powers of fruitfulness in human nature +and among the forces of the world. So does it supply nourishment for +hungry souls, and germs which shall bear fruit in coming years. No +complicated machinery nor the most careful culture can work what the +gentle dropping rain effects. There is mightier force in it than in +many thunder-clouds. The gospel does with ease and in silence what +nothing else can do. It makes barren souls fruitful in all good works, +and in all happiness worthy of men. Therefore the summons to drink of +the springing fountain and to turn from evil ways and thoughts is +recommended by the assurance that God's word is faithful, and all His +promises firm. + +The final verses (verses 12, 13) give the glowing picture of the return +from exile amid the jubilation of a transformed world, as the strongest +motive to the obedient hearkening to God's voice, to which the chapter +has summoned, and as the great instance of God's keeping His word. + +The flight from Egypt was 'in haste' (Deut. xvi. 3); but this shall be +a triumphal exodus, without conflict or alarms. All nature shall +participate in the joy. Mountains and hills shall raise the shrill note +of rejoicing, and the trees wave their branches, as if clapping hands +in delight. This is more than mere poetic rhetoric. A redeemed humanity +implies a glorified world. Nature has been involved in the consequences +of sin, and will share in the results of redemption, and have some +humble reflected light from 'the liberty of the glory of the sons of +God.' + +The fulfilment of this final promise is not yet. All earlier returns of +the exiled Israel from the Babylon of their bondage to God and the city +of God, such as the historical one which the prophet foretold, and the +spiritual one which is repeated age by age in the history of the +Christian Church and of single penitent souls, point on to that last +triumphant day when 'the ransomed of the Lord shall return,' and the +world be transfigured to match the glory that they inherit. That fair +world without poison or offence, and the nations of the saved who +inhabit its peaceful spaces, shall be, in the fullest stretch of the +words, 'to the Lord for a name, and for an everlasting sign that shall +not be cut off.' The redemption of man and his establishing amid the +felicities of a state correspondent to His God-given glory shall be to +all eternity and to all possible creations the highest evidence of what +God is, and His token to all beings. + + + + +THE GREAT PROCLAMATION + +'Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath +no money; come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without +money and without price.'--ISAIAH lv.1. + + +The meaning of the word _preach_ is 'proclaim like a herald'; or, what +is perhaps more familiar to most of us, like a town-crier; with a loud +voice, clearly and plainly delivering the message. Now, there are other +notions of a sermon than that; and there is other work which ministers +have to do, of an educational kind. But my business now is to preach. +We have ventured to ask others than the members of our own congregation +to join us in this service; and I should be ashamed of myself, and have +good reason to be so, if I had asked you to come to hear me talk, or to +entertain you with more or less eloquent and thoughtful discourses. +There is a time for everything; and what this is the time for is to +ring out like a bellman the message which I believe God has given me +for you. It cannot but suffer in passing through human lips; but I pray +that my poor words may not be all unworthy of its stringency, and of +the greatness of its blessing. My text is God's proclamation, and all +that the best of us can do is but to reiterate that, more feebly alas, +but still earnestly. + +Suppose there was an advertisement in to-morrow morning's papers that +any one that liked to go to a certain place might get a fortune for +going, what a _queue_ of waiting suppliants there would be at the door! +Here is God's greatest gift going a-begging; and there are no doubt +some among you who listen to my text with only the thought, 'Oh, the +old threadbare story is what we have been asked to come and hear!' +Brethren, have you taken the offer? If not, it needs to be pressed upon +you once more. So my purpose in this sermon is a very simple one. I +wish, as a brother to a brother, to put before you these three things: +to whom this offer is made; what it consists of; and how it may be ours. + +I. To whom this offer is made. + +It is to every one thirsty and penniless. That is a melancholy +combination, to be needing something infinitely, and to have not a +farthing to get it with. But that is the condition in which we all +stand, in regard to the highest and best things. This invitation of my +text is as universal as if it had stopped with its third word. 'Ho, +every one' would have been no broader than is the offer as it stands. +For the characteristics named are those which belong, necessarily and +universally, to human experience. If my text had said, 'Ho, every one +that breathes human breath,' it would not have more completely covered +the whole race, and enfolded thee and me, and all our brethren, in the +amplitude of its promise, than it does when it sets up as the sole +qualifications thirst and penury--that we infinitely need, and that we +are absolutely unable to acquire, the blessings that it offers. + +'Every one that thirsteth'--that means desire. Yes; but it means need +also. And what is every man but a great bundle of yearnings and +necessities? None of us carry within ourselves that which suffices for +ourselves. We are all dependent upon external things for being and for +wellbeing. + +There are thirsts which infallibly point to their true objects. If a +man is hungry he knows that it is food that he wants. And just as the +necessities of the animal life are incapable of being misunderstood, +and the objects which will satisfy them incapable of being confused or +mistaken, so there are other nobler thirsts, which, in like manner, +work automatically, and point to the thing that they need. We have +social instincts; we need love; we need friendship; we need somebody to +lean upon; we thirst for some heart to rest our heads upon, for hands +to clasp ours; and we know where the creatures and the objects are that +will satisfy these desires. And there are the higher thirsts of the +spirit, that 'follows knowledge, like a sinking star, beyond the +furthest bounds of human thought'; and a man knows where and how to +gratify the impulse that drives him to seek after the many forms of +knowledge and wisdom. + +But besides all these, besides sense, besides affection, besides +emotions, besides the intellectual spur of which we are all more or +less conscious, there come in a whole set of other thirsts that do not +in themselves carry the intimation of the place where they can be +slaked. And so you get men restless, as some of you are; always +dissatisfied, as some of you are; feeling that there is something +wanting, yet not knowing what, as some of you are. You remember the old +story in the _Arabian Nights_, of the man who had a grand palace, and +lived in it quite contentedly, until some one told him that it needed a +roc's egg hanging from the roof to make it complete, and he did not +know where to get that, and was miserable accordingly. We build our +houses, we fancy that we are satisfied; and then there comes the +stinging thought that it is not all complete yet, and we go groping, +groping in the dark, to find out where the lacking thing is. +Shipwrecked sailors sometimes, in their desperation, drink salt water, +and that makes them thirstier than ever, and brings on madness and +death. Some publicans drug the vile liquors which they sell, so that +they increase thirst. We may make no mistake about how to satisfy the +desires of sense or of earthly affections; we may be quite certain that +'money answereth all things,' and that it is good to get on in business +in Manchester; or may have found a pure and enduring satisfaction in +study and in books--yet we have thirsts that some of us know not where +to satisfy; and so we have parched lips and swollen tongues, and raging +desire that earth can give nothing to fill. + +My brother, do you know what it is that you want? + +It is God. Nothing else, nothing less. 'My soul thirsteth for God, for +the living God.' The man that knows what it is of which he is in such +sore need, is blessed. The man who only feels dimly that he needs +something, and does not know that it is God whom he does need, is +condemned to wander in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is, and +where his heart gapes, parched and cracked like the soil upon which he +treads. Understand your thirst. Interpret your desires aright. Open +your eyes to your need; and be sure of this, that mountains of money +and the clearest insight into intellectual problems, and fame, and +love, and wife, and children, and a happy home, and abundance of all +things that you can desire, will leave a central aching emptiness that +nothing and no person but God can ever fill. Oh, that we all knew what +these yearnings of our hearts mean! + +Aye! but there are _dormant_ thirsts too. It is no proof of superiority +that a savage has fewer wants than you and I have, for the want is the +open mouth into which supply comes. And it is no proof that you have +not, deep in your nature, desires which, unless they are satisfied, +will prevent your being blessed, that these desires are all unconscious +to yourselves. The business of us preachers is, very largely, to get +the people who will listen to us, to recognise the fact that they do +want things which they do not wish; and that, for the perfection of +their natures, the cherishing of noble longings and thirstings is +needful, and that to be without this sense of need is to be without one +of the loftiest prerogatives of humanity. + +Some of you do not wish forgiveness. Many of you would much rather not +have holiness. You do not want to have God. The promises of the Gospel +go clean over your heads, and are as impotent to influence you as the +wind whistling through a keyhole, because you have never been aware of +the wants to which these promises correspond, and do not understand +what it is that you truly require. + +And yet there is no desire--that is to say, consciousness of +necessities--so dormant but that its being un-gratified makes a man +restless. You do not wish forgiveness, but you will never be happy till +you get it. You do not wish to be good and true and holy men, but you +will never be blessed till you are. You do not want to have God, some +of you, but you will be restless till you find Him. You fancy you wish +heaven when you are dead; you do not want it while you are living. But +until your earthly life is like the life of Jesus Christ in heaven, +though in an inferior degree, whilst it is on earth, you will never be +at rest. You are thirsty enough after these things to be ill at ease +without them, when you bethink yourselves and pass out of the region of +mere mechanical and habitual existence; but until you get these things +that you do not desire, be sure of this: that you will be tortured with +vain unrest, and will find that the satisfactions which you do seek +turn to ashes in your mouth. 'Bread of deceit,' says the Book, 'is +sweet to a man.' The writer meant by that that there were people to +whom it was pleasant to tell profitable lies. But we might widen the +meaning, and say that all these lower satisfactions, apart from the +loftier ones of forgiveness, acceptance, reconciliation with God, the +conscious possession of Him, a well-grounded hope of immortality, the +power to live a noble life and to look forward to a glorious heaven, +are 'bread of deceit,' which promises nourishment and does not give it, +but breaks the teeth that try to masticate it; 'it turneth to gravel.' + +'Ho, every one that thirsteth.' That designation includes us all. 'And +he that hath no money.' Who has any? Notice that the persons +represented in our text as penniless are, in the next verse, +remonstrated with for spending 'money.' So then the penniless man had +some pence away in some corner of his pocket which he could spend. He +had the money that would buy shams, 'that which is not bread' but a +stone though it looks like a loaf, but he had no money for the true +food. Which being translated out of parable into fact, is simply this, +that our efforts may and do win for us the lower satisfactions which +meet our transitory and superficial necessities, but that no effort of +ours can secure for us the loftier blessings which slake the diviner +thirsts of immortal souls. A man lands in a far country with English +shillings in his pocket, but he finds that no coins go there but +thalers, or francs, or dollars, or the like; and his money is only +current in his own land, and he must have it changed before he can make +his purchases. So though he has a pocketful of it he may as well be +penniless. + +And, in like fashion, you and I, with all our strenuous efforts, which +we are bound to make, and which there is joy in making, after these +lower good things that correspond to our efforts, find that we have no +coinage that will buy the good things of the kingdom of heaven, without +which we faint and die. For them our efforts are useless. Can a man by +his penitence, by his tears, by his amendment, make it possible for the +consequences of his past to be obliterated, or all changed in their +character into fatherly chastisement? No! A thousand times, no! The +superficial notions of Christianity, which are only too common amongst +both educated and uneducated, may say to a man, 'You need no divine +intervention, if only you will get up from the dust, and do your best +to keep up when you are up.' But those who realise more deeply what the +significance of sin is, and what the eternal operation of its +consequences upon the soul is, and what the awful majesty of a divine +righteousness is, learn that the man who has sinned can, by nothing +that he can do, obliterate that awful fact, or reduce it to +insignificance, in regard to the divine relations to him. It is only +God who can do that. We have no money. + +So we stand thirsty and penniless--a desperate condition! Ay! brother, +it _is_ desperate, and it is the condition of every one of us. I wish I +could turn the generalities of my text into the individuality of a +personal address. I wish I could bring its wide-flowing beneficence to +a sharp point that might touch your conscience, heart, and will. I +cannot do that; you must do it for yourself. + +'Ho, every one that thirsteth.' Will you pause for a moment, and say to +yourself, 'That is I'? 'And he that hath no money'--that is I. 'Come ye +to the waters'--that is I. The proclamation is for thine ear and for +thy heart; and the gift is for thy hand and thy lips. + +II. In what this offer consists. + +They tell an old story about the rejoicings at the coronation of some +great king, when there was set up in the market-place a triple +fountain, from each of whose three lips flowed a different kind of rare +liquor which any man who chose to bring a pitcher might fill it with, +at his choice. Notice my text, 'come ye to the _waters_' ... 'buy +_wine_ and _milk_.' The great fountain is set up in the market-place of +the world, and every man may come; and whichever of this glorious triad +of effluents he needs most, there his lip may glue itself and there it +may drink, be it 'water' that refreshes, or 'wine' that gladdens, or +'milk' that nourishes. They are all contained in this one great gift +that flows out from the deep heart of God to the thirsty lips of +parched humanity. + +And what is that gift? Well, we may say, salvation; or we may use many +other words to define the nature of the gifts. I venture to take a +shorter one, and say, it means Christ. He, and not merely some truth +about Him and His work; He Himself, in the fulness of His being, in the +all-sufficiency of His love, in the reality of His presence, in the +power of His sacrifice, in the daily derivation, into the heart that +waits upon Him, of His life and His spirit, He is the all-sufficient +supply of every thirst of every human soul. Do we want happiness? +Christ gives us His joy, abiding and full, and not as the world gives. +Do we want love? He gathers us to His heart, in which 'there is no +variableness, neither shadow cast by turning,' and binds us to Himself +by bonds that death, the separator, vainly attempts to untie, and which +no unworthiness, ingratitude or coldness of ours will ever be able to +unloose. Do we want wisdom? He will dwell with us as our light. Do our +hearts yearn for companionship? With Him we shall never be solitary. Do +we long for a bright hope which shall light up the dark future, and +spread a rainbow span over the great gorge and gulf of death? Jesus +Christ spans the void, and gives us unfailing and undeceiving hope. For +everything that you and I need here or yonder, in heart, in will, in +practical life, Jesus Christ Himself is the all-sufficient supply. + +'My life in death, my all in all.' What is offered in Him may be +described by all the glorious and blessed names which men have invented +to designate the various aspects of the Good. These are the goodly +pearls that men seek, but there is one of great price which is worth +them all, and gathers into itself all their clouded and fragmentary +splendours. Christ is all, and the soul that has Him shall never thirst. + + 'Thou of life the fountain art, + Freely let me take of Thee.' + +III. Lastly, how do we obtain the offered gifts? + +The paradox of my text needs little explanation, 'Buy without money and +without price.' The contradiction on the surface is but intended to +make emphatic this blessed truth, which I pray may reach your memories +and hearts, that the only conditions are a sense of need, and a +willingness to take--nothing less and nothing more. We must recognise +our penury and must abandon self, and put away all ideas of having a +finger in our own salvation, and be willing--which, strangely and sadly +enough, many of us are not-to be under obligations to God's unhelped +and undeserved love for all. + +Cheap things are seldom valued. Ask a high price and people think that +the commodity is precious. A man goes into a fair, for a wager, and he +carries with him a try full of gold watches and offers to sell them for +a farthing apiece, and nobody will buy them. It does not, I hope, +degrade the subject, if I say Jesus Christ comes into the market-place +of the world with His hands full of the gifts which His pierced hands +have bought, that He may give them away. He says, 'Will you take them?' +And you, and you, and you, pass by on the other side, and go away to +another merchant, and buy dearly things that are not worth the having. + +'My father, my father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, +wouldst thou not have done it?' Would you not? Swing at the end of a +pole, with hooks in your back; measure all the way from Cape Comorin to +the Himalayas, lying down on your face and rising at each length; do a +hundred things which heathens and Roman Catholics and unspiritual +Protestants think to be the way to get salvation; deny yourselves +things that you would like to do; do things that you do not want to do; +give money that you would like to keep; avoid habits that are very +sweet, go to church or chapel when you have no heart for worship; and +so try to balance the account. If the prophet had bid thee do some +great thing, thou wouldst have done it. How much rather when he says, +'Wash, and be clean.' 'Nothing in my heart I bring.' You do _not_ bring +anything. 'Simply to Thy Cross I cling.' Do you? Do you? Jesus Christ +catches up the 'comes' of my text, and He says, 'Come unto Me, all ye +that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' 'If any man +thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.' Brethren, I lay it on your +hearts and consciences to answer Him--never mind about me--to answer +_Him_: 'Sir, give me this water that I thirst not.' + + + + +GOD'S WAYS AND MAN'S + +'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, +saith the Lord. 9. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are +My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your +thoughts.'--ISAIAH lv. 8, 9. + + +Scripture gives us no revelations concerning God merely in order that +we may know about Him. These words are grand poetry and noble theology, +but they are meant practically and in fiery earnestness. The 'for' at +the beginning of each clause points us back to the previous statement, +and both of the verses of our text are in different ways its +foundation. And what has preceded is this: 'Let the wicked forsake his +way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the +Lord, for He will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will +abundantly pardon.' That is why the prophet dilates upon the difference +between the 'thoughts' and the 'ways' of God and of men. + +If we look at these two verses a little more closely we shall perceive +that they by no means cover the same ground nor suggest the same idea +as to the relationship between God's 'ways' and 'thoughts' and ours. +The former of them speaks of unlikeness and opposition, the latter of +elevation and superiority; the former of them is the basis of an +indictment and an exhortation, the latter is the basis of an +encouragement and a promise. The former of them is the reason why 'the +wicked' and 'unrighteous man' ought to and must 'turn' from 'his ways' +and 'thoughts,' the latter of them is the reason why, 'turning,' he may +be sure that the Lord 'will abundantly pardon.' + +And so we have here two things to consider in reference to the relation +between the divine purposes and acts and man's purposes and acts. +First, the antagonism, and the indictment and exhortation that are +based upon that; second, the analogy but superiority, and the +exhortation and hope that are built upon that. Let me deal, then, with +these separately. + +I. We have here an unlikeness declared, and upon that is rested an +appeal. + +Notice the remarkable order and alternation of pronouns in the first +verse. '_My_ thoughts are not _your_ thoughts,' saith the Lord. The +things that God thinks and purposes are not the things that man thinks +and purposes, and therefore, because the thoughts are different, the +outcomes of them in deeds are divergent. God's 'ways' are His acts, the +manner and course of His working considered as a path on which He +moves, and on which, in some sense, we can also journey. Our +'ways'--our manner of life--are not parallel with His, as they should +be. + +But that opposition is expressed with a remarkable variation. Observe +the change of pronouns in the two clauses. First, '_My_ thoughts are +not your thoughts'--you have not taken My truth into your minds, nor My +purposes into your wills; you do riot think God's thoughts. +Therefore--'_your_ ways (instead of 'My,' as we should have expected, +to keep the regularity of the parallelism) are not My ways'--I +repudiate and abjure your conduct and condemn it utterly. + +Now, of course, in this charge of man's unlikeness to God, there is no +contradiction of, nor reference to, man's natural constitution, in +which there are, at one and the same time, the likeness of the child +with the parent and the unlikeness between the creature and the +Creator. If our thoughts were not in a measure like God's thoughts, we +should know nothing about Him. If our thoughts were not like God's +thoughts, we should have no standard for life or thinking. +Righteousness and beauty and truth and goodness are the same things in +heaven and earth, and alike in God and man. We are made after His +image, poor creatures though we be; and though there must ever be a +gulf of unlikeness, which we cannot bridge, between the thoughts of Him +whose knowledge has no growth nor uncertainty, whose wisdom is infinite +and all whose nature is boundless light, and our knowledge, and must +ever be a gulf between the workings and ways of Him who works without +effort, and knows neither weariness nor limitation, and our work, so +often foiled, so always toilsome, yet in all the unlikeness there is +(and no man can denude himself of it) a likeness to the Father. For the +image in which God made man at the beginning is not an image that it is +in the power of men to cast away, and in the worst of his corruptions +and the widest of his departures he still bears upon him the signs of +likeness 'to Him that created him.' The coin is rusty, battered, +defaced; but still legible are the head and the writing. 'Whose image +and superscription hath it?' Render unto God the things that are +declared to be God's, because they bear His likeness and are stamped +with His signature. + +But that very necessary and natural likeness between God and man makes +more solemnly sinful the voluntary unlikeness which we have brought +upon ourselves. If there were no analogy, there could be no contrast. +If God and man were utterly unlike, then there would be no evil in our +unlikeness and no need for our repentance. + +The true state for each of us is that we should, as the great +astronomer said he had done in regard to his own science, 'think God's +thoughts after Him,' and have our minds filled with His truth and our +wills all harmonised with His purposes, and that we should thus make +our ways to run parallel with the ways of God. The blessedness, the +peace, the true manhood of a man, are that his ways and thoughts should +be like God's. And so my text comes with its indictment--You who by +nature were formed in His image, you to whom it is open to sympathise +with His designs, to harmonise your wills with His will, and to bring +all the dark and crooked ways in which you walk into full parallelism +with His way--you have departed into darkness of unlikeness, and in +thought and in ways are the opposites of God. + +Mark how wonderfully, in the simple language of my text, deep truths +about this sin of ours are conveyed. Notice its growth and order. It +begins with a heart and mind that do not take in God's thoughts, +truths, purposes, desires, and then the alienated will and the darkened +understanding and the conscience which has closed itself against His +imperative voice issue afterwards in conduct which He cannot accept as +in any way corresponding with His. First comes the thought unreceptive +of God's thought, and then follow ways contrary to God's ways. + +Notice the profound truth here in regard to the essential and deepest +evil of all our evil. '_Your_ thoughts'; '_your_ +ways,'--self-dependence and self-confidence are the master-evils of +humanity. And every sin is at bottom the result of saying--'I will not +conform myself to God, but I am going to please myself, and take my own +way.' My own way is never God's way; my own way is always the devil's +way. And the root of all sin lies in these two strong, simple words, +'_Your_ thoughts not Mine; _your_ ways not Mine.' + +Notice, too, how there are suggested the misery and retribution of this +unlikeness. 'If you will not make My thoughts your thoughts, I shall +not take your ways as My ways. I will leave you to them.' 'You will be +filled with the fruit of your own devices. I shall not incorporate your +actions into My great scheme and purpose.' Men + + 'Would not know His ways, + And He has left them to their own.' + +So here we have the solemn indictment brought by God's own voice +against us all. The criminality of our unlikeness to Him rests upon our +original likeness. + +The unlikeness roots itself in thought, and blossoms in the poisonous +flower of God-displeasing acts. It brings down upon our heads the +solemn retribution of separation from Him, and being filled with the +fruit of our own devices. Such is the indictment brought against every +soul of man upon the earth, and there is built upon it the call to +repentance and change,' let the wicked forsake his _way_, and the +unrighteous man his _thoughts_.' The question rises in many a heart, +'How am I to forsake these paths on which my feet have so longed +walked?' And if I do, what about all the years behind me, full of wild +wanderings and thoughts in all of which God was not? + +II. The second verse of our text meets that despairing question. It +proclaims the elevation of God's ways and thoughts above ours, and +thereon bases the assurance of pardon. + +The relation is not only one of unlikeness and opposition, but it is +also one of analogy and superiority. The former clause began with +thoughts which are the parents of ways, and, as befits the all-seeing +Judge, laid bare first the hidden discord of man's heart and will, ere +it pointed to the manifest antagonism of his doings. This clause begins +with God's ways, from which alone men can reach the knowledge of His +thoughts. The first follows the order of God's knowledge of man; the +second, that of man's knowledge of God. + +It is a wonderful and beautiful turn which the prophet here gives to +the thought of the transcendent elevation of God. The heavens are the +very type of the unattainable; and to say that they are 'higher than +the earth' seems, at first sight, to be but to say, 'No man hath +ascended into the heavens,' and you sinful men must grovel here down +upon your plain, whilst they are far above, out of your reach. But the +heavens bend. They are an arch, and not a straight line. They touch the +horizon; and there come from them the sweet influences of sunshine and +of rain, of dew and of blessing, which bring fertility. So they are not +only far and unattainable, but friendly and beneficent, and +communicative of good. Like them, in true analogy but yet infinite +superiority to the best and noblest in man, is the boundless mercy of +our pardoning God: + + 'The glorious sky, embracing all, + Is like its Maker's love, + Wherewith encompassed, great and small + In peace and order move.' + +'As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than +your ways.' _The_ special 'thought' and 'way' which is meant here is +God's thought and way about sin. There are three points here on which I +would touch for a moment. First, God's way of dealing with sin is +lifted up above all human example. There is such a thing as pardoning +mercy amongst men. It is a faint analogy of, as it is an offshoot from, +the divine pardon, but all the forgivingness of the most placable and +long-suffering and gladly pardoning of men is but as earth to heaven +compared with the greatness of His. Our forgiveness has its +limitations. We sometimes cannot pardon as freely as we thought, +because there blends with our indignation against evil a passionate +personal sense of wrong done to us which we cannot get rid of, and that +disturbs the freeness and the joyfulness of many a human pardon. But +God's pardon is undisturbed and hindered by any sense of personal +resentment, though sin is an offense against Him, and in its freeness, +its fulness, its frequency, and its sovereign power to melt away that +which it forgives, it towers above the loftiest of earth's beauties of +forgiveness, as the starry heavens do above the flat plain. + +God's pardon is above all human example, even though, having once been +received by us, it ought to become for us the pattern by which we shape +and regulate our own lives. Nothing of which we have any experience in +ourselves or in others is more than as a drop to the ocean compared +with the absolute fulness and perfect freeness and unwearied frequency +of His forgiveness. 'He will abundantly pardon.' He will multiply +pardon. 'With Him there is plenteous redemption.' We think we have +stretched the elasticity of long suffering and forgiveness further than +we might have been reasonably expected to do if seven times we forgive +the erring brother, but God's measure of pardon is seventy times seven, +two perfectnesses multiplied into themselves perfectly; for the measure +of His forgiveness is boundless, and there is no searching of the +depths of His pardoning mercy. You cannot weary Him out, you cannot +exhaust it. It is full at the end as at the beginning; and after all +its gifts still it remains true, 'With Him is the multiplying of +redemption.' + +Again, God's way of dealing with sin surpasses all our thought. All +religion has been pressed with this problem, how to harmonise the +perfect rectitude of the divine nature and the solemn claims of law +with forgiveness. All religions have borne witness to the fact that men +are dimly aware of the discord and dissonance between themselves and +the divine thoughts and ways; and a thousand altars proclaim to us how +they have felt that something must be done in order that forgiveness +might be possible to an all-righteous and Sovereign Judge. The Jew knew +that God was a pardoning God, but to him that fact stood as needing +much explanation and much light to be thrown upon its relations with +the solemn law under which he lived. We have Jesus Christ. The mystery +of forgiveness is solved, in so far as it is capable of solution, in +Him and in Him alone. His death somewhat explains how God is just and +the Justifier of him that believeth. High above man's thoughts this +great central mystery of the Gospel rises, that with God there is +forgiveness and with God there is perfect righteousness. The Cross as +the basis of pardon is the central mystery of revelation; and it is not +to be expected that our theories shall be able to sound the depths of +that great act of the divine love. Perhaps our plummets do not go to +the bottom of the bottomless after all; but is it needful that we +should have gone to the rim of the heavens, and round about it on the +outside, before we rejoice in the sunshine? Is it needful that we +should have traversed the abysses of the heavens, and passed from star +to star and told their numbers, before we can say that they are bright, +or before we can walk in their light? We do not need to understand the +'how' in order to be sure of the fact that Christ's death is our +forgiveness. Do not be in such a hurry as some people are nowadays, to +declare that the doctrine of the Cross is contrary to man's +conceptions. It _surpasses_ them, and the very fact that it surpasses +ought to stop us from pronouncing that it _contradicts_. 'As the +heavens are higher than the earth, so are My thoughts higher than your +thoughts.' + +Lastly, we are taught here that God's way of dealing with sin is the +very highest point of His self-revelation. There are many glories of +the divine nature set forth in all His ways, but the loftiest of them +all is this, that He can neutralise and destroy the fact of man's +transgressing, wiping it out by pardon; and in the very act of pardon +reconstituting in purity, and with a heart for all holiness, the sinful +men whom He forgives. This is the shining apex of all that He has done, +rising above creation and every other 'way' of His, as high as the +loftiest heavens are above the earth. + +Therefore, have a care of all forms of Christianity which do not put +God's pardoning mercy in the foreground. They are maimed, and in them +mist and cloud have covered with a roof of doleful grey the low-lying +earth, and separated it from the highest heavens. The true glory of the +revelation of God gathers round that central Cross; and there, in that +Man dying upon it in the dark--the sacrifice for a world's sin--is the +loftiest, most heavenly revelation of the all-revealing God. Strike out +the Cross from Christianity, or weaken its aspect as a message of +forgiveness and redemption, and you have quenched its brightest light, +and dragged it down to be but a little higher, if any, than many +another scheme of other moralists, philosophers, poets, and religious +teachers. The distinctive glory of Christianity is this--it tells us +how God sweeps away sin. + +And so my last thought is that, if we desire to see up on the highest +heavens of God's character, we must go down into the depths of the +consciousness of our own sin, and learn first, how unlike our ways and +thoughts are to God, ere we can understand how high above us, and yet +beneficently arching over us, are His ways and thoughts to us. We lie +beneath the heavens like some foul bog full of black ooze, rotten earth +and putrid water, where there is nothing green or fair. But the promise +of the bending heavens, with their sweet influences, declares the +possibility of reclaiming even that waste, and making it rejoice and +blossom as the rose. Spread yourselves out, dear friends, in lowly +submission and penitent acknowledgment beneath the all-vivifying mercy +of that shining heaven of God's pardon; and then the old promise will +be fulfilled in you: 'Truth shall spring out of the earth, and +righteousness shall look down from heaven; yea, the Lord shall give +that which is good, and our land'--barren and poisoned as it has +been--responding to the skyey influences, 'shall yield her increase.' + + + + +WE SURE OF TO-MORROW? A NEW YEAR'S SERMON + +'To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.'--ISAIAH lvi. +12. + + +These words, as they stand, are the call of boon companions to new +revelry. They are part of the prophet's picture of a corrupt age when +the men of influence and position had thrown away their sense of duty, +and had given themselves over, as aristocracies and plutocracies are +ever tempted to do, to mere luxury and good living. They are summoning +one another to their coarse orgies. The roystering speaker says, 'Do +not be afraid to drink; the cellar will hold out. To-day's carouse will +not empty it; there will be enough for to-morrow.' He forgets +to-morrow's headaches; he forgets that on some tomorrow the wine will +be finished; he forgets that the fingers of a hand may write the doom +of the rioters on the very walls of the banqueting chamber. + +What have such words, the very motto of insolent presumption and +short-sighted animalism, to do with New Year's thoughts? Only this, +that base and foolish as they are on such lips, it is possible to lift +them from the mud, and take them as the utterance of a lofty and calm +hope which will not be disappointed, and of a firm and lowly resolve +which may ennoble life. Like a great many other sayings, they may fit +the mouth either of a sot or of a saint. All depends on what the things +are which we are thinking about when we use them. There are things +about which it is absurd and worse than absurd to say this, and there +are things about which it is the soberest truth to say it. So looking +forward into the merciful darkness of another year, we may regard these +words as either the expressions of hopes which it is folly to cherish, +or of hopes that it is reasonable to entertain. + +I. This expectation, if directed to any outward things, is an illusion +and a dream. + +These coarse revellers into whose lips our text is put only meant by it +to brave the future and defy to-morrow in the riot of their +drunkenness. They show us the vulgarest, lowest form which the +expectation can take, a form which I need say nothing about now. + +But I may just note in passing that to look forward principally as +anticipating pleasure or enjoyment is a very poor and unworthy thing. +We weaken and lower every day, if we use our faculty of hope mainly to +paint the future as a scene of delights and satisfactions. We spoil +to-day by thinking how we can turn it to the account of pleasure. We +spoil to-morrow before it comes, and hurt ourselves, if we are more +engaged with fancying how it will minister to our joy, than how we can +make it minister to our duty. It is base and foolish to be forecasting +our pleasures; the true temper is to be forecasting our work. + +But, leaving that consideration, let us notice how useless such +anticipation, and how mad such confidence, as that expressed in the +text is, if directed to anything short of God. + +We are so constituted as that we grow into a persuasion that what has +been will be, and yet we can give no sufficient reason to ourselves of +why we expect it. 'The uniformity of the course of nature is the +corner-stone, not only of physical science, but, in a more homely form, +of the wisdom which grows with experience, We all believe that the sun +will rise to-morrow because it rose to-day, and on all the yesterdays. +But there was a today which had no yesterday, and there will be a +to-day which will have no to-morrow. The sun will rise for the last +time. The uniformity had a beginning and will have an end. + +So, even as an axiom of thought, the anticipation that things will +continue as they have been because they have been, seems to rest on an +insufficient basis. How much more so, as to our own little lives and +their surroundings! There the only thing which we may be quite sure of +about to-morrow is that it will not be 'as this day.' Even for those of +us who may have reached, for example, the level plateau of middle life, +where our position and tasks are pretty well fixed, and we have little +more to expect than the monotonous repetition of the same duties +recurring at the same hour every day--even for such each day has its +own distinctive character. Like a flock of sheep they seem all alike, +but each, on closer inspection, reveals a physiognomy of its own. There +will be so many small changes that even the same duties or enjoyments +will not be quite the same, and even if the outward things remained +absolutely unaltered, we who meet them are not the same. Little +variations in mood and tone, diminished zest here, weakened power +there, other thoughts breaking in, and over and above all the slow, +silent change wrought on us by growing years, make the perfect +reproduction of any past impossible. So, however familiar may be the +road which we have to traverse, however uneventfully the same our days +may sometimes for long spaces in our lives seem to be, though to +ourselves often our day's work may appear as a mill-horse round, yet in +deepest truth, if we take into account the whole sum of the minute +changes in it and in us, it may be said of each step of our journey, +'Ye have not passed this way heretofore.' + +But, besides all this, we know that these breathing-times when 'we have +no changes,' are but pauses in the storm, landing-places in the ascent, +the interspaces between the shocks. However hope may tempt us to dream +that the future is like the present, a deeper wisdom lies in all our +souls which says 'No.' Drunken bravery may front that darkness with +such words as these of our text, but the least serious spirit, in its +most joyous moods, never quite succeeds in forgetting the solemn +probabilities, possibilities, and certainties which lodge in the +unknown future. So to a wise man it is ever a sobering exercise to look +forward, and we shall be nearest the truth if we take due account, as +we do today, of the undoubted fact that the only thing certain about +to-morrow is that it will not be as this day. + +There are the great changes which come to some one every day, which may +come to any of us any day, which will come to all of us some day. Some +of us will die this year; on a day in our new diaries some of us will +make no entry, for we shall be gone. Some of us will be smitten down by +illness; some of us will lose our dearest; some of us will lose +fortune. Which of us it is to be, and where within these twelve months +the blow is to fall, are mercifully hidden. The only thing that we +certainly know is that these arrows will fly. The thing we do not know +is whose heart they will pierce. This makes the gaze into the darkness +grave and solemn. There is ever something of dread in Hope's blue eyes. + +True, the ministry of change is blessed and helpful; true, the darkness +which hides the future is merciful and needful, if the present is not +to be marred. But helpful and merciful as they are, they invest the +unknown to-morrow with a solemn power which it is good, though +sobering, for us to feel, and they silence on every lip but that of +riot and foolhardy debauchery the presumptuous words, 'To-morrow shall +be as this day, and much more abundant.' + +II. But yet there is a possibility of so using the words as to make +them the utterance of a sober certainty which will not be put to shame. + +So long as our hope and anticipations creep along the low levels of +earth, and are concerned with external and creatural good, their +language can never rise beyond, 'To-morrow _may_ be as this day.' +Oftenest they reach only to the height of the wistful wish, 'May it be +as this day!' But there is no need for our being tortured with such +slippery possibilities. We may send out our hope like Noah's dove, not +to hover restlessly over a heaving ocean of change, but to light on +firm, solid certainty, and fold its wearied wings there. Forecasting is +ever close by foreboding. Hope is interwoven with fear, the golden +threads of the weft crossing the dark ones of the warp, and the whole +texture gleaming bright or glooming black according to the angle at +which it is seen. So is it always until we turn our hope away from +earth to God, and fill the future with the light of His presence and +the certainty of His truth. Then the mists and doubts roll away; we get +above the region of 'perhaps' into that of 'surely'; the future is as +certain as the past, hope as assured of its facts as memory, prophecy +as veracious as history. + +Looking forward, then, let us not occupy ourselves with visions which +we know may or may not come true. Let us not feed ourselves with +illusions which may make the reality, when it comes to shatter them, +yet harder to bear. But let us make God in Christ our hope, and pass +from peradventures to certitudes; from 'To-morrow may be as this +day--would that it might,' to 'It shall be, it shall be, for God is my +expectation and my hope.' We have an unchanging and an inexhaustible +God, and He is the true guarantee of the future for us. The more we +accustom ourselves to think of Him as shaping all that is contingent +and changeful in the nearest and in the remotest to-morrow, and as +being Himself the immutable portion of our souls, the calmer will be +our outlook into the darkness, and the more bright will be the clear +light of certainty which burns for us in it. + +To-day's wealth may be to-morrow's poverty, to-day's health to-morrow's +sickness, to-day's happy companionship of love to-morrow's aching +solitude of heart, but to-day's God will be to-morrow's God, to-day's +Christ will be to-morrow's Christ. Other fountains may dry up in heat +or freeze in winter, but this knows no change, 'in summer and winter it +shall be.' Other fountains may sink low in their basins after much +drawing, but this is ever full, and after a thousand generations have +drawn from it, its stream is broad and deep as ever. Other springs may +be left behind on the march, and the wells and palm-trees of each Elim +on our road may be succeeded by a dry and thirsty land where no water +is, but this spring follows us all through the wilderness, and makes +music and spreads freshness ever by our path. We can forecast nothing +beside; we can be sure of this, that God will be with us in all the +days that lie before us. What may be round the next headland we know +not; but this we know, that the same sunshine will make a broadening +path across the waters right to where we rock on the unknown sea, and +the same unmoving mighty star will burn for our guidance. So we may let +the waves and currents roll as they list--or rather as He wills, and be +little concerned about the incidents or the companions of our voyage, +since He is with us. We can front the unknown to-morrow, even when we +most keenly feel how solemn and sad are the things it may bring. + + 'It can bring with it nothing + But He will bear us through.' + +If only our hearts be fixed on God and we are feeding our minds and +wills on Him, His truth and His will, then we may be quite certain +that, whatever goes, our truest riches will abide, and whoever leaves +our little company of loved ones, our best Friend will not go away. +Therefore, lifting our hopes beyond the low levels of earth, and making +our anticipations of the future the reflection of the brightness of God +thrown on that else blank curtain, we may turn into the worthy +utterance of sober and saintly faith, the folly of the riotous +sensualist when he said, 'To-morrow shall be as this day.' + +The past is the mirror of the future for the Christian; we look back on +all the great deeds of old by which God has redeemed and helped souls +that cried to Him, and we find in them the eternal laws of His working. +They are all true for to-day as they were at first; they remain true +forever. The whole history of the past belongs to us, and avails for +our present and for our future. 'As we have heard, so have we seen in +the city of our God.' + +To-day's experience runs on the same lines as the stories of the 'years +of old,' which are 'the years of the right hand of the Most High.' +Experience is ever the parent of hope, and the latter can only build +with the bricks which the former gives. So the Christian has to lay +hold on all that God's mercy has done in the ages that are gone by, and +because He is a 'faithful Creator' to transmute history into prophecy, +and triumph in that 'the God of Jacob is our refuge.' + +Nor only does the record of what He has been to others come in to bring +material for our forecast of the future, but also the remembrance of +what He has been to ourselves. Has He been with us in six troubles? We +may be sure He will not abandon us at the seventh. He is not in the way +of beginning to build and leaving His work unfinished. Remember what He +has been to you, and rejoice that there has been one thing in your +lives which, you may be sure, will always be there. Feed your certain +hopes for to-morrow on thankful remembrances of many a yesterday. +'Forget not the works of God,' that you may 'set your hopes on God.' +Let our anticipations base themselves on memory, and utter themselves +in the prayer, 'Thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake +me, O God of my salvation.' Then the assurance that He whom we know to +be good and wise and strong will shape the future, and Himself be the +Future for us, will take all the fear out of that forward gaze, will +condense our light and unsubstantial hopes into solid realities, and +set before us an endless line of days, in each of which we may gain +more of Him whose face has brightened the past and will brighten the +future, till days shall end and time open into eternity. + +III. Looked at in another aspect, these words may be taken as the vow +of a firm and lowly resolve. + +There is a future which we can but very slightly influence, and the +less we look at that the better every way. But there is also a future +which we can mould as we wish--the future of our own characters, the +only future which is really ours at all--and the more clearly we set it +before ourselves and make up our minds as to whither we wish it to be +tending, the better. In that region, it is eminently true that +'to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.' The law of +continuity shapes our moral and spiritual characters. What I am to-day, +I shall increasingly be to-morrow. The awful power of habit solidifies +actions into customs, and prolongs the reverberation of every note once +sounded, along the vaulted roof of the chamber where we live. To-day is +the child of yesterday and the parent of to-morrow. + +That solemn certainty of the continuance and increase of moral and +spiritual characteristics works in both good and bad, but with a +difference. To secure its full blessing in the gradual development of +the germs of good, there must be constant effort and tenacious +resolution. So many foes beset the springing of the good seed in our +hearts--what with the flying flocks of light-winged fugitive thoughts +ever ready to swoop down as soon as the sower's back is turned and +snatch it away, what with the hardness of the rock which the roots soon +encounter, what with the thick-sown and quick-springing thorns--that if +we trust to the natural laws of growth and neglect careful husbandry, +we may sow much but we shall gather little. But to inherit the full +consequences of that same law working in the growth and development of +the evil in us, nothing is needed but carelessness. + +Leave it alone for a year or two and the 'fruitful field will be a +forest,' a jungle of matted weeds, with a straggling blossom where +cultivation had once been. + +But if humbly we resolve and earnestly toil, looking for His help, we +may venture to hope that our characters will grow in goodness and in +likeness to our dear Lord, that we shall not cast away our confidence +nor make shipwreck of our faith, that each new day shall find in us a +deeper love, a perfecter consecration, a more joyful service, and that +so, in all the beauties of the Christian soul and in all the blessings +of the Christian life, 'to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more +abundant.' 'To him that hath shall be given.' 'The path of the just is +as the shining light, that shineth more and more until the noontide of +the day.' + +So we may look forward undismayed, and while we recognise the darkness +that wraps to-morrow in regard to all mundane affairs, may feed our +fortitude and fasten our confidence on the double certainties that we +shall have God and more of God for our treasure, that we shall have +likeness to Him and more of likeness in our characters. Fleeting +moments may come and go. The uncertain days may exercise their various +ministry of giving and taking away, but whether they plant or root up +our earthly props, whether they build or destroy our earthly houses, +they will increase our riches in the heavens, and give us fuller +possession of deeper draughts from the inexhaustible fountain of living +waters. + +How dreadfully that same law of the continuity and development of +character works in some men there is no need now to dwell upon. By +slow, imperceptible, certain degrees the evil gains upon them. +Yesterday's sin smooths the path for to-day's. The temptation once +yielded to gains power. The crack in the embankment which lets a drop +or two ooze through is soon a great hole which lets in a flood. It is +easier to find a man who has never done a wrong thing than to find a +man who has done it only once. Peter denied his Lord thrice, and each +time more easily than the previous time. So, before we know it, the +thin gossamer threads of single actions are twisted into a rope of +habit, and we are 'tied with the cords of our sins.' Let no man say, +'Just for once I may venture on evil; so far I will go and no farther.' +Nay, 'to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.' + +How important, then, the smallest acts become when we think of them as +thus influencing character! The microscopic creatures, thousands of +which will go into a square inch, make the great white cliffs that +beetle over the wildest sea and front the storm. So, permanent and +solid character is built up out of trivial actions, and this is the +solemn aspect of our passing days, that they are making _us_. + +We might well tremble before such a thought, which would be dreadful to +the best of us, if it were not for pardoning mercy and renewing grace. +The law of reaping what we have sown, or of continuing as we have +begun, may be modified as far as our sins and failures are concerned. +The entail may be cut off, and to-morrow need not inherit to-day's +guilt, nor to-day's habits. The past may be all blotted out through the +mercy of God in Christ. No debt need be carried forward to another page +of the book of our lives, for Christ has given Himself for us, and He +speaks to us all--'Thy sins be forgiven thee.' No evil habit need +continue its dominion over us, nor are we obliged to carry on the bad +tradition of wrongdoing into a future day, for Christ lives, and 'if +any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away, +all things are become new.' + +So then, brethren, let us humbly take the confidence which these words +may be used to express, and as we stand on the threshold of a new year +and wait for the curtain to be drawn, let us print deep on our hearts +the uncertainty of our hold of all things here, nor seek to build nor +anchor on these, but lift our thoughts to Him, who will bless the +future as He has blessed the past, and will even enlarge the gifts of +His love and the help of His right hand. Let us hope for ourselves not +the continuance or increase of outward good, but the growth of our +souls in all things lovely and of good report, the daily advance in the +love and likeness of our Lord. + +So each day, each succeeding wave of the ocean of time shall cast up +treasures for us as it breaks at our feet. As we grow in years, we +shall grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus +Christ, until the day comes when we shall exchange earth for heaven. +That will be the sublimest application of this text, when, dying, we +can calmly be sure that though to-day be on this side and to-morrow on +the other bank of the black river, there will be no break in the +continuity, but only an infinite growth in our life, and heaven's +to-morrow shall be as earth's to-day, and much more abundant. + + + + +FLIMSY GARMENTS + +'Their webs shall not become garments.'--ISAIAH lix. 6. + +'I counsel thee to buy of me ... white raiment, that thou mayest be +clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear.'--REV. iii. +18. + + +The force of these words of the prophet is very obvious. He has been +pouring out swift, indignant denunciation on the evil-doers in Israel; +and, says he, 'they hatch cockatrice's eggs and spin spiders' webs,' +pointing, as I suppose, to the patient perseverance, worthy of a better +cause, which bad men will exercise in working out their plans. Then +with a flash of bitter irony, led on by his imagination to say more +than he had meant, he adds this scathing parenthesis, as if he said, +'Yes, they spin spiders' webs, elaborate toil and creeping contrivance, +and what comes of it all! The flimsy foul thing is swept away by God's +besom sooner or later. A web indeed! but they will never make a garment +out of it. It looks like cloth, but it is useless.' That is the old +lesson that all sin is profitless and comes to nothing. + +I venture to connect with that strongly figurative declaration of the +essential futility of godless living, our second text, in which Jesus +uses a similar figure to express one aspect of His gifts to the +believing soul. He is ready to clothe it, so that 'being clothed, it +will not be found naked.' + +I. Sin clothes no man even here. + +Notice in passing what a hint there is of the toil and trouble that men +are so willing to take in a wrong course. Hatching and spinning both +suggest protracted, sedulous labour. And then the issue of it all +is--_nothing_. + +Take the plainest illustrations of this truth first--the breach of +common laws of morality, the indulgence, for instance, in dissipation. +A man gets a certain coarse delight out of it, but what does he get +besides? A weakened body, a tyrannous craving, ruined prospects, +oftenest poverty and shame, the loss of self-respect and love; of moral +excellences, of tastes for what is better. He is not a beast, and he +cannot live for pure animalism without injuring himself. + +Then take actual breaches of human laws. How seldom these 'pay,' even +in the lowest sense. Thieves are always poor. The same experience of +futility dogs all coarse and palpable breaches of morality. It is +always true that 'He that breaketh a hedge, a serpent shall bite him.' + +The reasons are not far to seek. This is, on the whole, God's world, a +world of retribution. Things are, on the whole, on the side of +goodness. God is in the world, and that is an element not to be left +out in the calculation. Society is on the side of goodness to a large +extent. The constitution of a man's own soul, which God made, works in +the same direction. Young men who are trembling on the verge of +youthful yieldings to passion, are tempted to fancy that they can sow +sin and not reap suffering or harm. Would that they settled it in their +thoughts that he who fires a fuse must expect an explosion! + +But the same rule applies to every godless form of life. Take our +Manchester temptation, money or success in business. Take ambition. +Take culture, literary fame. Take love and friendship. What do they all +come to, if godless? I do not point to the many failures, but suppose +success: would that make you a happy man? If you won what you wanted, +would it be enough? What 'garments' for your conscience, for your sense +of sin, for your infinite longings would success in any godless course +provide? You would have what you wanted, and what would it bring with +it? Cares and troubles and swift satiety, and not seldom incapacity to +enjoy what you had won with so much toil. If you gained the prize, you +would find clinging to it something that you did not bargain for, and +that took most of the dazzle away from it. + +II. The rags are all stripped off some day. + +Death is a becoming naked as to the body, and as to all the occupations +that terminate with bodily life. It necessarily involves the loss of +possessions, the cessation of activities, the stripping off of +self-deceptions, and exposure to the gaze of the Judge, without +defence. The godless soul will 'be found naked' and ashamed. All 'works +of darkness,' laden with rich blossom or juicy fruit though they have +seemed to be, will then be seen to be in tragic truth 'fruitless.' A +life's spinning and weaving, and not a rag to cover the toiler after +all! Is that 'productive labour'? + +III. Christ will clothe you. + +'White raiment.' Pure character. Covering before the Judge. Festal robe +of Victory. + +'Buy'--how? By giving up self. + + + + +THE SUNLIT CHURCH + +'Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is +risen upon thee. 2. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, +and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and +His glory shall be seen upon thee. 3. And the Gentiles shall come to +thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.'--ISAIAH lx. 1-3. + + +The personation of Israel as a woman runs through the whole of this +second portion of Isaiah's prophecy. We see her thrown on the earth a +mourning mother, a shackled captive. We hear her summoned once and +again to awake, to arise, to shake herself from the dust, to loose the +bands of her neck. These summonses are prophecies of the impending +Messianic deliverance. The same circle of truths, in a somewhat +different aspect, is presented in the verses before us. The prophet +sees the earth wrapped in a funeral pall of darkness, and a beam of +more than natural light falling on one prostrate form. The old story is +repeated, Zion stands in the light, while Egypt cowers in gloom. The +light which shines upon her is 'the Glory of the Lord,' the ancient +brightness that dwelt between the cherubim within the veil in the +secret place of the Most High, and is now come out into the open world +to envelop the desolate captive. Thus touched by the light she becomes +light, and in her turn is bidden to shine. There is a very remarkable +correspondence reiterated in my text between the illuminating God and +the illuminated Zion. The word for shine is connected with the word for +light, and might fairly be rendered 'lighten,' or 'be light.' Twice the +phrase 'thy light' is employed; once to mean the light which is thine +because it shines on thee; once to mean the light which is thine +because it shines from thee. The other word, three times repeated, for +_rising_, is the technical word which expresses the sunrise, and it is +applied both to the flashing glory that falls upon Zion and to the +light that gleams from her. Touched by the sun, she becomes a sun, and +blazes in her heaven in a splendour that draws men's hearts. So, then, +if that be the fair analysis of the words before us, they present to us +some thoughts bearing on the Missionary work of the Church, and I +gather them all up in three--the fact, the ringing summons, and the +confident promise. + +I. Now, as to the fact. + +Beneath the poetry of my text there lie very definite conceptions of a +very solemn and grave character, and these conceptions are the +foundation of the ringing summons that follows, and which reposes upon +a double basis--viz. '_for_ thy light is come,' and '_for_ darkness +covers the earth.' There is a double element in the representation. We +have a darkened earth, and a sunlit and a sunlike church; and unless we +hold these two convictions--both of them-in firm grasp, and that not +merely as convictions that influence our understanding, but as ever +present forces acting on our emotions, our consciences, our wills, we +shall not do the work which God has set us to do in the world. I need +not dwell long on the former of these, or speak of that funeral pall +that wraps the whole earth. Only remember that it is no darkness that +came from His hand who forms the light and creates darkness, but is +like the smoke that lies over our great cities--the work of many an +earth-born fire, whose half-consumed foulness hides the sun from us. If +we take the sulphureous and smoky pall that wraps the earth, and +analyse its contents, they are these: the darkness of ignorance, the +darkness of sorrow, the darkness of sin. Of ignorance; for throughout +the wide regions that lie beneath that covering spread over all nations +is there any certitude about God, about man, about morals, about +responsibilities, about eternity? Peradventures, guesses, dreams, +precious fragments of truth, twisted in with the worst of lies, noble +aspirations side by side with bestial representations--these are the +things on which our brethren repose, or try to repose. We do not forget +that light which lighteneth every man that cometh into the world. + +We do not forget, of course, that everywhere there are feelings after +Him, and everywhere there are gleams and glimpses of a vanishing light, +else life were impossible; but oh, dear brethren, let us not forget +either that the people sit in darkness of ignorance, which is the +saddest darkness that can afflict men. + +And it is a darkness of sorrow, for all the ills that flesh is heir to +press, unalleviated and unsustained by any known helper in the heavens, +upon millions of our fellows. They stand, as the great German poet +describes himself as standing, in one of the most pathetic of his +lyrics, before the marble image of the fair goddess, who has pity on +her face and beauty raying from her limbs, but she has no arms. So +tears fall undried. The light-hearted savage is a fiction. What a heavy +gloom lies upon his past and his present, which darkens into an +impenetrable mist that wraps and hides the future! + +And the darkness is a darkness of sin as well as of sorrow and of +ignorance. On that point I need not dwell. We all believe that all have +'sinned and come short of the glory of God,' and we all believe that +idolatry, as we see it, and as it is wrought out, is an ally of +impurity and of sin. The process is this: men make gods in their own +image, and the gods make devils of the men. 'They that make them are +like unto them, so is every one that trusteth in them.' We need no +other principle than that to account for the degradation of heathenism +and for the obscenities and foul transgression within the very courts +of the temple. + +Now, dear friends, that I may not dwell too long upon the A B C of our +belief, let me urge you in one sentence to be on your guard against +present-day tendencies which weaken the force of this solemn, tragical +conviction as to the realities of heathendom. The new science of +comparative religion has done much for us. I am not saying one word +against this pursuit, or the conclusions which are drawn from it. But I +pray you to remember that the underlying truths buried beneath the +system that any men hold as their religion are one thing, and the +practical working of that system, as we see it in daily life, is +altogether another. The actual character of heathenism is not to be +learned from the sacred books of all nations and the precious gleams of +wisdom and feeling after the Divine which we recognise in man. As a +simple matter of fact, all over the world the religion of heathen +nations is a mass of obscenity, intertwined so closely with nobler +thoughts that the two seem to be inseparable. Unalleviated sorrows, +hideous foulnesses, a gross ignorance covering all the most important +realities for men--these are the facts with which we have to grapple. +Do not let us forget them. + +And on the other side, remember the contrasted picture here of the +sunlit and sunny church. The incarnation of Jesus Christ is the +fulfilment of my text. 'We behold His glory, the glory as of the only +begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.' If you and I are +Christians, we are bound to believe in Him as the exclusive source of +certainty. We hear from Him no peradventure, but His word is, 'Verily, +verily, I say unto you,' and on that word we rest all our knowledge of +God, of duty, of man, and of the future. Instead of fears, doubt, +perhapses, we have a living Christ and His rock-word. And in Him is all +joy, and in Him is the cleansing from all sin. And this threefold +radiance, into which the one pure light may be analysed, falls upon us. +It falls all over the world as well; but they into whose hearts it has +come, they whose faces are turned to it, they receive it in a sense in +which the unreceptive and unresponsive darkness of the world does not. +The light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness will have none of +it, and so it is darkness yet. The light shineth upon us, and if by His +mercy we have opened our hearts to it, then, according to the profound +teaching of this context, we are not only a sun-lighted but a sunlike +Church, and to us the commandment comes, 'Arise, shine, for thy light +is come,' and has turned thy poor darkness into a sun too. + +If we have the light we shall be light. That is but putting in a +picturesque form the very central truth of Christianity. The last word +of the gospel is transformation. We become like Him if we live near +Him, and the end for which the Master became like unto us in His +incarnation and passion was that we might become like to Him by the +reception of His very own life unto our souls. Light makes many a +surface on which it falls flash, but in the optics of earth it is the +rays which are not absorbed that are reflected; but in this loftier +region the illumination is not superficial but inward, and it is the +light which is swallowed up within us that then comes forth from us. +Christ will dwell in our hearts, and we shall be like some poor little +diamond-shaped pane of glass in a cottage window which, when the sun +smites it, is visible over miles of the plain. If that sun falls upon +us, its image will be mirrored in our hearts and flashing in our lives. +The clouds that lie over the sunset, though in themselves they be but +poor, grey, and moist vapour, when smitten by its beneficent radiance, +become not unworthy ministers and attendants upon its glory. So, my +brethren, it may be with us, for Christ comes to be our light, Because +He is in us and with us we are changed into His likeness, and the names +that are most appropriate to Him He shares with us. Is He the +'Son'?--we are sons. Is He 'the Light of the world'? His own lips tell +us, 'Ye are the light of the world.' Is He the Christ? The Psalm says: +'Touch not my Christs, and do My prophets no harm.' Critics have +quarrelled over these last chapters of the Book of Isaiah, as to whom +the servant of the Lord is; whether he is the personal or collective +Israel, whether he is Christ or His Church. Let us take the lesson that +He and we are so united that His office that made the union possible, +wherein He was sacrificed on the Cross for us all--belongs by +derivation to His servants, and that He, the Sun of Righteousness, +moves in the heavens circled by many another sun. + +So, dear friends, these two convictions of these two facts, the dark +earth, the sunlit, sunlike church, lie at the basis of all our +missionary work. If once we begin to doubt about them, if once we begin +to think that men have got a good deal of light already, and can do +very well without much more, or if we at all are hesitant about our +possession of the light, and the certitudes and the joys that are in +it, then good-bye to our missionary zeal. We shall soon begin to ask +the question, 'To what purpose is this waste?'--though the lips that +first asked it, by the bye, did not much recommend it--and shall +consider that money and resources and precious lives are too precious +to be thrown away thus. But if we rightly appreciate the force of these +twin principles, then we shall be ready to listen to the ringing +summons. + +II. We have here, in the second place, based upon these two facts, the +summons to the Church. 'Shine, for thy light is come.' If we _have_ +light, we _are_ light. If we are light, we shall shine; but the shining +is not altogether spontaneous and effortless. Stars do not need to be +bidden to shine nor candles either; but _we_ need the exhortation, +because there are many things that dim the brilliance of our light and +interfere with its streaming forth. True, the property of light is to +shine, but we can rob the inward light of its beams. The silent witness +of a Christian life transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ is, +perhaps, the best contribution that any of us can make to the spread of +His kingdom. It is with us as it is with the great lights in the +heavens. 'There is no speech nor language; their voice is not heart,' +yet, 'their line has gone through all the earth, and their words to the +end of the world.' So we may quietly ray out the light in us and +witness the transforming power of our Master by the transparent purity +of our lives. But the command suggests likewise effort, and that effort +must be in the direction of the specific vocal proclamation of His name. + +I take both these methods of fulfilling the command into my view, in +the further remarks that I make, and I put that which I have to say +upon this into three sentences: if we are light, we shall be able to +shine; if we are light, we are bound to shine; if we are light, we +shall wish to shine. We shall be able to shine. And man can manifest +what he is unless he is a coward. Any man can talk about the things +that are interesting to him if only they are interesting to him. Any +man that has Jesus Christ can say so; and perhaps the utterance of the +simple personal conviction is the best method of proclaiming His name. +All other things are surplusage. They are good when they come, they may +be done without. Learning, eloquence, and the like of these, are the +adornments of the lamp, but it does not matter whether the lamp be a +gorgeous affair of gilt and crystal, or whether it be a poor piece of +block tin; the main question is: are there wick and oil in it? The +pitcher may be gold and silver, or costly china, or it may be a poor +potsherd. Never mind. If there is water in it, it will be precious to a +thirsty lip. And so, dear brethren, I press this upon you: every +Christian man has the power, if he is a Christian, to proclaim his +Master, and if he has the Light he will be able to show it. I pause for +a moment to say that this suggests for us the condition of all faithful +and effectual witness for Jesus Christ. Cultivate understanding and all +other faculties as much as you like: but oh! you Christian ministers, +as well as others in less official and public positions, remember this: +the fitness to impart is to possess, and that being taken for granted, +the main thing is secured. As long as the electric light is in contact +with the battery, so long does it burn. Electricians have been trying +during the past few years to make accumulators, things in which they +can store the influence and put it away in a corner and use it so that +the light need not be in connection with the battery; and they have not +succeeded--at least it is only a very partial success. You and I cannot +start accumulators. Let us remember that personal contact with Jesus is +power, and only that personal contact is so. Arise, shine! but if thou +hast gone out of the light, thou wilt shine no more. + +But again, if we are light we are bound to shine. That is an obvious +principle. The capacity to shine is the obligation to shine, for we are +all knit together by such mystical cords in this strange brotherhood of +humanity that every one of us holds his possession as trust property +for the use and behoof of others, and in the present case that which we +have received, and the price at which we have received it, give an edge +to the keenness of the obligation, and add a new grip to the stringency +of the command. It is because Christ has given Himself thus to us that +the possession of Him binds us to the imitation of His example, and the +impartation of Him to all our brethren. The obligation lies at our +doors, and cannot be delegated or devolved. + +If we have light, we shall wish to shine. What shall we say about the +Christian people who never really had such a wish? God forbid that I +should say they have no light; but this I will say, it burns very +dimly. Dear brethren, there is no better test of the depth and the +purity of our personal attachment to, and possession of, our Master +than the impulse that will spring from them to communicate Him to +others. 'Necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is me if I preach not.' +That should be the word of every one of us, and it will be so in the +measure in which we ourselves have thoroughly laid hold of Jesus +Christ. 'This is a day of good tidings, and we cannot hold our peace,' +said the handful of lepers in the camp. 'If we are silent some mischief +will come to us.' 'Thy word, when I shut it up in my bones and said, I +will speak no more in Thy name, was like a fire, and was weary of +forbearing and could not stay.' Brother, do you know anything of the +divine necessity to share your blessing with the men around you? Did +you ever feel what it was to carry a burden of the Lord that drove you +to speech, and left you no rest until you had done what it impelled you +to do? If not, I beseech you to ask yourselves whether you cannot get +nearer to the sun than away out there on the very edge of its system, +receiving so few of its beams, and these so impotent that they can +scarcely do more than melt the surface of the thick-ribbed ice that +warps your spirit. If we are light we shall be enabled, we shall be +bound, we shall wish, to shine. Christian men and women, is this true +of you? + +III. Lastly, notice here the confident promise. + +'The Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of +thy rising.' If we have the light we shall be light; if we are light we +shall shine, and if we shine we shall attract. Certainly men and women +with the light of Christ in them will draw others to them, just as many +an eye that cannot look undazzled upon the sun can look upon it +mirrored upon some polished surface. A painter will fling upon his +canvas a scene that you and I, with our purblind eyes, have looked at +hundreds of times, and seen no beauty; but when we gaze on the picture, +then we know how fair it is. There is an attractive power in the light +of Christ shining from the face of a man. Of course, we have to +moderate our expectations. We have to remember that whilst it is true +that some men will come to the light, it is also true that some men +'love the darkness, and will not come to the light because their deeds +are evil'; and we have to remember that we have no right to anticipate +rapid results. 'An inheritance may be begotten hastily at the +beginning, but the end thereof shall not be blessed,' said the wise +man; and the history of the Christian Church in many of its missionary +operations is a sad commentary upon the saying. We must remember that +we cannot estimate how long the preparation for a change, which will be +developed swiftly, may be. The sun on autumn mornings shines upon the +fog; and the people below, because there is a fog, do not know that it +is shining; but it is doing its work on the upper layer all the while, +and at length eats its way through the fleecy obstruction, which then +swiftly disappears. That must be a very, very long day of which the +morning twilight has been nineteen hundred years. Therefore, although +the vision tarries, we may fall back with unswerving confidence on +these words of my text--'The Gentiles shall come to the brightness of +thy rising.' + +But after all this has been said, are you satisfied with the rate of +progress, are you satisfied with the swiftness of the fulfilment of +such hopes? Whose fault is it that the rate of progress is what it is? +Yours and mine and our predecessors'. There is such a thing as 'hasting +the day of the Lord,' and there is such a thing as protracting the time +of waiting. Dear brethren, the secret of our slow growth at home and +abroad lies in my text. Fulfil the conditions and you will get the +result; but if you are not shining by a light which is Christ's light, +who promised that _it_ would have attraction or draw men to it? A great +deal of the work of the Christian Church--but do not let us hide +ourselves in the generality of that word--a great deal of _our_ work is +artificial light, brewed out of retorts, and smelling sulphureous; and +a great deal more of it is the phosphorescence that glimmers above +decay. If the Christian Church has ceased in any measure, or in any of +its members, to be able to attract by the exhibition of its light, let +the Christian Church sit down and bethink itself of the sort of light +it gives, and perhaps it will find a reason for its failure. It is +Christ, the holy Christ, the loving Christ, the Christ in us making us +wise and gentle, it is the Christ manifested by word and by work, who +will draw the nations to Him. + +So, men and brethren, do you keep near your Master and live close by +His side till you are drenched and saturated with His glory, and all +your cold vapours turned into visible divinity and manifested Jesus. +Keep near to Him. As long as a bit of scrap-iron touches a magnet, _it_ +is a magnet: as soon as the contact is broken it ceases to attract. If +you live in the full sunshine of Christ and have Him, not merely +playing upon the surface of your mind, but sinking deep down into it +and transforming your whole being, then some men will, as they look at +you, be filled with strange longings, and will say: 'Come, let us walk +in the light of the Lord.' So may you and I live, like the morning +star, which, from its serene altitudes, touched into radiance by the +sun unseen from the darkened plains, prophesies its rising to a +sleeping world, and is content to be lost in the lustre of that +unsetting Light! + + + + +WALLS AND GATES + +'Thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise'--ISAIAH lx. +18. + + +The prophet reaches the height of eloquence in his magnificent picture +of the restored Jerusalem, 'the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy +One of Israel.' To him the city stands for the embodiment of the +nation, and his vision of the future is moulded by his knowledge of the +past. Israel and Jerusalem were to him the embodiments of the divine +idea of God's dwelling with men, and of a society founded on the +presence of God in its midst. We are not forcing meanings on his words +which they will not bear, when we see in the society of men redeemed by +Christ the perfect embodiment of his vision. Nor is the prophet of the +New Testament doing so when he casts his vision of the future which is +to follow Resurrection and Judgment into a like form, and shows us the +new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven. + +The end of the world's history is to be, not a garden but a city, a +visible community, bound together because God dwells in it, and yet not +having lost the blessed characteristics of the Garden from which man +set out on his long and devious march. + +The Christian form of the prophet's vision is the Christian Society, +and in that society, each individual member possesses his own portion +of the common blessings, so that the great words of this text have a +personal as well as a general application. We shall best bring out +their rich contents by simply taking them as they stand, and +considering what is promised by the two eloquent metaphors, which liken +salvation to the walls and praise to the gates of the City of God. + +I. Salvation is to be the city's wall. + +Another prophet foretold that the returning exiles would dwell in a +Jerusalem that had no walls, 'for I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a +wall of fire round about'; and Isaiah sang, 'We have a strong city; +salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.' There is no need +for material defences for the community or the individual whom God +defends. Would that the Church had lived up to the height of that great +thought! Would that we each believed it true in regard to our own +lives! There are three ways in which this promise may be viewed. We may +think of 'salvation' as meaning God's purpose to save. And then the +comfort and sense of security will be derived from the thought that +what He intends He performs, and that nothing can traverse that purpose +except our own rebellions self-will. They whom God designs to keep are +kept; they whom God wills to save are saved, unless they oppose His +will, which opposition is in itself to be lost, and leads to ultimate +and irreparable loss. + +We may think of salvation as an actually begun work. Then the comfort +and sense of security will be derived from that great work by which +salvation has begun to be ours. The work of Christ keeps us from all +danger, and no foes can make a breach in that wall, nor reach those who +stand safe behind its strong towers. + +We may think of salvation as a personal experience, and then the +comfort and sense of security will be derived from that blessed +consciousness of possessing in some measure at least the spirit, not of +bondage, but of a son. The consciousness of having 'salvation' is our +best defence against spiritual foes and our best shield against +temporal calamities. + +It is good for us to live by faith, to be thrown back on our unseen +protector, to feel with the psalmist, 'Thou, Lord, makest me to dwell +in safety, though alone,' and to see the wall great and high that is +drawn round our defenceless tent pitched on the sands of the flat +desert. + +II. Praise is to be the city's gate. + +As to the Church, this prophecy anticipates the Apostle's teaching that +the whole divine work of Redemption, from its fore-ordination before +the foundation of the world, to its application to each sinful soul, is +'to the end that we should be unto the praise of His glory' or, as he +elsewhere expands and enriches the expression, 'to the praise of the +glory of His grace.' + +We are 'secretaries of His praise.' A gate is that by which the safe +inhabitants go out into the region beyond, and the outgoings of the +active life of every Christian should be such as to make manifest the +blessings that he enjoys within the shelter of the city's walls. Only +if our hidden life is blessed with a begun salvation will our outward +life be vocal with the music of praise. The gate will be praise if, and +only if, the wall is salvation. + +And praise is the gate by which we should go out into the world, even +when the world into which we go is dark and the ways rough and hard. If +we have the warm glow of a realised salvation in our hearts, sorrows +that are but for a moment will not silence the voice of praise, though +they may cast it into a minor key. The praise that rises from a sad +heart is yet more melodious in God's ear than that which carols when +all things go well. The bird that sings in a darkened cage makes music +to its owner. 'Songs in the night' have a singular pathos and thrill +the listeners. When we 'take the cup of salvation' and call on the name +of the Lord, we shall offer to Him the sacrifices of thanksgiving, +though He may recall some of the precious gifts that He gave. For He +never takes away the wall of salvation which He has built around us, +and as long as that wall stands, its gates will be praise. Submission, +recognition of His will, and even 'silence because Thou didst it,' are +praise to His ear. + + + + +THE JOY-BRINGER + +'To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for +ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the +spirit of heaviness.'--ISAIAH lxi. 3. + + +In the little synagogue of Nazareth Jesus began His ministry by laying +His hand upon this great prophecy and saying, 'It is Mine! I have +fulfilled it.' The prophet had been painting the ideal Messianic +Deliverer, with special reference to the return from the Babylonian +captivity. That was 'the liberty to the captives, and the opening of +the prison to them that are bound,' and about which he was thinking. +But no external deliverance of that sort could meet the needs, nor +satisfy the aspirations, of a soul that knows itself and its +circumstances. Isaiah, or the man who goes by his name, spoke greater +things than he knew. I am not going to enter upon questions of +interpretation; but I may say, that no conception of Jewish prophecy +can hold its ground which is not framed in the light of that great +saying in the synagogue of Nazareth. So, then, we have here the 'Man of +Sorrows,' as this very prophet calls Him in another place, presenting +Himself as the Transformer of sorrow and the Bringer of joy, in regard +to infinitely deeper griefs than those which sprang in the heart of the +nation because of the historical captivity. + +There is another beautiful thing in our text, which comes out more +distinctly if we follow the Revised Version, and read 'to give unto +them a _garland_ for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of +praise for the spirit of heaviness.' There we have two contrasted +pictures suggested: one of a mourner with grey ashes strewed upon his +dishevelled locks, and his spirit clothed in gloom like a black robe; +and to him there comes One who, with gentle hand, smoothes the ashes +out of his hair, trains a garland round his brow, anoints his head with +oil, and, stripping off the trappings of woe, casts about him a bright +robe fit for a guest at a festival. That is the miracle that Jesus +Christ can do for every one, and is ready to do for us, if we will let +Him. Let us look at this wonderful transformation, and at the way by +which it is effected. + +The first point I would make is that-- + +I. Jesus Christ is the Joy-bringer to men because He is the Redeemer of +men. + +Remember that in the original application of my text to the deliverance +from captivity, this gift of joy and change of sorrow into gladness was +no independent and second bestowment, but was simply the issue of the +one that preceded it, viz., the gift of liberty to the captives, and +the opening of the prison to them that were bound. The gladness was a +gladness that welled up in the heart of the captives set free, and +coming out from the gloom of the Babylonian dungeon into the sunshine +of God's favour, with their faces set towards Zion 'with songs and +everlasting joy upon their heads.' + +Now you have only to keep firm hold of this connection between these +two thoughts to come to the crown and centre-point of this great +prophecy, as far as it applies to us, and that is that it is Christ as +the Emancipator, Christ as the Deliverer, Christ as He who brings us +out of the prison of bondage of the tyranny of sin, who is the great +Joy-Giver. For there is no real, deep, fundamental and impregnable +gladness possible to a man until his relations to God have been +rectified, and until, with these rectified relations, with the +consciousness of forgiveness and the divine love nestling warm at his +heart, he has turned himself away from his dread and his sin, and has +recognised in his Father God 'the gladness of his joy.' + +Of course, there are many of us who feel that life is sufficiently +comfortable and moderately happy, or at least quite tolerable, without +any kind of reference to God at all. And in this day of growing +materialism, and growing consequent indifference to the deepest needs +of the spirit and the claims of religion, more and more men are +finding, or fancying that they find, that they can rub along somehow, +and have a fair share of gladness and satisfaction, without any need +for a redeeming gospel and a forgiving Christ. But about all that kind +of surface-joy the old words are true, 'even in laughter the heart is +sorrowful,' and hosts of us are satisfied with joys which Jesus has no +part in bringing, simply because our truest self has never once +awakened. When it does-and perhaps it will do so with some of you, like +the sleeping giant that is fabled to lie beneath the volcano whose +sunny slopes are smiling with flowers--then you will find out that no +one can bring real joy who does not take away guilt and sin. + +Jesus Christ is the Joy-bringer, because Jesus Christ is the +Emancipator. And true gladness is the gladness that springs from the +conscious possession of liberty from the captivity which holds men +slaves to evil and to their worst selves. Brethren, let us not fancy +that these surface-joys are the joys adequate to a human spirit. They +are ignoble, and they are infinitely foolish, because a touch of an +awakened conscience, a stirring of one's deeper self, can scatter them +all to pieces. So then, that is my first thought. + +Let us suggest a second, that-- + +II. Jesus Christ transforms sorrow because He transforms the mourner. + +In my text, all that this Joy-bringer and Transmuter of grief into its +opposite is represented as doing is on the man who feels the sorrow. +And although, as I have said, the text, in its original position, is +simply a deduction from the previous great prophecy which did point to +a change of circumstances, and although Jesus does bring the 'joy of +salvation' by a great change in a man's relations, yet in regard to the +ordinary sorrows of life, He affects these not so much by an operation +upon our circumstances as by an operation upon ourselves, and +transforms sorrow and brings gladness, because He transforms the man +who endures it. The landscape remains the same, the difference is in +the colour of the glass through which we look at it. Instead of having +it presented through some black and smoked medium, we see it through +what the painter calls a 'Claude Lorraine' glass, tinged golden, and +which throws its own lovely light upon all that it shows us. It is +possible--the eye that looks being purged and cleansed, so as to see +more clearly-that the facts remaining identical, their whole aspect and +bearing may be altered, and that which was felt, and rightly felt, to +be painful and provocative of sadness and gloom, may change its +character and beget a solemn joy. It would be but a small thing to +transform the conditions; it is far better and higher to transform us. +We all need, and some of us, I have no doubt, do especially need, to +remember that the Lord who brings this sudden transformation for us, +does so by His operation within us, and, therefore, to that operation +we should willingly yield ourselves. + +How does He do this? One answer to that question is--by giving to the +man with ashes on his head and gloom wrapped about his spirit, sources +of joy, if he will use them, altogether independent of external +circumstances.' Though the fig-tree shall not blossom, and there be no +fruit in the vine ... yet will I rejoice in the Lord.' And every +Christian man, especially when days are dark and clouds are gathering, +has it open to him, and is bound to use the possibility, to turn away +his mind from the external occasions of sadness, and fix it on the +changeless reason for deep and unchanging joy--the sweet presence, the +strong love, the sustaining hand, the infinite wisdom, of his Father +God. + +Brethren, "the paradox of the Christian life" is, 'as sorrowful, yet +always rejoicing.' Christ calls for no hypocritical insensibility to +'the ills that flesh is heir to.' He has sanctioned by His example the +tears that flow when death hurts loving hearts. He commanded the women +of Jerusalem to 'weep for themselves and for their children.' He means +that we should feel the full bitterness and pain of sorrows which will +not be medicinal unless they are bitter, and will not be curative +unless they cut deep. But He also means that whilst thus we suffer as +men, in the depths of our own hearts we should, at the same time, be +turning away from the sufferings and their cause, and fixing our +hearts, quiet even then amidst the distractions, upon God Himself. Ah! +it is hard to do, and because we do not do it, the promise that He will +turn the sorrow into joy often seems to be a vain word for us. + +It is not ours to rejoice as the world does, nor is it ours to sorrow +as those who have no hope, or as those who have no God with them. But +the two opposite emotions may, to a large extent, be harmonised and +co-existent in a Christian heart, and, since they can be, they should +be. The Christian in sorrow should be as an island set in some stormy +sea, with wild waves breaking against its black, rocky coast, and the +wind howling around it, but in the centre of it there is a deep and +shady dell 'that heareth not the loud winds when they call,' and where +not a leaf is moved by the tempest. In a like depth of calm and central +tranquillity it is possible for us to live, even while the storm +hurtles its loudest on the outermost coasts of our being; 'as +sorrowful, yet always rejoicing,' because the Joy-bringer has opened +for us sources of gladness independent of externals. + +And then there is another way by which, for us, if we will use our +privileges, the sorrows of life may be transmuted, because we, +contemplating them, have come to a changed understanding of their +meaning. That is, after all, the secret charm to be commended to us at +all times, but to be commended to us most when our hearts are heavy and +the days are dark around us. We shall never understand life if we class +its diverse events simply under the two opposite categories of +good--evil; prosperity--adversity; gains--losses; fulfilled +expectations--disappointed hopes, Put them all together under one +class--discipline and education; means for growth; means for +Christlikeness. When we have found out, what it takes a long while for +us to learn, that the lancet and the bandage are for the same purpose, +and that opposite weathers conspire to the same end, that of the +harvest, the sting is out of the sorrow, the poison is wiped off the +arrow. We can have, if not a solemn joy, at least a patient +acquiescence, in the diversities of operation, when we learn that the +same hand is working in all for the same end, and that all that +contributes to that end is good. + +Here we may suggest a third way by which a transformation wrought upon +ourselves transforms the aspect of our sorrows, and that is, that +possessing independent sources of joy, and having come to learn the +educational aspect of all adversity, we hereby are brought by Jesus +Christ Himself to the position of submission. And that is the most +potent talisman to transform mourning into praise. An accepted grief is +a conquered grief; a conquered grief will very soon be a comforted +grief; and a comforted grief is a joy. By all these means Jesus Christ, +here and now, is transmuting the lead and iron of our griefs into the +gold of a not ignoble nor transient gladness. + +And may I say one last word? My text suggests not only these two points +to which I have already referred--viz. that Jesus Christ is the +Joy-bringer because He is the Emancipator, and that He transforms +sorrow by transforming the mourner--but, lastly, that + +III. Jesus gives joy after sorrow. + +'Nevertheless, afterward' is a great word of glowing encouragement for +all sad hearts. 'Fools and children,' says the old proverb, 'should not +see half-done work '; at least, they should not judge it. When the +ploughshare goes deep into the brown, frosty ground, the work is only +begun. The earth may seem to be scarped and hurt, and, if one might +say, to bleed, but in six months' time 'you scarce can see' the soil +for waving corn. Yes; and sorrow, as some of us could witness, is the +forecast of purest joy. I have no doubt that there are men and women +here who could say, 'I never knew the power of God, and the blessedness +of Christ as a Saviour, until I was in deep affliction, and when +everything else went dark, then in His light I saw light.' Do not some +of you know the experience? and might we not all know it? and why do we +not know it? + +Jesus Christ, even here and now, gives these blessed results of our +sorrows, if they are taken to the right place, and borne in right +fashion. For it is they 'that mourn in Zion' that He thus blesses. +There are some of us, I fear, whose only resource in trouble is to +fling ourselves into some work, or some dissipation. There are people +who try to work away their griefs, as well as people who try feverishly +to drink them away. And there are some of us whose only resource for +deliverance from our sorrows is that, after the wound has bled all it +can, it stops bleeding, and the grief simply dies by lapse of time and +for want of fuel. An affliction wasted is the worst of all waste. But +if we carry our grief into the sanctuary, then, here and now, it will +change its aspect and become a solemn joy. + +I say nothing about the ultimate result where every sorrow rightly +borne shall be represented in the future life by some stage in grace or +glory, where every tear shall be crystallised, if I might say so, into +a flashing diamond, which flings off the reflection of the divine +light, where 'there shall be no sorrow nor sighing, nor any more pain, +for the former things are passed away.' When the lesson has been +learned, God burns the rod. + +But, brethren, there is another sadder transformation. I have been +speaking about the transformation of sorrow into joy. There is also the +transformation of joy into sorrow. I spoke a little while ago about the +'laughter' in which the heart is 'sorrowful,' and the writer from whom +I quoted the words goes on to say, 'The end of that mirth is +heaviness.' 'Thereof cometh in the end despondency and madness.' I saw, +on a hilltop, a black circle among the grass and heather. There had +been a bonfire there on Coronation Night, and it had all died down, and +that was the end--a hideous ring of scorched barrenness amidst the +verdure. Take care that your gladnesses do not die down like that, but +that they are pure, and being pure are undying. Union with Jesus Christ +makes sorrow light, and secures that it shall merge at last into 'joy +unspeakable and full of joy.' I believe that separation from Christ +makes joy shallow, and makes it certain that at last, instead of a +garland, shall be ashes on the head, and that, instead of a festal +robe, the spirit shall be wrapped in a garment of heaviness. + + + + +THE HEAVENLY WORKERS AND THE EARTHLY WATCHERS + +'For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I +will not rest ... I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, +which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention +of the Lord, keep not silence, and give Him no rest'--ISAIAH lxii. 1, +6, 7. + + +Two remarks of an expository nature will prepare the way for the +consideration of these words. The first is that the speaker is the +personal Messiah. The second half of Isaiah's prophecies forms one +great whole, which might be called The Book of the Servant of the Lord. +One majestic figure stands forth on its pages with ever-growing +clearness of outline and form. The language in which He is described +fluctuates at first between the collective Israel and the one Person +who is to be all that the nation had failed to attain. But even near +the beginning of the prophecy we read of 'My servant whom I uphold,' +whose voice is to be low and soft, and whose meek persistence is not to +fail till He have 'set judgment in the earth.' And as we advance the +reference to the nation becomes less and less possible, and the +recognition of the person more and more imperative. At first the music +of the prophetic song seems to move uncertainly amid sweet sounds, from +which the true theme by degrees emerges, and thenceforward recurs over +and over again with deeper, louder harmonies clustering about it, till +it swells into the grandeur of the choral close. + +In the chapter before our text we read, 'The Spirit of the Lord God is +upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto +the meek.' Throughout the remainder of the prophecy, with the exception +of one section which contains the prayer of the desolate Israel, this +same person continues to speak; and who he is was taught in the +synagogue of Nazareth. Whilst the preceding chapter, then, brings in +Christ as proclaiming the great work of deliverance for which He is +anointed of God, the following chapter presents Him as 'treading the +wine-press alone,' which is a symbol of the future judgment by the +glorified Saviour. Between these two prophecies of the earthly life and +of the still future judicial energy, this chapter of our text lies, +referring, as I take it, to the period between these two--that is, to +all the ages of the Church's development on earth. For these Christ +here promises His continual activity, and His continual bestowment of +grace to His servants who watch the walls of His Jerusalem. + +The second point to be noticed is the remarkable parallelism in the +expressions selected as the text: 'I will not hold _My_ peace'; the +watchmen 'shall never hold _their peace_.' And His command to them is +literally, 'Ye that remind Jehovah--no _rest_ (or silence) to you, and +give not _rest_ to Him.' + +So we have here Christ, the Church, and God all represented as +unceasingly occupied in the one great work of establishing 'Zion' as +the centre of light, salvation, and righteousness for the whole world. +The consideration of these three perpetual activities may open for us +some great truths and stimulating lessons. + +I. First, then, The glorified Christ is constantly working for His +Church. + +We are too apt to regard our Lord's real work as all lying in the past, +and, from the very greatness of our estimate of what He has done, to +forget the true importance of what He evermore does. 'Christ that died' +is the central object of trust and contemplation for devout souls--and +that often to the partial hiding of Christ that is 'risen again, who is +even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.' +But Scripture sets forth the present glorious life of our ascended Lord +under two contrasted and harmonious aspects--as being rest, and as +being continuous activity in the midst of rest. He was 'received up +into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.' In that session on the +throne manifold and mighty truths are expressed. It proclaims the full +accomplishment of all the purposes of His earthly ministry; it +emphasises the triumphant completion of His redeeming work by His +death; it proclaims the majesty of His nature, which returns to the +'glory which He had with the Father before the world was'; it shows to +the world, as on some coronation day, its King on His throne, girded +with power and holding the far-reaching sceptre of the universe; it +prophesies for men, in spite of all present sin and degradation, a +share in the dominion which manhood has in Christ attained, for though +we see not yet all things put under Him, we see Jesus crowned with +glory and honour. It prophesies, too, His final victory over all that +sets itself in unavailing antagonism to His love. It points us backward +to an historical fact as the basis of all our hopes for ourselves and +for our fellows, giving us the assurance that the world's deliverance +will come from the slow operation of the forces already lodged in its +history by Christ's finished work. It points us forwards to a future as +the goal of all these hopes, giving us that confidence of victory which +He has who, having kindled the fire on earth, henceforward sits at +God's right hand, waiting in the calm and sublime patience of conscious +omnipotence and clear foreknowledge 'until His enemies become His +footstool.' + +But whilst on the one side Christ rests as from a perfected work which +needs no addition nor repetition, on the other He 'rests not day nor +night.' And this aspect of His present state is as distinctly set forth +in Scripture as that is. Indeed the words already quoted as embodying +the former phase contain the latter also. For is not 'the right hand of +God' the operative energy of the divine nature? And is not 'sitting at +the right hand of God' equivalent to possessing and wielding that +unwearied, measureless power? Are there not blended together in this +pregnant phrase the ideas of profoundest calm and of intensest action, +that being expressed by the attitude, and this by the locality? +Therefore does the evangelist who uses the expression expand it into +words which wonderfully close his gospel, with the same representation +of Christ's swift and constant activity as he had been all along +pointing out as characterising His life on earth. 'They went forth,' +says he, 'and preached everywhere'--so far the contrast between the +Lord seated in the heavens and His wandering servants fighting on earth +is sharp and almost harsh. But the next words tone it down, and weave +the two apparently discordant halves of the picture into a whole: 'the +Lord _working_ with them.' Yes! in all His rest He is full of work, in +all their toils He shares, in all their journeys His presence goes +beside them. Whatever they do is His deed, and the help that is done +upon the earth He doeth it all Himself. + +Is not this blessed conviction of Christ's continuous operation in and +for His Church that which underlies, as has often been pointed out, the +language of the introduction to the Acts of the Apostles, where mention +is made of the former treatise that told 'all which Jesus began both to +do and teach'? The gospel records the beginning, the Book of the Acts +the continuance; it is one biography in two volumes. Being yet present +with them He spoke and acted. Being exalted He 'speaketh from heaven,' +and from the throne carries on the endless series of His works of power +and healing. The whole history is shaped by the same conviction. +Everywhere 'the Lord' is the true actor, the source of all the life +which is in the Church, the arranger of all the providences which +affect its progress. The Lord adds to the Church daily. His name works +miracles. To the Lord believers are added. His angel, His Spirit, bring +messages to His servants. He appears to Paul, and speaks to Ananias. +The Gentiles turn to the Lord because the hand of the Lord is with the +preachers. The Lord calls Paul to carry the gospel to Macedonia. The +Lord opens the heart of Lydia, and so throughout. Not 'the Acts of the +Apostles,' but 'the Acts of the Lord in and by His servants,' is the +accurate title of this book. The vision which flashed angel radiance on +the face, and beamed with divine comfort into the heart, of Stephen, +was a momentary revelation of an abiding reality, and completes the +representation of the Saviour throned beside Almighty power. He beheld +his Lord, not seated, as if careless or resting, while His servant's +need was so sore, but as if risen with intent to help, and ready to +defend--'_standing_ on the right hand of God.' + +And when once again the heavens opened to the rapt eyes of John in +Patmos, the Lord whom he beheld was not only revealed as glorified in +the lustre of the inaccessible light, but as actively sustaining and +guiding the human reflectors of it. He 'holdeth the seven stars in His +right hand,' and '_walketh_ in the midst of the seven golden +candlesticks.' + +Not otherwise does my text represent the present relation of Christ to +His Church. It speaks of a continuous forth-putting of power, which it +is, perhaps, not over-fanciful to regard as dimly set forth here in a +twofold form--namely, work and word. At all events, that division +stands out clearly on the pages of the New Testament, which ever holds +forth the double truth of our Lord's constant action on, in, through, +and for His Zion, and of our High Priest's constant intercession. + +'I will not rest.' Through all the ages His power is in exercise. He +inspires in good men all their wisdom, and every grace of life and +character. He uses them as His weapons in the contest of His love with +the world's hatred; but the hand that forged, and tempered, and +sharpened the blade is that which smites with it; and the axe must not +boast itself against him that heweth. He, the Lord of lords, orders +providences, and shapes the course of the world for that Church which +is His witness: 'Yea, He reproved kings for their sake, saying, Touch +not Mine anointed, and do My prophets no harm.' The ancient legend +which told how, on many a well-fought field, the ranks of Rome +discerned through the battle-dust the gleaming weapons and white steeds +of the Great Twin Brethren far in front of the solid legions, is true +in loftier sense in our Holy War. We may still see the vision which the +leader of Israel saw of old, the man with the drawn sword in his hand, +and hear the majestic word, 'As Captain of the Lord's host am I now +come.' The Word of God, with vesture dipped in blood, with eyes alit +with His flaming love, with the many crowns of unlimited sovereignty +upon His head, rides at the head of the armies of heaven; 'and in +righteousness doth He judge and make war.' For the single soul +struggling with daily tasks and petty cares, His help is near and real, +as for the widest work of the collective whole. He sends none of us +tasks in which He has no share. The word of this Master is never 'Go,' +but 'Come.' He unites Himself with all our sorrows, with all our +efforts. 'The Lord also working with them' is a description of all the +labours of Christian men, be they great or small. + +Nor is this all. There still remains the wonderful truth of His +continuous intercession for us. In its widest meaning that word +expresses the whole of the manifold ways by which Christ undertakes and +maintains our cause. But the narrower signification of prayer on our +behalf is applicable, and is in Scripture applied, to our Lord. As on +earth, the climax of all His intercourse with His disciples was that +deep yet simple prayer which forms the Holy of Holies of John's Gospel, +so in heaven His loftiest office for us is set forth under the figure +of His intercession. Before the Throne stands the slain Lamb, and +therefore do the elders in the outer circle bring acceptable praises. +Within the veil stands the Priest, with the names of the tribes blazing +on the breastplate and on the shoulders of His robes, near the seat of +love, near the arm of power. And whatever difficulty may surround that +idea of Christ's priestly intercession, this at all events is implied +in it, that the mighty work which He accomplished on earth is ever +present to the divine mind as the ground of our acceptance and the +channel of our blessings; and this further, that the utterance of +Christ's will is ever in harmony with the divine purpose. Therefore His +prayer has in it a strange tone of majesty, and, if we may so say, of +command, as of one who knows that He is ever heard: '_I will_ that they +whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am.' + +The instinct of the Church has, from of old, laid hold of an event in +His earthly life to shadow forth this great truth, and has bid us see a +pledge and a symbol of it in that scene on the Lake of Galilee: the +disciples toiling in the sudden storm, the poor little barque tossing +on the waters tinged by the wan moon, the spray dashing over the +wearied rowers. They seem alone, but up yonder, in some hidden cleft of +the hills, their Master looks down on all the weltering storm, and +lifts His voice in prayer. Then when the need is sorest, and the hope +least, He comes across the waves, making their surges His pavement, and +using all opposition as the means of His approach, and His presence +brings calmness, and immediately they are at the land. + +So we have not only to look back to the Cross, but up to the Throne. +From the Cross we hear a voice, 'It is finished.' From the Throne a +voice, 'For Zion's sake I will not hold My peace, and for Jerusalem's +sake I will not rest.' + +II. Secondly, Christ's servants on earth derive from Him a like +perpetual activity for the same object. + +The Lord, who in the former portion of these verses declares His own +purpose of unwearied action for Zion, associates with Himself in the +latter portion the watchmen, whom He appoints and endows for functions +in some measure resembling His own, and exercised with constancy +derived from Him. 'I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, +which shall never hold their peace day nor night.' On the promise +follows, as ever, a command (for all divine gifts involve the +responsibility of their use, and it is not His wont either to bestow +without requiring, or to require before bestowing), 'Ye that remind +Jehovah, keep not silence.' + +There is distinctly traceable before a reference to a two-fold form of +occupation devolving on these Christ-sent servants. They are watchmen, +and they are also God's remembrancers. In the one capacity as in the +other, their voices are to be always heard. The former metaphor is +common in the Old Testament, as a designation of the prophetic office, +but, in the accordance with the genius of the New Testament, as +expressed on Pentecost, when the Spirit was poured out on the lowly as +well as on the high, on the young as on the old, and all prophesied, it +may be fairly extended to designated not to some selected few, but the +whole mass of Christian people. The watchman's office falls to be done +by all who see the coming peril, and have a tongue to echo it forth. +The remembrancer's priestly office belongs to every member of Christ's +priestly kingdom, the lowest and least of whom has the privilege of +unrestrained entry into God's presence-chamber, and the power of +blessing the world by faithful prayer. What should we think of a +citizen in a beleaguered city, who saw enemy mounting the very +ramparts, and gave no alarm because that was the sentry's business? In +such extremity every man is a soldier, and women and children can at +least keep watch and raise shrill cries of warning. The gifts, then, +here promised, and the duties that flow from them, are not the +prerogatives or the tasks of any class or order, but the heritage and +the burden of the Lord to every member of His Church. + +Our voices should ever be heard on earth. A solemn message is committed +to us, by the very fact of our belief in Jesus Christ and His work. +With that faith come responsibilities of which no Christian can denude +himself. To warn the wicked man to turn from His wickedness; to blow +the trumpet when we see the sword coming; to catch ever gleaming on the +horizon, like the spears of an army through the dust of the march, the +outriders and advance-guard of the coming of Him whose coming is life +or death to all, and to lift up our voices with strength and say, +'Behold your God'; to peal into the ears of men, sunken in earthliness +and dreaming of safety, the cry which may startle and save; to ring out +in glad tones to all who wearily ask, 'Watchman, what of the night? +will the night soon pass?' the answer which the slow dawning east has +breathed into our else stony lips, 'The morning cometh'; to proclaim +Christ, who came once to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, who +comes ever, through the ages, to bless and uphold the righteousness +which He loves and to destroy the iniquity which He hates, who will +come at the last to judge the world--this is the never-ending task of +the watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem. The New Testament calls it +'preaching,' proclaiming as a herald does. And both metaphors carry one +common lesson of the manner in which the work should be done. With +clear loud voice, with earnestness and decision, with faithfulness and +self-oblivion, forgetting himself in his message, must the herald sound +out the will of his King, the largess of his Lord. And the watchman who +stands on his watch-tower whole nights, and sees foemen creeping +through the gloom, or fire bursting out among the straw-roofed cottages +within the walls, shouts with all his might the short, sharp alarm, +that wakes the sleepers to whom slumber were death. Let us ponder the +pattern. + +Our voices should ever be heard in heaven. They who trust God remind +Him of His promises by their very faith; it is a mute appeal to His +faithful love, which He cannot but answer. And, beyond that, their +prayers come up for a memorial before God, and have as real an effect +in furthering Christ's kingdom on earth as is exercised by their +entreaties and proclamations to men. + +How distinctly these words of our text define the region within which +our prayers should ever move, and the limits which bound their +efficacy! They _remind_ God. Then the truest prayer is that which bases +itself on God's uttered will, and the desires which are born of our own +fancies or heated enthusiasms have no power with Him. The prayer that +prevails is a reflected promise. Our office in prayer is but to receive +on our hearts the bright rays of His word, and to flash them back from +the polished surface to the heaven from whence they came. + +These two forms of action ought to be inseparable. Each, if genuine, +will drive us to the other, for who could fling himself into the +watchman's work, with all its solemn consequences, knowing how weak his +voice was, and how deaf the ears that should hear, unless he could +bring God's might to his help? and who could honestly remind God of His +promises and forget his own responsibilities? Prayerless work will soon +slacken, and never bear fruit; idle prayer is worse than idle. You +cannot part them if you would. How much of the busy occupation which is +called 'Christian work' is detected to be spurious by this simple test! +How much so-called prayer is reduced by it to mere noise, no better +than the blaring trumpet or the hollow drum! + +The power for both is derived from Christ. He sets the watchmen; He +commands the remembrancers. From Him flows the power, from His good +Spirit comes the desire, to proclaim the message. That message is the +story of His life and death. But for what He does and is we should have +nothing to say; but for His gift we should have no power to say it; but +for His influence we should have no will to say it. He commands and +fits us to be intercessors, for His mighty work brings us near to God; +He opens for us access with confidence to God. He inspires our prayers. +He 'hath made us priests to God.' + +And, as the Christian power of discharging these twofold duties is +drawn from Christ, so our pattern is His manner of discharging them, +and the condition of receiving the power is to abide in Him. He +proposes Himself as our Example. He calls us to no labours which He has +not Himself shared, nor to any earnestness or continuance in prayer +which He has not Himself shown forth. This Master works in front of His +men. The farmer that goes first among all the sowers, and heads the +line of reapers in the yellowing harvest-field, may well have diligent +servants. Our Master 'went forth, weeping, bearing precious seed,' and +has left it in our hands to sow in all furrows. Our Master is the Lord +of the harvest, and has borne the heat of the day before His servants. +Look at the amount of work, actual hard work, compressed into these +three short years of His ministry. Take the records of the words He +spake on that last day of His public teaching, and see what unwearied +toil they represent. Ponder upon that life till you catch the spirit +which breathed through it all, and, like Him, embrace gladly the +welcome necessity of labour for God, under the sense of a vocation +conferred upon you, and of the short space within which your service +must be condensed. 'I must work the work of Him that sent me, while it +is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.' + +Christ asks no romantic impossibilities from us, but He does ask a +continuous, systematic discharge of the duties which depend on our +relation to the world, and on our relation to Him. Let it be our life's +work to show forth His praise; let the very atmosphere in which we move +and have our being be prayer. Let two great currents set ever through +our days, which two, like the great movements in the ocean of the air, +are but the upper and under halves of the one movement--that beneath +with constant energy of desire rushing in from the cold poles to be +warmed and expanded at the tropics, where the all-moving sun pours his +directest rays; that above charged with rich gifts from the Lord of +light, glowing with heat drawn from Him, and made diffusive by His +touch, spreading itself out beneficent and life-bringing into all +colder lands, swathing the world in soft, warm folds, and turning the +polar ice into sweet waters. + +In the tabernacle of Israel stood two great emblems of the functions of +God's people, which embodied these two sides of the Christian life. Day +by day, there ascended from the altar of incense the sweet odour, which +symbolised the fragrance of prayer as it wreathes itself upwards to the +heavens. Night by night, as darkness fell on the desert and the camp, +there shone through the gloom the hospitable light of the great golden +candlestick with its seven lamps, whose steady rays outburned the stars +that paled with the morning. Side by side they proclaimed to Israel its +destiny to be the light of the world, to be a kingdom of priests. + +The offices and the honour have passed over to us, and we shall fall +beneath our obligations unless we let our light shine constantly before +men, and let our voice rise like a fountain night and day' before +God--even as He did who, when every man went to his own house, went +alone to the Mount of Olives, and in the morning, when every man +returned to his daily task, went into the Temple and taught. By His +example, by His gifts, by the motive of His love, our resting, working +Lord says to each of us, 'Ye that remind God, keep not silence.' Let us +answer, 'For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's +sake I will not rest.' + +III. Finally, The constant activity of the servants of Christ will +secure the constant operation of God's power. + +'_Give_ Him no rest': let there be no cessation to Him. These are bold +words, which many people would not have been slow to rebuke if they had +been anywhere else than in the Bible. Those who remind God are not to +suffer Him to be still. The prophet believes that they can regulate the +flow of divine energy, can stir up the strength of the Lord. + +It is easy to puzzle ourselves with insoluble questions about the +co-operation of God's power and man's; but practically, is it not true +that God reaches His end, of the establishment of Zion, through the +Church? He has not barely willed that the world should be saved, nor +barely that it should be saved through Christ, nor barely that it +should be saved through the knowledge of Christ; but His will is that +the world shall be saved, by faith in the person and work of Christ, +proclaimed as a gospel by men who believe it. And, as a matter of fact, +is it not true that the energy with which God's power in the gospel +manifests itself depends on the zeal and activity and prayerfulness of +the Church? The great reservoir is always full--full to the brim; +however much may be drawn from it, the water sinks not a hairsbreadth; +but the bore of the pipe and the power of the pumping-engine determine +the rate at which the stream flows from it. 'He could there do no +mighty works because of their unbelief.' The obstruction of +indifference dammed back the water of life. The city perishes for +thirst if the long line of aqueduct that strides across the plain +towards the home of the mountain torrents be ruinous, broken down, +choked with rubbish. + +God is always the same--equally near, equally strong, equally gracious. +But our possession of His grace, and the impartation of His grace +through us to others, vary, because our faith, our earnestness, our +desires, vary. True, these no doubt are also His gifts and His working, +and nothing that we say now touches in the least on the great truth +that God is the sole originator of all good in man; but while believing +that, as no less sure in itself than blessed in its message of +confidence and consolation to us, we also have to remember, 'If any man +open the door, I will come in to him.' We may have as much of God as we +want, as much as we can hold, far more than we deserve. And if ever the +victorious power of His Church seems to be almost paling to defeat, and +His servants to be working no deliverance upon the earth, the cause is +not to be found in Him who is 'without variableness,' nor in His gifts, +which are 'without repentance,' but solely in us, who let go our hold +of the Eternal Might. No ebb withdraws the waters of that great ocean; +and if sometimes there be sand and ooze where once the flashing flood +brought life and motion, it is because careless warders have shut the +sea-gates. + +An awful responsibility lies on us. We can resist and refuse, or we can +open our hearts and draw into ourselves His strength. We can bring into +operation those energies which act through faithful men faithfully +proclaiming the faithful saying; or we can limit the Holy One of +Israel. 'Why could not we cast him out?' 'Because of your unbelief.' + +With what grand confidence, then, may the weakest of us go to his task. +We have a right to feel that in all our labour God works with us; that, +in all our words for Him, it is not we that speak, but the Spirit of +our Father that speaks in us; that if humbly and prayerfully, with +self-distrust and resolute effort to crucify our own intrusive +individuality, we wait for Him to enshrine Himself within us, strength +will come to us, drawn from the deep fountains of God, and we too shall +be able to say, 'Not I, but the grace of God in me.' + +How this sublime confidence should tell on our characters, destroying +all self-confidence, repressing all pride, calming all impatience, +brightening all despondency, and ever stirring us anew to deeds worthy +of the 'exceeding greatness of the power which worketh in us'--I can +only suggest. + +On all sides motives for strenuous toil press in upon us--chiefly those +great examples which we have now been contemplating. But, besides +these, there are other forms of activity which may point the same +lesson. Look at the energy _around_ us. We live in a busy time. Life +goes swiftly in all regions. Men seem to be burning away faster than +ever before, in an atmosphere of pure oxygen. Do we work as hard for +God as the world does for itself? Look at the energy _beneath_ us: how +evil in every form is active; how lies and half-truths propagate +themselves quick as the blight on a rose-tree; how profligacy, and +crime, and all the devil's angels are busy on his errands. If _we_ are +sitting drowsy by our camp-fires, the enemy is on the alert. You can +hear the tramp of their legions and the rumble of their artillery +through the night as they march to their posts on the field. It is no +time for God's sentinels to nod. If they sleep, the adversary does not, +but glides in the congenial darkness, sowing his baleful tares. Do we +work as hard for God as the emissaries of evil do for their master? +Look at the energy _above_ us. On the throne of the universe is the +immortal Power who slumbereth not nor sleepeth. Before the altar of the +heavens is the Priest of the world, the Lord of His Church, 'who ever +liveth to make intercession for us.' Round Him stand perfected spirits, +the watchmen on the walls of the New Jerusalem, who 'rest not day and +night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty.' From His presence +come, filling the air with the rustle of their swift wings and the +light of their flame-faces, the ministering spirits who evermore 'do +His commandments, hearkening to the voice of His word.' And we, +Christian brethren, where are we in all this magnificent concurrence of +activity, for purposes which ought to be dear to our hearts as they are +to the heart of God? Do we work for Him as He and all that are with Him +do? Is His will done by us on earth, as it is heaven? + +Alas! alas! have we not all been like those three apostles whose eyes +were heavy with sleep even while the Lord was wrestling with the +tempter under the gnarled olives in the pale moonlight of Gethsemane? +Let us arouse ourselves from our sloth. Let us lift up our cry to God: +'Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord, as in the ancient +days in the generations of old'; and the answer shall sound from the +heavens to us as it did to the prophet, an echo of his prayer turned +into a command, 'Awake, awake, put on _thy_ strength, O Zion.' + + + + +MIGHTY TO SAVE + +'Mighty to save.'--ISAIAH lxiii. 1. + + +We have here a singularly vivid and dramatic prophecy, thrown into the +form of a dialogue between the prophet and a stranger whom he sees from +afar striding along from the mountains of Edom, with elastic step, and +dyed garments. The prophet does not recognise him, and asks who he is. +The Unknown answers, 'I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.' +Another question follows, seeking explanation of the splashed crimson +garments of the stranger, and its answer tells of a tremendous act of +retributive destruction which he has recently launched at the nations +hostile to 'My redeemed.' + +Now we note that this prophecy follows, both in the order of the book +and in the evolution of events, on those in chapter lxi., which +referred to our Lord's work on earth, and in chapter lxii, which has +for part of its theme His intercession in heaven. And we are entitled +to take the view that the place as well as the substance of this +prophecy referred to the solemn act of final Judgment in which the +returning Lord will manifest Himself. Very significant is it that the +prophet does not recognise in this Conqueror, with blood-bespattered +robes, the meek sufferer of chapter liii., or Him who in chapter lxi. +came to bind up the broken-hearted. And very instructive is it that the +title in our text comes from the stranger's own lips, as relevant to +the tremendous act of judgment from which He is seen returning. The +title might seem rather to look back to the former manifestation of Him +as bearing our griefs and carrying our sorrows. It does indeed, thank +God, look back to that never-to-be-forgotten miracle of mercy and +power, but it also brings within the sweep of His saving might the +judgment still to come. + +I. The mighty Saviour as made known in the past and present. + +We think much of the meek and gentle side of Christ's character. +Perhaps we do not think enough of the strength of it. We trace His +great sacrifice to His love, and we can never sufficiently adore that +incomparable manifestation of a love deeper than our plummets can +fathom. But probably we do not sufficiently realise what gigantic +strength went to the completion of that sacrifice. We know the solemn +imagining of a great artist who has painted a colossal Death +overbearing the weak resistance of a puny Love; but here love is the +giant, and his sovereign command brings Death obedient to it, to do his +work. Yes, that weak man hanging on the Cross is therein revealed as +'the power of God.' Strange clothing of weakness which yet cannot hide +the mighty limbs that wear it! + +And if we think of our Lord's life we see the same combination of +gentleness and power. His very name rings with memories of the captain +whose one commanded duty was to 'be strong and of a good courage.' + +In Him was all strength of manhood--inflexible, iron will, unchanging +purpose, strength from consecration, strength from righteousness. In +Him was the heroism of prophets and martyrs in supreme degree. + +In Him was the strength of indwelling Divinity. He fought and conquered +all man's enemies, routed sin, and triumphed over Death. + +In the Cross we see divine power in operation in its noblest form, in +its intensest energy, in its widest sweep, in its most magnificent +result. He is able to save, to save all, to save any. + +He is mighty to save, and is able to save unto the uttermost, because +He lives for ever, and His power is eternal as Himself. + +II. The mighty Saviour as to be manifested in the future. + +Clearly the imagery of the context describes a tremendous act of +judgment. And as clearly the Apocalyptic Seer understood this prophecy +as not only pointing to Christ, but as to be fulfilled in the final act +of judgment. He quotes its words when he paints his magnificent vision +of the Conqueror riding forth on his white horse, with garments +sprinkled with blood and treading the 'winepress of the fierceness and +wrath of Almighty God.' And the vision is interpreted unmistakably when +we read that, though this Conqueror had a name unknown to any but +Himself, 'His name is called the Word of God.' So the unity of person +in the Word made flesh who dwelt among us, full of grace and of this +Mighty One girt for battle, is taught. + +Keeping fast hold of this clue, the contrast between the +characteristics of the historical Jesus and of the rider on the white +horse becomes solemn and full of warning. And the contrast between the +errand of the historical Jesus and that of the Conqueror bids us ponder +on the possibilities that may sleep in perfect love. We have to widen +our conceptions, if we have thought of our Jesus only as love, and have +thought of love as shallow, as most men do. We are sometimes told that +these two pictures, that of the Christ of the Gospels and that of the +Christ of the Apocalypse, are incapable of being fused together in one +original. But they can be stereoscoped, if we may say so. And they must +be, if we are ever to understand the greatness of His love or the +terribleness of His judgments. 'The wrath of the Lamb' sounds an +impossibility, but if we ponder it, we shall find depths of +graciousness as well as of awe in it. + +Let us learn that the righteous Judge is logically and chronologically +the completion of the picture of the merciful Saviour. In this age +there is a tendency to treat sin with too much pity and too little +condemnation. And there is not a sufficiently firm grasp of the truth +that divine love must be in irreconcilable antagonism with human sin, +and can do nothing but chastise and smite it. + +III. The saving purpose of even that destructive might. + +Through the whole Old Testament runs the longing that God would 'awake' +to smite evil. + +The tragedy of the drowned hosts in the Red Sea, and Miriam and her +maidens standing with their timbrels and shrill song of triumph on the +bank, is a prophecy of what shall be. 'Ye shall have a song as in the +night a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart as when one goeth +with a pipe to come unto the mountain of the Lord.' And at the thought +of that solemn act of judgment they who love the Judge, and have long +known Him, 'may lift up their heads' in the confidence that 'their +redemption draweth nigh.' That is the last, and in some sense the +mightiest, greatest act by which He shows Himself 'mighty to save His +redeemed.' + +So we may, like the prophet, see that swift form striding nearer and +nearer, but, unlike the prophet, we need not to ask, 'Who is this that +cometh?' for we have known Him from of old, and we remember the voice +that said, 'This same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye have +seen Him go into heaven.' 'Herein is our love made perfect, that we may +have boldness before Him in the day of judgment.' + + + + +THE WINEPRESS AND ITS TREADER + +'Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him +that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the winepress +alone.'--ISAIAH lxiii. 2, 3. + + +The structure of these closing chapters is chronological, and this is +the final scene. What follows is epilogue. The reference of this +magnificent imagery to the sufferings of Jesus is a complete +misapprehension. These sufferings were dealt with once for all in +chapter liii., and it is Messiah triumphant who has filled the +prophet's vision since then. + +I. The treading of the winepress. + +The nations are flung into the press, as ripe grapes. The picture is +plainly a figure of some tremendous judgment in which the powers that +oppose the majestic march of the triumphant Messiah will be crushed and +trampled to ruin. They are trodden 'in Mine anger, and their life-blood +is sprinkled on My garments.' It is He who crushes, not He who is +crushed. The winepress which He treads is the 'winepress of the wrath +of Almighty God,' and His treading of it is His executing of God's +judgments on those whose antagonism to Him and to His 'redeemed' has +brought them within their sweep. The prophetic imagination kindles and +casts its thought into that terrible picture, which some fastidious +people would think coarse, of a peasant standing up to his knees in a +vat heaped with purple clusters, and fiercely trampling them down, +while the red juice splashes upon his girt-up clothes. + +The prophet does not date his vision. It has been realised many a time, +and will be many a time still. Wherever opposition to Christ and His +kingdom has reached ripeness, wherever antagonistic tendencies have +borne fruit which has matured, the winepress is set up and the treading +begins. 'Wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered +together.' 'Immediately he putteth in the sickle because the harvest is +done.' The judgments tarry long, and Christ's servants, oppressed or +hard pressed, get impatient, and cry 'How long, O Lord, dost Thou not +judge? It is time for Thee to work.' But long patience precedes the +divine awaking, for it is not God's way nor Christ's to cut down even a +cumbering tree, until the possibility of its bearing fruit is plainly +ended, and the last use that He makes of anything is to burn it. The +repeated settings up of Christ's winepress have all been one in +principle, and they all point onwards to a final one. There have been +many 'days of the Lord,' and if men were wise and 'observed these +things,'--which most of them are not,--they would see that these lesser +'days' made a 'final great and terrible day of the Lord' supremely +probable, and in perfect analogy with all that experience and history +have testified as to the method of the divine government. + +Surely it is strange that the groundless expectation of the unbroken +continuance of the present order should be so strong that many should +utterly ignore the truth taught by such teachers as these, and +reiterated by science, which declares that the physical universe had a +beginning and will have an end, and confirmed by Jesus Himself. There +will come a to-morrow when the sun will _not_ rise. There will come a +to-morrow which will be '_the_ day of the Lord,' of which all these +earlier and partial epochs of judgment were but precursors and prophets. + +II. The Treader of the Winepress. + +The context clearly shows that, in the prophet's view, the suffering +Messiah in His exalted royalty is the agent of this, as of all divine +acts. He is clothed with majesty, and it is 'in His hand,' or through +His agency, that all 'the pleasure of the Lord' is brought to pass. The +contrast with the figure in chap. liii. is ever to be kept in view. The +lowliness, the weales and bruises, the form without comeliness are +gone, and for these we see a conqueror, glorious in apparel and +striding onwards in conscious strength. + +But the access of majesty does not imply the putting off of lowliness +and meekness. There is much that is severe and terrible in the figure +that rises here before the prophet's vision, but both aspects equally +belong to the glorified Christ, and that duality in His character makes +each element more impressive. His long-suffering mercy and more than +human tenderness do not hamper His arm when it is bared to smite; His +judicial severity does not dam up the flow of His mercy and tenderness. +When He was on earth, He wept over Jerusalem, but His tears did not +hinder His pronouncing woe on the city. His love leads Him to warn +before He smites, but it does not contradict His threatenings, nor +augur our impunity. Nay rather, love compels Him to smite. And, more +terrible still, it is His very love that smites most severely hearts +that have rejected it and learn their folly and sin too late. + +III. Why the winepress is trodden. + +The context tells us. The triumphant figure, seen by the prophet +striding onwards from Edom, answers the question as to His identity +with, 'I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.' Then the +treading of the winepress, from which He is represented as coming, is +regarded as an exemplification of both these characteristics. It is a +great act of righteousness. It is a great act of salvation. Similarly, +He is represented as having been moved to that destructive judgment by +the 'vengeance' that burned in His heart, and by His seeing that there +were none to help His 'redeemed.' + +So, then, the destructive act is a manifestation of Righteousness, +which in such a connection means retributive justice. Awe-inspiring as +it may be, the thunderstorm brings relief to a world sweltering in a +stagnant atmosphere, and each blinding flash freshens the air. 'When +the wicked perish, there is shouting.' The destruction of some hoary +evil that has long afflicted humanity and blocked the progress of the +kingdom which is 'righteousness and peace and joy,' is a good. Christ's +'terrible things' are all 'in righteousness,' and meant to set Him +forth as 'the confidence of all the ends of the earth.' To clear His +character and government from all suspicion of moral indifference, to +demonstrate by facts which the blindest can see, that it is not all the +same to Him whether men are good or bad, to write in great letters +which, like the capitals on a map, stretch across a whole land, 'The +Judge of all the earth shall do right'--surely these are worthy ends to +move even the loving Christ to tread the winepress. + +Further, His destructive judgments, however terrible, will always be +accurately measured by righteousness. They are not outbursts of +feeling; they are in exact correspondence with the evils that bring +them down. The lava flows according to its own density and the lie of +the land which it covers. These judgments are deformed by no undue +severity; no base elements of temper, no errors as to the degree of +criminality mar them. They are calm and absolutely accurate judgments +of Him who is not only just but Justice. + +But the context further teaches us that the true point of view from +which to regard Christ's treading of the winepress is to think of it as +redemptive and contributory to the salvation of 'My redeemed.' +Therefore there follows immediately on this picture of the conqueror +treading the peoples in His fury and pouring their life-blood on the +earth, the song of the delivered. Up through the troubled air, heavy +with thunder-clouds, soars their praise, as a lark might rise and pour +its strains above a volcano in eruption--'I will mention the loving +kindness of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord, according to all +that the Lord hath bestowed on us and the great goodness toward the +house of Israel which He hath bestowed on them, according to His +mercies, and according to the multitude of His loving kindnesses.' +Pharaoh is drowned in the Red Sea; Miriam and her maidens on the bank +clash their cymbals, and lift shrill voices in their triumphant hymn. +Babylon sinks like a millstone in the great waters--'and I heard as it +were a great voice of a great multitude in heaven saying, Hallelujah; +salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and righteous +are His judgments.' The innermost impulse of judgment is love. + + + + +THE SYMPATHY OF GOD + +'In all their afflictions He was afflicted, and the angel of His +presence saved them'--ISAIAH lxiii. 9. + + +I. The wonderful glimpse opened here into the heart of God. + +It is not necessary to touch upon the difference between the text and +margin of the Revised Version, or to enter on the reason for preferring +the former. And what a deep and wonderful thought that is, of divine +sympathy with human sorrow! We feel that this transcends the prevalent +tone of the Old Testament. It is made the more striking by reason of +the other sides of the divine nature which the Old Testament gives so +strongly; as, for instance, the unapproachable elevation and absolute +sovereignty of God, and the retributive righteousness of God. + +Affliction is His chastisement, and is ever righteously inflicted. But +here is something more, tender and strange. Sympathy is a necessary +part of love. There is no true affection which does not put itself in +the place and share the sorrows of its objects. And His sympathy is +none the less because He inflicts the sorrow. These afflictions wherein +He too was afflicted, were sent by Him. Like an earthly father who +suffers more than the child whom he chastises, the Heavenly Father +feels the strokes that He inflicts. + +That sympathy is consistent with the blessedness of God. Even in the +pain of our human sympathy there is a kind of joy, and we may be sure +that in His nature there is nothing else. + +Contrast with other thoughts about God. + +The vague agnosticism of the present day, which knows only a dim +Something of which we can predicate nothing. + +The God of the philosophers--whom we are bidden to think of as +passionless and unemotional. No wave of feeling ever ripples that +tideless sea. The attribute of infinitude or sovereign completeness is +dwelt on with such emphasis as to obscure all the rest. + +The gods of men's own creation are careless in their happiness, and +cruel in their vengeance. But here is a God for all the weary and the +sorrowful. What a thought for us in our own burdened days! + +II. The mystery of the divine salvation. + +Of course the salvation here spoken of is the deliverance from Egyptian +bondage. This is a summary of the Exodus. But we must mark well that +significant expression, 'the angel of His face' or 'presence.' We can +only attempt a partial and bald enumeration of some of the very +remarkable references to that mysterious person, 'the angel of the Lord +'or 'of the presence.' The dying Jacob ascribed his being 'redeemed +from all evil' to 'the Angel,' and invoked his blessing on 'the lads.' +'_The_ angel of the Lord' appeared to Moses out of the midst of the +burning bush. On Sinai, Jehovah promised to send an 'angel' in whom was +His own name, before the people. The promise was renewed after Israel's +sin and repentance, and was then given in the form, '_My_ presence +shall go with thee.' Joshua saw a man with a drawn sword in his hand, +who declared himself to be the Captain of the Lord's host. 'The angel +of the Lord' appeared to Manoah and his wife, withheld his name from +them because it was 'wonderful' or 'secret,' accepted their sacrifice, +and went up to heaven in its flame. Wherefore Manoah said, 'We have +seen God.' Long after these early visions, a psalmist knows himself +safe because 'the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that +fear Him.' Hosea, looking back on the story of Jacob's wrestling at +Peniel, says, first, that 'he had power with _God_, yea, he had power +over the _angel_,' and then goes on to say that 'there He spake with +us, even _Jehovah_.' And Malachi, on the last verge of Old Testament +prophecy, goes furthest of all in seeming to run together the +conceptions of Jehovah and the Angel of Jehovah, for he says, 'The Lord +whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His temple; and the angel of the +covenant ... behold, _he_ cometh.' From this imperfect _resume_, we see +that there appears in the earliest as in the latest books of the Old +Testament, a person distinguished from the hosts of angels, identified +in a very remarkable manner with Jehovah, by alternation of names, in +attributes and offices, and in receiving worship, and being the organ +of His revelation. That special relation to the divine revelation is +expressed by both the representation that 'Jehovah's name is in him,' +and by the designation in our text, 'the angel of His presence,' or +literally, 'of His face.' For 'name' and 'face' are in so far +synonymous that they mean the side of the divine nature which is turned +to the world. + +For the present I go no further than this. It is clear, then, that our +text is at all events remarkable, in that it ascribes to this 'angel of +His presence' the praise of Jehovah's saving work. The loving heart, +afflicted in all their afflictions, sends forth the messenger of His +face, and by Him is salvation wrought. The whole sum of the deliverance +of Israel in the past is attributed to Him. Surely this must have been +felt by a devout Jew to conceal some great mystery. + +III. The crowning revelation both of the heart of God and of His saving +power. + +(a) Jesus Christ is the true 'angel of the face.' + +I do not need to enter on the question of whether in the Old Testament +the angel of the Covenant was indeed a pre-manifestation of the eternal +Son. I am disposed to answer it in the affirmative. But be that as it +may, all that was spoken of the angel is true of Him. God's name is in +Him, and that not in fragments or half-syllables but complete. The face +of God looks lovingly on men in Him, so that Jesus could declare, 'He +that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.' His presence brings God's +presence, and He can venture to say, '_We_ will come and make our abode +with Him.' He is the agent of the divine salvation. + +The identity and the difference are here in their highest form. + +(b) The mystery of God's sharing our sorrows is explained in Him. + +We may find a difficulty in the thought of a suffering and sympathising +God. But if we believe that 'My name is in Him,' then the sympathy and +gentleness of Jesus is the compassion of God. This is a true +revelation. So tears at the grave sighs in healing, and all the sorrows +which He bore are an unveiling of the heart of God. + +That sharing our sorrows is the very heart of His work. We might almost +say that He became man in order to increase His power of sympathy, as a +prince might temporarily become a pauper. But certainly He became man +that He might bear our burdens. 'Himself took our infirmities.' +'Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He himself +also likewise took part of the same.' + +The atoning death is the climax of Christ's being afflicted with our +afflictions. His priestly sympathy flows out now and for ever to us all. + +So complete is His unity with God, that He works the salvation which is +God's, and that God's name is in Him. So complete is His union with us, +that our sorrows touch Him and His life becomes ours. 'Ye have done it +unto Me.' 'Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?' + +For us in all our troubles there are no darker rooms than Christ has +been in before us. We are like prisoners put in the same cell as some +great martyr. He drank the cup, and we can put the rim to our lips at +the place that His lips have touched. But not only may we have our +sufferings lightened by the thought that He has borne the same, and +that we know the 'fellowship of Christ's sufferings,' but we have the +further alleviation of being sure that He makes our afflictions His by +perfect sympathy, and, still more wonderful and blessed, that there is +such unity of life and sensation between the Head and the members that +our afflictions _are_ His, and are not merely made so. + + 'Think not thou canst sigh a sigh, + And thy Saviour is not by; + Think not thou canst shed a tear + And thy Saviour is not near.' + +Do not front the world alone. _In_ all our afflictions He is with us; +_out_ of them all He saves. + + + + +HOW TO MEET GOD + +'Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that +remember Thee in Thy ways.'--ISAIAH lxiv. 5. + + +The prophet here shows us how there is a great staircase which we +ourselves build, which leads straight from earth to heaven, and how we +can secure that we shall meet with God and God with us. 'Isaiah' is +often called the evangelical prophet. He is so, not only because of his +predictions of the suffering Servant of Jehovah which are 'fulfilled' +in Christ, but because his conceptions of the religious life tremble on +the very verge of the full-orbed teaching of the New Testament. In +these ancient words of my text, in very different phraseology indeed, +we see a strikingly accurate and full anticipation of the very central +teaching of Paul and his brother apostles, as to the way by which God +and man come into union with one another. 'Thou meetest him that +rejoiceth'; that joy is to be manifested by 'working righteousness,' +but the joy which is the parent of righteousness is the child of +something else--'those that remember Thee in Thy ways.' If we ponder +these words, and carefully mark their relation to each other, we may +discern, as it were, a great staircase with three flights in it, and at +the top God's face. + +We have to begin with the last clause of our text--'Thou meetest him +... that remembers Thee in Thy ways.' + +The first stage on the road which will bring any man into, and keep any +man in, contact with God, and loving fellowship with Him, is the +contemplation of His character as it is made known to us by His acts. +God, like man, is known by His 'fruits.' You cannot get at a clear +conception of God by speculation, or by thinking about Him or about +what He is in Himself. Lay hold of the clue of His acts, and it leads +you straight into His heart. But the act of acts, in which the whole +Godhead concurs, in which all its depths and preciousness are +concentrated, like wine in a golden cup, is the incarnation and life +and death of Jesus Christ our Lord. There, and not in the thoughts of +our own hearts nor the tremors of our own consciences, nor in the +enigmatical witness of Providence--which is enigmatical until it is +interpreted in the light of the Incarnation and the Crucifixion--there +we see most clearly the 'ways' of God, the beaten, trodden path by +which He is wont to come forth out of the thick darkness into which no +speculation can peer an inch, and walk amongst men. The cross of +Christ, and, subordinately, His other dealings with us, as interpreted +thereby, is the 'way of the Lord,' from everlasting to everlasting. And +it is by a loving gaze upon that 'way' that we learn to know Him for +what He is. It is there, and there only, that the thick darkness passes +into glorious light. It is at that point alone that the closed circle +of the Infinite nature of Deity opens so as that a man can press into +the very centre of the glory, and feel himself at home in the blaze. It +is 'those that remember Thee in Thy ways,' and especially in that way +of righteousness and peace, the way of the cross--it is they who have +built the first flight of the solemn staircase that leads up from the +lownesses and darknesses of earth into the loftinesses and lights of +heaven. + +But note that word 'Remember,' for it suggests the warning that such +contemplation of the ways of the Lord will not be realised by us +without effort. We shall forget, assuredly, unless we earnestly try to +'remember.' There are so many things within us to draw us away, the +duties, and the joys, and the sorrows of life so insist upon having a +place in our hearts and thoughts, that assuredly, unless by resolute +effort, frequently repeated, we clear a space in this crowded and +chattering market-place, where we can stand and gaze on the white +summits far beyond the bustling crowd, we shall never see them, though +they are visible from every place. Unless you try to remember, you will +certainly forget. + +Many voices preach to-day many duties for Christians. Let me plead for +times of quiet, for times of 'doing' nothing, for fruitful times of +growth, for times when we turn all the rout and rabble of earthly +things, and even the solemn company of pressing duties, out of our +hearts and thoughts, and shut up ourselves alone with God. Be sure you +will never build even the first step of the staircase unless you know +what it is to go into the secret place of the Most High, and, alone +with God, to summon to 'the sessions of sweet, silent thought' His +ways, and especially Him who is 'the Way,' both of God to us, and of us +to God. + +Now, the second flight of this great staircase is pointed out in the +first clause of my text: 'Thou meetest him that rejoiceth.' + +That meditative remembrance of the ways of God will be the parent of +holy joy which will bring God near to our heart. Alas! it is too often +the very opposite of true that men's joys are such as to bring God to +them. The excitement, and often the impure elements, that mingle with +what the world calls 'joy,' are such as to shut Him out from us. But +there is a gladness which comes from the contemplation of Him as He is, +and as He is known by His 'ways' to be, which brings us very near to +God, and God very near to us. It is that joy which was spoken of in an +earlier part of this context: 'I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, My +soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the +garments of salvation.' Here, then, is the second stage--gladness, +deep, pure, based upon the contemplation of God's character as +manifested in His work. I do not think that the ordinary type of modern +Christianity is half joyful enough. And I think that we have largely +lost the very thought that gladness is a plain Christian _duty_, to be +striven after in the appropriate manner which my text suggests, and +certainly to be secured if we seek it in the right way. We all know how +outward cares, and petty annoyances, and crushing sorrows, and daily +anxieties, and the tear and wear of work, and our own restlessness and +ungovernableness, and the faults that still haunt our lives, and +sometimes make us feel as if our Christianity was all a sham--how all +these things are at enmity with joy in God. But in face of them all, I +would echo the old grand words of the epistle of gladness written by +the apostle in prison, and within hail of his death: 'Rejoice in the +Lord alway, and again I say rejoice.' Recognise it as your duty to be +glad, and if it is hard to be so, ask yourselves whether you are doing +what will make you so, remembering 'Thee in Thy ways.' That is the +second flight of the staircase. + +The third stage is working righteousness because of such joy. 'Thou +meetest him that rejoiceth, and '--because he does--'worketh +righteousness.' Every master knows how much more work can be got out of +a servant who works with a cheery heart than out of one that is driven +reluctantly to his task. You remember our Lord's parable where He +traces idleness to fear: 'I knew thee that thou wast an austere man, +gathering where thou didst not strew, and I was afraid, and I went and +hid thy talent.' No work was got out of that servant because there was +no joy in him. The opposite state of mind--diligence in righteous work, +inspired by gladness which in its turn is inspired by the remembrance +of God's ways--is the mark of a true servant of God. The prophet's +words have the germ of the full New Testament doctrine that the first +step to all practical obedience and righteous living is the recognition +of the great truth of Christ's death for us on the Cross; that the +second step is the acceptance of that great work, and the gladness that +comes from the assurance of forgiveness and acceptance with God, and +that the issue of both these things, the preached gospel and the faith +that grasps it and the love by which the faith is followed, is +obedience, instinct with willingness and buoyant with joyfulness, and +therefore tending to be perfect in degree and in kind. The work that is +worth doing, the work which God regards as 'righteous,' comes, and +comes only, from the motives of 'remembering Thee in Thy ways,' and +rejoicing because we do remember. + +And the gladness which is wholesome and blessed, and is 'joy in the +Lord,' will manifest itself by efflorescing into all holiness and all +loftiness and largeness of obedience. You may try to frighten men into +righteousness, you will never succeed. You may try to coerce their +wills, and your strongest bands will be broken as the iron chains were +by the demoniac. But put upon them the silken leash of love, and you +may lead them where you will. You cannot grow grapes on an iceberg, and +you cannot get works of righteousness out of a man that has a dread of +God at the back of his heart, killing all its joy. But let the spring +sunshine come, and then all the frost-bound earth opens and softens, +and the tender green spikelets push themselves up through the brown +soil, and in due time come 'the blade, and the ear, and the full corn +in the ear.' Isaiah anticipated Paul when he said, 'Thou meetest him +that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness.' + +Lastly, we have the landing-place to which the stair leads. God comes +to such a man. He meets him indeed at all the stages, for there is a +blessed communion with God, that springs immediately from remembering +Him in His ways, and a still more blessed one that springs from +rejoicing in His felt friendship and Fatherhood, and a yet more blessed +one that comes from practical righteousness. For if there is anything +that breaks our communion with God, it is that there linger in our +lives evils which make it impossible for God and us to come close +together. The thinnest film of a non-conductor will stop the flow of +the strongest electric current, and an almost imperceptible film of +self-will and evil, dropped between oneself and God, will make a +barrier impermeable except by that divine Spirit who worketh upon a +man's heart and who may thin away the film through his repentance, and +then the Father and the prodigal embrace. 'Thou meetest him,' not only +'that worketh righteousness,' but that hates his sin. + +Only remember, if there is the practice of evil, there cannot be the +sunshine of the Presence of God. But remember, too, that the commonest, +homeliest, smallest, most secular tasks may become the very highest +steps of the staircase that brings us into His Presence. If we go about +our daily work, however wearisome and vulgar and commonplace it often +seems to us, and make it a work of righteousness resting on the joy of +salvation, and that reposing on the contemplation of God as He is +revealed in Jesus Christ, our daily work may bring us as close to God +as if we dwelt in the secret place of the Most High, and the market and +the shop may be a temple where we meet with Him. + +Dear brethren, there are two kinds of meeting God: 'Thou meetest him +that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness,' and that is blessed, as when +Christ met the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. There is another +kind of meeting with God. 'Who, making war, sitteth not down first, and +consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh +against him with twenty thousand?' + + + + +'THE GOD OF THE AMEN' + +'He who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of +truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of +truth.'--ISAIAH lxv. 16. + + +The full beauty and significance of these remarkable words are only +reached when we attend to the literal rendering of a part of them which +is obscured in our version. As they stand in the original they have, in +both cases, instead of the vague expression, 'The God of truth,' the +singularly picturesque one, 'The God of the Amen.' + +I. Note the meaning of the name. Now, _Amen_ is an adjective, which +means literally firm, true, reliable, or the like. And, as we know, its +liturgical use is that, in the olden time, and to some extent in the +present time, it was the habit of the listening people to utter it at +the close of prayer or praise. But besides this use at the end of some +one else's statement, which the sayer of the 'Amen' confirms by its +utterance, we also find it used at the beginning of a statement, by the +speaker, in order to confirm his own utterance by it. + +And these two uses of the expression reposing on its plain meaning, in +the first instance signifying, 'I tell you that it is so'; and in the +second instance signifying, 'So may it be!' or, 'So we believe it is,' +underlie this grand title which God takes to Himself here, 'the God of +the Amen,' both His Amen and ours. So that the thought opens up very +beautifully and simply into these two, His truth and our faith. + +First, it emphasises the absolute truthfulness of every word that comes +from His lips. There is implied in the title that He really _has_ +spoken, and declared to man something of His will, something of His +nature, something of His purposes, something of our destiny. And now He +puts, as it were, the broad seal upon the charter and says, 'Amen! +Verily it is so, and My word of Revelation is no man's imagination, and +My word of command is the absolute unveiling of human duty and human +perfectness, and My word of promise is that upon which a man may rest +all his weight and be safe for ever.' God's word is 'Amen!' man's word +is 'perhaps.' For in regard to the foundation truths of man's belief +and experience and need, no human tongue can venture to utter its own +asseverations with nothing behind them but itself, and expect men to +accept them; but that is exactly what God does, and alone has the right +to do. His word absolutely, and through and through, in every fibre of +it, is reliable and true. + +Now do not forget that there was one who came to us and said, 'Amen! +Amen! I say unto you.' Jesus Christ, in all His deep and wonderful +utterances, arrogated to Himself the right which God here declares to +be exclusively His, and He said, 'I too have, and I too exercise, the +right and the authority to lay My utterances down before you, and +expect you to take them because of nothing else than because I say +them.' God is the God of the Amen! The last book of Scripture, when it +draws back the curtain from the mysteries of the glorified session of +Jesus Christ at the right hand of God, makes Him say to us, 'These +things saith the Amen!' And if you want to know what that means, its +explanation follows in the next clause, 'the faithful and true witness.' + +But then, on the other hand, necessarily involved in this title, though +capable of being separately considered, is not only the absolute +truthfulness of the divine word, but also the thorough-going reliance, +on our parts, which that word expects and demands. God's 'Amen,' and +'Verily,' of confirmation, should ever cause the 'Amen' of acceptance +and assent to leap from our lips. If He begins with that mighty word, +so soon as the solemn voice has ceased its echo should rise from our +hearts. The city that cares for the charter which its King has given it +will prepare a fitting, golden receptacle in which to treasure it. And +the men who believe that God in very deed has spoken laws that +illuminate, and commandments that guide, and promises that calm and +strengthen and fulfil themselves, will surely prepare in their hearts +an appropriate receptacle for those precious and infallible words. +God's truth has corresponding to it our trust. God's faithfulness +demands, and is only adequately met by, our faith. If He gives us the +sure foundation to build upon, it will be a shame for us to bring wood, +hay, stubble, and build these upon the Rock of Ages. The building +should correspond with its foundation, and the faith which grasps the +sure word should have in it something of the unchangeableness and +certainty and absoluteness of that word which it grasps. If His +revelation of Himself is certain, you and I ought to be certain of His +revelation of Himself. Our certitude should correspond to its certainty. + +Ah! my friend, what a miserable contrast there is between the firm, +unshaken, solid security of the divine word upon which we say that we +trust, and the poor, feeble, broken trust which we build upon it. 'Let +not that man think that He shall receive anything of the Lord'; but let +us expect, as well as 'ask, in faith, nothing wavering'; and let our +'Amen!' ring out in answer to God's. + +The Apostle Paul has a striking echo of the words of my text in the +second Epistle to the Corinthians: 'All the promises of God in Him are +yea! and through Him also is the Amen!' The assent, full, swift, +frank--the assent of the believing heart to the great word of God comes +through the same channel, and reaches God by the same way, as God's +word on which it builds comes to us. The 'God of the Amen,' in both +senses of the word, is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who +is the seal as well as the substance of the divine promises, and whose +voice in us is the answer to, and the grasp of, the promises of which +He is the substance and soul. + +II. Now notice, next, how this God of the Amen is, by reason of that +very characteristic, the source of all blessing. + +'He who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of +Truth.' That phrase of _blessing oneself in_, which is a frequent Old +Testament expression, is roughly equivalent to invoking, and therefore +receiving, blessing from. You find it, for instance, in the +seventy-second Psalm, in that grand burst which closes one of the books +of the Psalter and hails the coming of the Messianic times, of which my +text also is a prediction. 'Men shall be blessed in Him,' or rather, +'shall bless themselves in Him,' which is a declaration, that all +needful benediction shall come down upon humanity through the coming +Messias, as well as that men shall recognise in that Messias the source +of all their blessing and good. So the text declares that, in those +days that are yet to come, the whole earth shall be filled with men +whose eyes have been purged from ignorance and sin, and from the +illusions of sense and the fascinations of folly, and who have learned +that only in the God of the Amen is the blessing of their life to be +found. + +Of course it is so. For only on Him can I lean all my weight and be +sure that the stay will not give. All other bridges across the great +abysses which we have to traverse or be lost in them, are like those +snow-cornices upon some Alp, which may break when the climber is on the +very middle of them, and let him down into blackness out of which he +will never struggle. There is only one path clear across the deepest +gulf, which we poor pilgrims can tread with absolute safety that it +will never yield beneath our feet. My brother! there is one support +that is safe, and one stay upon which a man can lean his whole weight +and be sure that the staff will never either break or pierce his palm, +and that is the faithful God, in whose realm are no disappointments, +amongst whose trusters are no heart-broken and deceived men, but who +gives bountifully, and over and above all that we are able to ask or +think. They who have made experience, as we have all made experience, +of the insufficiency of earthly utterances, of the doubtfulness of the +clearest words of men, of the possible incapacity of the most loving, +to be what they pledge themselves to be, and of the certainty that even +if they are so for a while they cannot be so always--have surely +learned one half, at least, of the lesson that life is meant to teach +us; and it is our own fault if we have not bettered it with the better +half, having uncoiled the tendrils of our hearts from the rotten props +round which they have been too apt to twine themselves, and wreathed +them about the pillars of the eternal throne, which can never shake nor +fail. 'He that blesseth himself in the earth shall bless +himself'--unless he is a fool--'in the God of the Amen!' and not in the +_man_ of the 'peradventure.' + +III. Lastly, note how the God of the Amen should be the pattern of His +servants. + +'He that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth,' or, +'of the Amen.' The prophet deduces from the name the solemn thought +that those who truly feel its significance will shape _their_ words +accordingly, and act and speak so that they shall not fear to call His +pure eyes to witness that there are neither, hypocrisy, nor +insincerity, nor vacillation, nor the 'hidden things of dishonesty' nor +any of the skulking meannesses of craft and self-seeking in them. 'I +swear by the God of the Amen, and call Thy faithfulness to witness that +I am trying to be like Thee,' that is what we ought to do if we call +ourselves Christians. If we have any hold at all of Him, and of His +love, and of the greatness and majesty of His faithfulness, we shall +try to make our poor little lives, in such measure as the dewdrops may +be like the sun, radiant like His, and of the same shape as His, for +the dewdrop and the sun are both of them spheres. That is exactly what +the apostle does, in that same chapter in 2 Cor., to which I already +referred. He takes these very thoughts of my text, and in their double +aspect too, and says, 'Just because God is faithful, do you Corinthians +think that, when I told you that I was coming to see you, I did not +mean it?' He brings the greatest thought that He can find about God and +God's truth, down to the settlement of this very little matter, the +vindication of Himself from the charge, on the one hand, of facile and +inconsiderate vacillation, and, on the other hand, of insincerity. So, +we may say, the greatest thoughts should regulate the smallest acts. +Though our maps be but a quarter of an inch to a hundred miles, let us +see that they are drawn to scale. Let us see that He is our Pattern; +and that the truthfulness, the simplicity, and faithfulness, which we +rest upon as the very foundation of our intellectual as well as our +moral and religious being, are, in our measure, copied in ourselves. +'As God is faithful,' said Paul, 'our word to you was not yea! and +nay!' And they who are trusting to the God of the Amen! will live in +all simplicity and godly sincerity; their yea will be yea, and their +nay, nay. + + + +THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH + + +GOD'S LAWSUIT + + +'Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the Lord, and with your +children's children will I plead.'--JER. ii. 9. + +Point out that 'plead' is a forensic term. There is a great lawsuit in +which God is plaintiff and men defendants. The word is frequent in +Isaiah. + +I. The reason for God's pleading. + +The cause--'wherefore.' Our transgression does not make Him turn away +from us. It does profoundly modify the whole relation between us. It +does give an aspect of antagonism to His dealings. + +II. The manner. + +The whole history of the world and of each individual. All outward +providences. All the voice of Conscience. Christ. Spirit, who convinces +the world of Sin. + +III. The purpose. + +Wholly our being drawn from our evil. The purely reformatory character +of all punishment here. The sole object to win us back to Himself. He +conquers in this lawsuit when we come to love Him. + +IV. The patience. + +That merciful pleading--'I will _yet_'--runs on through all sin, and is +only made more earnest by deepening hostility. After rejections still +lingers. Extends over a thousand generations. Is exercised even where +He foresees failure. + + + + +STIFF-NECKED IDOLATERS AND PLIABLE CHRISTIANS + +'Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but My people +have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.'--JER. ii. 11. + + +The obstinacy of the adherents of idolatry is in striking contrast with +Israel's continual tendency to forsake Jehovah. It reads a scarcely +less forcible lesson to many nominal and even to some real Christians. + +I. That contrast carries with it a disclosure of the respective origins +of the two kinds of Religion. + +The strangeness of the contrasted conduct is intensified when we take +into account the tremendous contrast between the two Objects of +worship. Israel's God was Israel's 'Glory'; the idol-worshipper bowed +down before 'that which doth not profit,' and yet no experience of God +could bind His fickle worshippers to Him, and no experience of the +impotence of the idol could shake its votaries' devotion. They cried +and were not heard. They toiled and had no results. They broke their +teeth on 'that which is not bread,' and filled their mouths with gritty +ashes that mocked them with a semblance of nourishment and left them +with empty stomachs and excoriated gums, yet by some strange +hallucination they clung to 'vanities,' while Israel was always +hankering after opportunity to desert Jehovah. The stage of +civilisation partly accounts for the strange fascination of idolatry +over the Israelites. But the deeper solution lies in the fact that the +one religion rises from the hearts of men, corresponds to their moral +condition, and is largely moulded by their lower nature; while the +other is from above, corresponds, indeed, with the best and deepest +longings and needs of souls, but contravenes many of their most clamant +wishes, and necessarily sets before them a standard high and difficult +to reach. Men make their gods in their own image, and are conscious of +no rebuke nor stimulus to loftier living when they gaze on them. The +God of Revelation bids men remake themselves in His image, and that +command requires endless effort. The average man has to put a strain on +his intellect in order to rise to the apprehension of God, and a still +more unwelcome strain on his moral nature to rise to the imitation of +God. No wonder, then, if the dwellers on the low levels should cleave +to them, and the pilgrims to the heights should often weary of their +toil and be distressed with the difficulty of breathing the thin air up +there, and should give up climbing and drop down to the flats once more. + +II. That contrast carries with it a rebuke. + +Many voices echo the prophet's contrast nowadays. Our travelling +countrymen, especially those of them who have no great love for earnest +religion, are in the habit of drawing disparaging contrasts between +Buddhists, Brahmins, Mohammedans, any worshippers of other gods and +Christians. One may not uncharitably suspect that a more earnest +Christianity would not please these critics much better than does the +tepid sort, and that the pictures they draw both of heathenism and of +Christianity are coloured by their likes and dislikes. But it is well +to learn from an enemy, and caricatures may often be useful in calling +attention to features which would escape notice but for exaggeration. +So we may profit by even the ill-natured and distorted likenesses of +ourselves as contrasted with the adherents of other religions which so +many 'liberal-minded' writers of travels delight to supply. + +Think, then, of the rebuke which the obstinate adherence of idolaters +to their idols gives to the slack hold which so many professing +Christians have on their religion. + +Think of the way in which these lower religions pervade the whole life +of their worshippers, and of how partial is the sway over a little +territory of life and conduct which Christianity has in many of its +adherents. The absorption in worship shown by Mohammedans, who will +spread their prayer carpets anywhere and perform their drill of prayers +without embarrassment or distraction in the sight of a crowd, or the +rapt 'devotion' of fakirs, are held up as a rebuke to us 'Christians' +who are ashamed to be caught praying. One may observe, in mitigation, +that the worship which is of the heart is naturally more sensitive to +surrounding distractions than that which is a matter of posturing and +repetition by rote. But there still remains substance enough in the +contrast to point a sharp arrow of rebuke. + +And there is no denying that in these 'heathen' religions, religion is +intertwined with every act of life in a fashion which may well put to +shame many of us. Remember how Paul had to deal at length with the duty +of the Corinthians in view of the way in which every meal was a +sacrifice to some god, and how the same permeation of life with +religion is found in all these 'false faiths.' The octopus has coiled +its tentacles round the whole body of its victim. Bad and sad and mad +as idolatry is, it reads a rebuke to many of us, who keep life and +religion quite apart, and lock up our Christianity in our pews with our +prayer-books and hymnaries. + +Think of the material sacrifices made by idolaters, in costly +offerings, in painful self-tortures, and in many other ways, and the +niggardliness and self-indulgence of so many so-called Christians. + +III. The contrast suggests the greatness of the power which can +overcome even such obstinate adherence to idols. + +There is one, and only one, solvent for that rock-like obstinacy--the +Gospel. The other religions have seldom attempted to encroach on each +other's territory, and where they have, their instrument of conversion +has generally been the sword. The Gospel has met and mastered them all. +It, and it only, has had power to draw men to itself out of every +faith. The ancient gods who bewitched Israel, the gods of Greece, the +gods of our own ancestors, the gods of the islands of the South Seas, +lie huddled together, in undistinguished heaps, like corpses on a +battlefield, and the deities of India and the East are wounded and +slowly bleeding out their lives. 'Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, the +idols are upon the beasts,' all packed up, as it were, and ready to be +carried off. + +The rate of progress in dethroning them varies with the varying +national conditions. It is easier to cut a tunnel through chalk than +through quartz. + +IV. That contrast carries with it a call for Christian effort to spread +the conquering Gospel. + + +FOUNTAIN AND CISTERNS + +'They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them +out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water'--JER. ii. 13. + + +The proclivity of the Jews to idolatry is an outstanding fact all +through their history. That persistent national tendency surely compels +us to recognise a divine inspiration as the source of the prophetic +teaching and of the lofty spiritual theology of the Old Testament, +which were in sharpest unlikeness and opposition to the whole trend of +the people's thoughts. + +It is this apostasy which is referred to here. The false gods made by +men are the broken cisterns. But the text embodies a general truth. + +I. The irksomeness of a godless life. + +The contrast is between the springing fountain, there in the desert, +with the lush green herbage round about, where a man has only to stoop +and drink, and the painful hewing of cisterns. + +This emblem of the fountain beautifully suggests the great thought of +God's own loving will as the self-originated impulse by which He pours +out all good. Apart from all our efforts, the precious gift is provided +for us. Our relation is only that of receivers. + +We have the contrast with this in the laborious toils to which they +condemn themselves who seek for created sources of good. 'Hewn out +cisterns'--think of a man who, with a fountain springing in his +courtyard, should leave it and go to dig in the arid desert, or to hew +the live rock in hopes to gain water. It was already springing and +sparkling before him. The conduct of men, when they leave God and seek +for other delights, is like digging a canal alongside a navigable +river. They condemn themselves to a laborious and quite superfluous +task. The true way to get is to take. + +Illustrations in religion. Think of the toil and pains spent in +idolatry and in corrupt forms of Christianity. + +Illustrations in common life. Your toils--aye, and even your +pleasures--how much of them is laboriously digging for the water which +all the while is flowing at your side. + +II. The hopelessness of a godless life. + +The contrast further is between living waters and broken cisterns. God +is the fountain of living waters; in other words, in fellowship with +God there is full satisfaction for all the capacities and desires of +the soul; heart--conscience--will--understanding--hope and fear. + +The contrast of the empty cisterns. What a deep thought that with all +their work men only make 'cisterns,' _i.e._ they only provide +circumstances which _could hold_ delights, but cannot secure that water +should be in them! The men-made cisterns must be God-filled, if filled +at all. The true joys from earthly things belong to him who has made +God his portion. + +Further, they are 'broken cisterns,' and all have in them some flaw or +crack out of which the water runs. That is a vivid metaphor for the +fragmentary satisfaction which all earthly good gives, leaving a deep +yearning unstilled. And it is temporary as well as partial. 'He that +drinketh of this water shall thirst again'--nay, even as with those who +indulge in intoxicating drinks, the appetite increases while the power +of the draught to satisfy it diminishes. But the crack in the cistern +points further to the uncertain tenure of all earthly goods and the +certain leaving of them all. + +All godless life is a grand mistake. + +III. The crime of a godless life. + +It is right to seek for happiness. It is sin to go away from God. You +are thereby not merely flinging away your chances, but are +transgressing against your sacredest obligations. Our text is not only +a remonstrance on the grounds of prudence, showing God-neglecting men +that they are foolish, but it is an appeal to conscience, convincing +them that they are sinful. God loves us and cares for us. We are bound +to Him by ties which do not depend on our own volition. And so there is +punishment for the sin, and the evils experienced in a godless life are +penal as well as natural. + +We recall the New Testament modification of this metaphor, 'The water +that I shall give him shall be _in_ him a fountain of water.' Arabs in +desert round dried--up springs. Hagar. Shipwrecked sailors on a reef. +Christ opens 'rivers in the wilderness and streams in the desert.' + + + + +FORSAKING JEHOVAH + +'Know therefore, and see, that it is an evil thing and bitter, that +thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that My fear is not in thee, +saith the Lord God of hosts.'--JER. ii. 19. + + +Of course the original reference is to national apostasy, which was +aggravated by the national covenant, and avenged by national disasters, +which are interpreted and urged by the prophet as God's merciful +pleading with men. But the text is true in reference to individuals. + +I. The universal indictment. + +This is not so much a charge of isolated overt acts, as of departure +from God. That departure, itself a sin, is the fountain of all other +sins. Every act which is morally wrong is religiously a departure from +God; it could not be done, unless heart and will had moved away from +their allegiance to Him. So the solemn mystery of right and wrong +becomes yet more solemn, when our personal relation to the personal God +is brought in. + +Then--consider what this forsaking is-at bottom aversion of will, or +rather of the whole nature, from Him. + +How strange and awful is that power which a creature possesses of +closing his heart against God, and setting up a quasi-independence! + +How universal it is-appeal to each man's own consciousness. + +II. The special aggravation. + +'_Thy God_ '---the original reference is to Israel, whom God had taken +for His and to whom He had given Himself as theirs, by His choice from +of old, by redemption from Egypt, by covenant, and by centuries of +blessings. But the designation is true in regard to God and each of us. +It points to the personal relation which we each sustain to Him, and so +is a pathetic appeal to affection and gratitude. + +III. The bitter fruit. + +6 Evil' may express rather the moral character of forsaking God, while +'bitter' expresses rather the consequences of it, which are sorrows. + +So the prophet appeals to experience. As the Psalmist confidently +invites to 'taste and see that God is good,' so Jeremiah boldly bids +the apostates know and see that departing is bitter. + +It is so, for it leaves the soul unsatisfied. + +It leads to remorse. + +It drags after it manifold bitter fruits. 'The wages of sin is death.' + +Sin without consequent sorrow is an impossibility if there is a God. + +IV. The loving appeal. + +The text is not denunciation, but tender, though indignant, pleading, +in hope of winning back the wanderers. The prophet has just been +pointing to the sorrowful results which necessarily follow on the +nation's apostasy, and tells Israel that its own wickedness shall +correct it, and then, in the text, he beseeches them not to be blind to +the meaning of their miseries, but to let these teach them how sinful +and how sorrowful their apostasy is. Men's sorrows are a mystery, but +that sinners should not have sorrows were a sadder mystery still. And +God pleads with us all not to lose the good of our experiences of the +bitterness of sin by our levity or our blindness to their meaning. By +His providences, by His Spirit working on us, by the plain teachings +and loving pleadings of His word, He is ever striving to open our eyes +that we may see Good and Evil, and recognise that all Good is bound up +for us with cleaving to God, and all Evil with departing from Him. When +we turn our backs on Him we are full front with the deformed figure of +Evil; when we turn away from it, we are face to face with Him, and in +Him, with all Good. + + + + +A COLLOQUY BETWEEN A PENITENT AND GOD + +'A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of +the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, and they +have forgotten the Lord their God. Return, ye backsliding children, and +I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto Thee; for Thou art +the Lord our God.'---JER. iii. 21, 22. + + +We have here a brief dramatic dialogue. First is heard a voice from the +bare heights, the sobs and cries of penitence, produced by the +prophet's earnest remonstrance. The penitent soul is absorbed in the +thought of its own evil. Its sin stands clear before it. Israel sees +its sin in its two forms. 'They have perverted their way,' or have led +a wrong outward life of action, and the reason is that 'they have +forgotten God,' or have been guilty of inward alienation and departure +from Him. Here is the consciousness of sin in its essential character, +and that produces godly sorrow. The distinction between mere remorse +and repentance is here already, in the 'weeping and supplication.' + +I. So we have here a consciousness of sin in its true nature, as +embracing both deeds and heart, as originating in departure from God, +and manifested in perverted conduct. + +Further, we have here sorrow. There may be consciousness of sin in its +true nature without any sorrow of heart. It is fatal when a man looks +upon his evil, gets a more or less clear sight of it, and is not sorry +and penitent. It is conceivable that there should be perfect knowledge +of sin and perfect insensibility in regard to it. + +A sinful man's true mood should be sorrow--not flinging the blame on +others, or on fate, or circumstances; not regarding his sin as +misfortune or as inevitable or as disease. + +Conscience is meant to produce that consciousness and that sorrow: but +conscience may be dulled or silenced. It cannot be anyhow induced to +call evil good, but it may be mistaken in what is evil. The gnomon is +true, but a veil of cloud may be drawn over the sky. + +Further, we have here supplication. These two former may both be +experienced, without this third. There may be consciousness of sin and +sorrow which lead to no blessing. 'My bones waxed old through my +roaring.' Sorrow after a godly sort may be hindered by false notions of +God's great love, or by false notions of what a man ought to do when he +finds he has gone wrong. It may be hindered by cleaving, subtle love of +sin, or by self-trust. But where all these have been overcome there is +true repentance. + +II. The loving divine answer. + +Another ear than the prophet's has heard the plaint from the bare +heights. Many a frenzied shriek had gone up from these shrines of +idolatrous worship, and as with Baal's prophets, it had brought no +answer, nor had there been any that regarded. But this weeping reaches +the ear that is never closed. Contrast with verse 23: 'Truly in vain is +the help that is looked for from the hills, the shouting (of +idol-worshippers) on the mountains.' + +The instantaneousness of God's answer is very beautiful. It is like the +action of the father in the parable of the prodigal son, who saw his +repentant boy afar off and ran and kissed him. + +There seems to be, in both the invitation to return and in the promise +to hear the backslidings, a quotation from Hosea xiv. (1-4). We see +here how God meets the penitent with a love that recognises all his sin +and yet is love. It is not rebuke or reproach that lies in that +designation, 'backsliding children.' It is tenderest mercy that lets us +see that He knows exactly what we are, and yet promises His love and +forgiveness. He loves us sinners with a love that beckons us back to +Himself, with a love that promises healing. The truth which should be +taken into the mind and heart of the man conscious of sin is God's +knowledge of it all already and yet His undiminished love, God's +welcome of him back, God's ready pardon. All this is true for the world +in Christ, and is true for every individual soul. + +The answer and the invitation here are immediate. + +There is often a long period of painful struggle. It looks as if the +answer were not immediate. But that is because we do not listen to it. + +III. The happy response of the returning soul. + +That too is immediate. The soul believes God's promises. It recognises +God's claim. It returns to Him. We are attracted by His grace. The +sunflower turns to the sun. The penitent is not driven only, but +drawn--God's own loving self-revelation in Christ is His true power. +'I, if I am lifted up, will draw all men unto Me.' + +The consciousness of sin remains and is even deepened (subsequent +verses), and yet is different. A light of hope is in it. The very sense +of sin brings us to Him, to hide our faces on His heart like a child in +its mother's lap. + +This response of the soul may be instantaneous. If it is not immediate, +it too probably will never be at all. + + + + +A QUESTION FOR THE BEGINNING + +'What will ye do in the end?'--JER. v. 31. + + +I find that I preached to the young from this text just thirty years +since--nearly a generation ago. How few of my then congregation are +here to-night! how changed they and I are! and how much nearer the +close we have drifted! How many of the young men and women of that +evening have gone to meet the end, and how many of them have wrecked +their lives because they would not face and answer this question! + +Ah, dear young friends, if I could bring some of the living and some of +the dead, and set them to witness here instead of me, they would burn +in on you, as my poor words never can do, the insanity of living +without a satisfactory and sufficient reply to the question of my text, +'What will ye do in the end?' + +In its original application these words referred to a condition of +religious and moral corruption in which a whole nation was involved. +The men that should have spoken for God were 'prophesying lies.' The +priests connived at profitable falsehoods because by these their rule +was confirmed. And the deluded populace, as is always the case, +preferred smooth falsehoods to stern truths. So the prophet turns round +indignantly, and asks what can be the end of such a welter and carnival +of vice and immorality, and beseeches his contemporaries to mend their +ways by bethinking themselves of what their course led to. + +But we may dismiss the immediate application of the words for the sake +of looking at the general principle which underlies them. It is a very +familiar and well-worn one. It is simply this, that a large part of the +wise conduct of life depends on grave consideration of consequences. It +is a sharp-pointed question, that pricks many a bubble, and brings much +wisdom down into the category of folly. There would be less misery in +the world, and fewer fair young lives cast away upon grim rocks, if the +question of my text were oftener asked and answered. + +I. I note, first, that here is a question which every wise man will ask +himself. + +I do not mean to say that the consideration of consequences is the +highest guide, nor that it is always a sufficient one; nor that it is, +by any means, in every case, an easily applied one. For we can all +conceive of circumstances in which it is the plainest duty to take a +certain course of action, knowing that, as far as this life is +concerned, it will bring down disaster and ruin. Do right! and face +_any_ results therefrom. He who is always forecasting possible issues +has a very leaden rule of conduct, and will be so afraid of results +that he will not dare to move; and his creeping prudence will often +turn out to be the truest imprudence. + +But whilst all that is true, and many deductions must be made from the +principle which I have laid down, that the consideration of +circumstances is a good guide in life, yet there are regions in which +the question comes home with direct and illuminating force. Let me just +illustrate one or two of these. + +Take the lower application of the question to nearer ends in life. Now +this awful life that we live is so strangely concatenated of causes and +effects, and each little deed drags after it such a train of eternal +and ever-widening consequences, that a man must be an idiot if he never +looks an inch beyond his nose to see the bearing of his actions. I +believe that, in the long-run, and in the general, condition is the +result of character and of conduct; and that, whatsoever deductions may +be necessary, yet, speaking generally, and for the most part, men are +the architects of their own condition, and that they make the houses +that they dwell in to fit the convolutions of the body that dwells +within them. And, that being so, it being certain that 'whatsoever a +man soweth, that shall he also reap,' and that no deed, be it ever so +small, be it ever so evanescent, be it ever so entirely confined within +our own inward nature, and never travelling out into visibility in what +men call actions--that every one of such produces an eternal, though it +may be an all but imperceptible effect, upon ourselves; oh, surely +there can be nothing more ridiculous than that a man should refrain +from forecasting the issue of his conduct, and saying to himself? 'What +am I to do in the end?' + +If you would only do that in regard to hosts of things in your daily +life you _could_ not be the men and women that you are. If the lazy +student would only bring clearly before his mind the examination-room, +and the unanswerable paper, and the bitter mortification when the +pass-list comes out and his name is not there, he would not trifle and +dawdle and seek all manner of diversions as he does, but he would bind +himself to his desk and his task. If the young man who begins to tamper +with purity, and in the midst of the temptations of a great city to +gratify the lust of the eye and the lust of the flesh, because he is +away from the shelter of his father's house, and the rebuke of his +mother's purity, could see, as the older of us have seen, men with +their bones full of the iniquity of their youth, or drifted away from +the city to die, down in the country like a rat in a hole, do you think +the temptations of the streets and low places of amusement would not be +stripped of their fascination? If the man beginning to drink were to +say to himself, 'What am I to do in the end?' when the craving becomes +physical, and volition is suspended, and anything is sacrificed in +order to still the domineering devil within, do you think he would +begin? I do not believe that all sin comes from ignorance, but sure I +am that if the sinful man saw what the end is he would, in nine cases +out of ten, be held back. 'What will ye do in the end?' Use that +question, dear friends, as the Ithuriel spear which will touch the +squatting tempter at your ear, and there will start up, in its own +shape, the fiend. + +But the main application that I would ask you to make of the words of +my text is in reference to the final end, the passing from life. Death, +the end, is likewise Death, the beginning. If it were an absolute end, +as coarse infidelity pretends to believe it is, then, of course, such a +question as my text would have no kind of relevance. 'What will ye do +in the end?' 'Nothing! for I shall be nothing. I shall just go back to +the nonentity that I was. I do not need to trouble myself.' Ah, but +Janus has two faces, one turned to the present and one to the future. +His temple has two gates, one which admits from this lower level, and +one, at the back, which launches us out on to the higher level. The end +is a beginning, and the beginning is retribution. The end of sowing is +the beginning of harvest. The man finishes his work and commences to +live on his wages. The brewing is over, and the drinking of the brewst +commences. + +And so, brother, 'What will ye do in the end--which is not an end, but +which is a beginning? 'Surely every wise man will take that question +into consideration. Surely, if it be true that we all of us are +silently drifting to that one little gateway through which we have to +pass one by one, and then find ourselves in a region all full of +consequences of the present, he has a good claim to be counted a prince +of fools who 'jumps the life to come,' and, in all his calculations of +consequences, which he applies wisely and prudently to the trifles of +the present, forgets to ask himself, 'And, after all that is done, what +shall I do then?' You remember the question in the old ballad: + + "'What good came of it at last?' ... + 'Nay, that I cannot tell,' quoth he; + But 'twas a famous victory.'" + +Ay, but what came of it at the last? Oh brother, that one question, +pushed to its issues, condemns the wisdom of this world as folly, and +pulverises into nothingness millions of active lives and successful +schemes. What then? What then? 'I have much goods laid up for many +years.' Well and good, what then? 'I will say to my soul, Take thine +ease, eat, drink, and be merry.' Yes, what then? 'This night thy soul +shall be required of thee.' He never thought of that! And so his +epitaph was 'Thou fool!' + +II. So, secondly, mark, here is a question which a great many of us +never think about. + +I do not mean, now, so much in reference to the nearer ends compassed +in this life, though even in regard to them it is only too true; I mean +rather in regard to that great and solemn issue to which we are all +tending. But in regard of both, it seems to me one of the strangest +things in all the world that men should be content so commonly to be +ignorant of what they perfectly well know, and never to give attention +to that of which, should they bethink themselves, they are absolutely +certain. + +'What will ye do in the end?' Why! half of us put away that question +with the thought in our minds, if not expressed, at least most +operative, 'There is not going to be any end; and it is always going to +be just like what it is to-day.' Did you ever think that there is no +good ground for being sure that the sun will rise to-morrow; that it +rose for the first time once; that there will come a day when it will +rise for the last time? The uniformity of Nature may be a postulate, +but you cannot find any logical basis for it. Or, to come down from +heights of that sort, have you ever laid to heart, brother, that the +only unchangeable thing in this world is change, and the only thing +certain, that there is no continuance of anything; and that, therefore, +you and I are bound, if we are wise, to look that fact in the face, and +not to allow ourselves to be befooled by the difficulty of imagining +that things will ever be different from what they are? Oh! many of +us--I was going to say most of men, I do not know that it would be an +exaggeration--are like the careless inhabitants of some of those sunny, +volcanic isles in the Eastern Ocean, where Nature is prodigally +luxuriant and all things are fair, but every fifty years or so there +comes a roar and the island shakes, and half of it, perhaps, is +overwhelmed, and the lava flows down and destroys gleaming houses and +smiling fields, and heaven is darkened with ashes, and then everything +goes on as before, and people live as if it was never going to happen +again, though every morning, when they go out, they see the cone +towering above their houses, and the thin column of smoke, pale against +the blue sky. + +It is not altogether sinful or bad that we should live, to some extent, +under the illusion of a fixity and a perpetuity which has no real +existence, for it helps to concentrate effort and to consolidate habit, +and to make life possible. But for men to live, as so many of us do, +never thinking of what is more certain than anything else about us, +that we shall slide out of this world, and find ourselves in another, +is surely not the part of wisdom. + +Another reason why so many of us shirk this question is the lamentable +want of the habit of living by principle and reflection. Most men never +see their life steadily, and see it whole. They live from hand to +mouth, they are driven this way and that way; they adapt means to ends +In regard to business or the like, but in the formation of their +character, and in the moulding of their whole being, crowds of them +live a purely mechanical, instinctive, unreflective life. There is +nothing more deplorable than the small extent to which reflection and +volition really shape the lives of the bulk of mankind. Most of us take +our cue from our circumstances, letting them dominate us. They tell us +that in Nature there is such a thing as protective mimicry, as it is +called-animals having the power--some of them to a much larger extent +than others--of changing their hues in order to match the gravel of the +stream in which they swim or the leaves of the trees on which they +feed. That is like what a great many of us do. Put us into a place +where certain forms of frivolity or vice are common, and we go in for +them. Take us away from these and we change our hue to something a +little whiter. But all through we never know what it is to put forth a +good solid force of resistance and to say, 'No! I will not!' or, what +is sometimes quite as hard to say, 'Yes! though,' as Luther said in his +strong way, 'there were as many devils in Worms as there are tiles on +the housetops, I will!' If people would live more by reflection and by +the power of a resisting will, this question of my text would come +oftener to them. + +And there is another cause that I must touch on for one moment, why so +many people neglect this question, and that is because they are +uneasily conscious that they durst not face it. I know of no stranger +power than that by which men can ignore unwelcome questions; and I know +of nothing more tragical than the fact that they choose to exercise the +power. What would you think of a man who never took stock because he +knew that he was insolvent, and yet did not want to know it? And what +do you think of yourselves if, knowing that the thought of passing into +that solemn eternity is anything but a cheering one, and that you have +to pass thither, you never turn your head to look at it? Ah, brother, +if it be true that this question of my text is unpleasant to you to +hear put, be sure that that is the strongest reason why you should put +it. + +III. Thirdly, here is a question especially directed to you young folk. + +It is so because you are specially tempted to forget it. It may seem as +if there were no people in the world that had less need to be appealed +to, as I have been appealing to you, by motives drawn from the end of +life, than you who are only standing at its beginning. But it is not +so. An old rabbi was once asked by his pupil when he should fulfil a +certain precept of the law, and the answer was, 'The day before you +die.' 'But,' said the disciple, 'I may die to-morrow.' 'Then,' said the +master, 'do it to-day.' And so I say to you, do not make sure that the +beginning at which you stand is separated by a long tract of years from +the end to which you go. It may be, but it may not be. I know that +arguments pleading with men to be Christians, and drawn from the +consideration of a future life, are not fashionable nowadays, but I am +persuaded that that preaching of the Gospel is seriously defective, and +will be lamentably ineffective, which ignores this altogether. And, +therefore, dear friends, I say to you that, although in all human +probability a stretch of years may lie between you and the end of life, +the question of my text is one specially adapted to you. + +And it is so because, with your buoyancy, with your necessarily limited +experience, with the small accumulation of results that you have +already in your possession, and with the tendencies of your age to live +rather by impulse than by reflection, you are specially tempted to +forget the solemn significance of this interrogation. And it is a +question especially for you, because you have special advantages in the +matter of putting it. We older people are all fixed and fossils, as you +are very fond of telling us. The iron has cooled and gone into rigid +shapes with us. It is all fluent with you. You may become pretty nearly +what you like. I do not mean in regard to circumstances: other +considerations come in to determine these; but circumstances are +second, character is first; and I do say, in regard to character, you +young folk have all but infinite possibilities before you; and, I +repeat, may become almost anything that you set yourselves to be. You +have no long, weary trail of failures behind you, depressing and +seeming to bring an entail of like failure with them for the future. +You have not yet acquired habits--those awful things that may be our +worst foes or our best friends--you have not yet acquired habits that +almost smother the power of reform and change. You have, perhaps, years +before you in which you may practise the lessons of wisdom and +self-restraint which this question fairly fronted would bring. And so I +lay it on your hearts, dear young friends. I have little hope of the +old people. I do not despair of any, God forbid! but the fact remains +that the most of the men who have done anything for God and the world +worth doing have been under the influence of Christian principle in +their early days. And from fifteen to one or two and twenty is the +period in which you get the set which, in all likelihood, you will +retain through eternity. So, 'What will ye do in the end?' Answer the +question whilst yet it is possible to answer it, with a stretch of +years before you in which you may work out the conclusions to which the +answer brings. + +IV. And that leads me to say, last of all, and but a word, that here is +a question which Jesus Christ alone enables a man to answer with calm +confidence. + +As I have said, the end is a beginning; the passage from life is the +entrance on a progressive and eternal state of retribution. And Jesus +Christ tells us two other things. He tells us that that state has two +parts; that in one there is union with Him, life, blessedness for ever; +and that in the other there is darkness, separation from Him, death, +and misery. These are the facts, as revealed by the incarnate Word of +God, on which answers to this question must be shaped. + +'What will ye do in the end?' If I am trusting to Him; if I have +brought my poor, weak nature and sinful soul to Him, and cast them upon +His merciful sacrifice and mighty intercession and life-giving Spirit, +then I can say: 'As for me, I shall behold Thy face in righteousness; I +shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness.' Ay, and what about +those who do not take Him for their Prince and their Saviour? 'What +will _ye_ do in the end?' When life's illusions are over, when all its +bubbles are burst, when conscience awakes, and when you stand to give +an account of yourself to God, 'What will ye do in the end' which is a +beginning? 'Can thy heart endure and thy hand be strong in the day that +I shall deal with thee?' Oh brother, do not turn away from that Christ +who is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending! If you +will cleave to Him, then you may let the years and weeks slip away +without regret; and whether the close be far off or near, death will be +robbed of all its terrors, and the future so filled with blessedness, +that of you the wise man's paradox will be true: 'Better is the end of +a thing than the beginning, and the day of death than the day of birth.' + + + + +POSSESSING AND POSSESSED + +'The portion of Jacob is not like them--for He is the former of all +things: and Israel is the tribe of His inheritance. The Lord of Hosts +is His name.'--JER. x. 16, R.V. + + +Here we have set forth a reciprocal possession. We possess God, He +possesses us. We are His inheritance, He is our portion. I am His; He +is mine. + +This mutual ownership is the very living centre of all religion. +Without it there is no relation of any depth between God and us. How +much profounder such a conception is than the shallow notions about +religion which so many men have! It is not a round of observance; not a +painful effort at obedience, not a dim reverence for some vague +supernatural, not a far-off bowing before Omnipotence, not the mere +acceptance of a creed, but a life in which God and the soul blend in +the intimacies of mutual possession. + +I. The mutual possession. + +God is our portion. + +That thought presupposes the possibility of our possessing God. It +presupposes the fact that He has given Himself to us, and the answering +fact that we have taken Him for ours. + +We are God's inheritance. + +We give ourselves to Him--we do so where we apprehend that He has given +Himself to us; it is His giving love that moves men to yield themselves +to God. He takes us for His. What a wonderful thought that He delights +in possessing us! The all-sufficiency of our portion is guaranteed +because He is 'the former of all things.' The safety of His inheritance +is secured because 'the Lord of Hosts is His name.' And that name +accentuates the wonder that He to whom all the ordered armies of the +universe submit and belong should still take us for His inheritance. + +Mark the contrast of this true possession with the false and merely +external possessions of the world. Those outward things which a man has +stand in no real relation with him. They fade and fleet away, or have +to be left, and, even while they last, are not his in any real sense. +Only what has indissolubly entered into, and become one with, our very +selves is truly ours. + +Our possession of God suggests a view of our blessedness and our +obligation. It secures blessedness--for we have in Him an +all-sufficient object and a treasure for all our nature. It imposes the +obligation to let our whole nature feed upon, and be filled by, Him, to +see that the temple where He dwells is clean, and not to fling away our +treasure. + +His possession of us suggests a corresponding view of our blessedness +and our obligation. + +We are His--as slaves are their owners' property. So we are bound to +submission of will. To be owned by God is an honour. The slave's goods +and chattels belong to the master. + +His possession of us binds us to consecrate ourselves, and so to +glorify Him in 'body and spirit which are His.' + +It ensures our safety. How constantly this calming thought is dwelt on +in Scripture--that they who belong to Him need fear nothing. 'Fear not, +I have called thee by thy name, them art Mine.' God does not hold His +possessions with so slack a grasp as to lose them or to suffer them to +be wrenched away. A psalmist rose to the hope of immortality by +meditating on what was involved in his being God's possession here and +now. He was sure that even Death's bony fingers could not keep their +hold on him, and so he sang, 'Thou wilt not suffer Thine Holy One to +see corruption.' The seal on the foundation of God which guarantees its +standing sure is, 'The Lord knoweth them that are His.' 'They shall be +Mine in the day that I do make, even a peculiar treasure,' is His own +assurance, on which resting, a trembling soul may 'have boldness in the +day of judgment.' + +II. The human response by which God becomes ours and we His. + +That response is first the act of faith, which is an act of both reason +and will, and then the act of love and self-surrender which follows +faith, and then the continuous acts of communion and consecration. + +All must commence with recognition of His free gift of Himself to us in +Christ. We come empty-handed. That gift recognised and accepted moves +us to give ourselves to Him. When we give ourselves to Him we find that +we possess Him. + +Further, there must be continuous communion. This mutual possession +depends on our occupation of mind and heart with Him. We possess Him +and are possessed by Him, when our wills are kept in harmony with, and +submission to, Him, when our thoughts are occupied with Him and His +truth, when our affections rest in Him, when our desires go out to Him, +when our hopes are centred in Him, when our practical life is devoted +to Him. + +III. The blessedness of this mutual possession. + +To possess God is to have an all-sufficient object for all our nature. +He who has God for his very own has the fountain of life in himself, +has the spring of living water, as it were, in his own courtyard, and +needs not to go elsewhere to draw. He need fear no loss, for his wealth +is so engrained in the very substance of his being that nothing can rob +him of it but himself, and that whilst he lasts it will last with, +because in, him. + +How marvellous that into the narrow room of one poor soul He should +come whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain! Solomon said, 'How much +less this house which I have built,'--well may we say the same of our +little hearts. But He can compress Himself into that small compass and +expand His abode by dwelling in it. + +Nor is the blessedness of being possessed by Him less than the +blessedness of possessing Him. For so long as we own ourselves we are +burdens to ourselves, and we only own ourselves truly when we give +ourselves away utterly. Earthly love, with its blessed mysteries of +mutual possession, teaches us that. But all its depth and joy are as +nothing when set beside the liberty, the glad peace, the assured +possession of our enriched selves, which are ours when we give +ourselves wholly to God, and so for the first time are truly lords of +ourselves, and find ourselves by losing ourselves in Him. + +Nor need we fear to say that God, too, delights in that mutual +possession, for the very essence of love is the desire to impart +itself, and He is love supreme and perfect. Therefore is He glad when +we let Him give Himself to us, and moved by 'the mercies of God, yield +ourselves to Him a sacrifice of a sweet smell, acceptable to God.' + + + + +CALMS AND CRISES + +'If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then +how canst thou contend with horses? and though in a land of peace thou +art secure, yet how wilt thou do in the pride of Jordan?'--JER. xii. 5, +R.V. + + +The prophet has been complaining of his persecutors. The divine answer +is here, reproving his impatience, and giving him to understand that +harder trials are in store for him. + +Both clauses mean substantially the same thing, and are of a parabolic +nature. The one adduces the metaphor of a race: 'Footmen have beaten +you, have they? Then how will you run with cavalry?' The other is more +clear in the Revised Version rendering: 'Though in a land of peace you +are secure, what will you do in Jordan when it swells?' The 'swelling +of Jordan' is a figure for extreme danger. + +The questions may be taken as referring to our own lives. Note how the +one refers more to strength for duties, the other to peace and safety +in dangers. They both recognise that life has great alternations as to +the magnitude of its tasks and trials, and they call on experience to +answer the question whether we are ready for times of stress and peril. + +I. Think of what may come to us. + +We all have had the experience of how in our lives there are long +stretches of uneventful days, and then, generally without warning, some +crisis is sprung on us, which demands quite a different order of +qualities to cope with it. Our typhoons generally come without any +warning from a falling barometer. + +We may at any moment be confronted with some hard duty which will task +our utmost energy. + +We may at any moment be plunged in some great calamity to which the +quiet course of our lives for years will be as the still flow of the +river between smiling lawns is to the dash and fierce currents of the +rapids in a grim canyon. + +The tasks that may come on us and the tasks that must come, the dangers +that may beset us and the dangers that must envelop us, the +possibilities that lie hidden in the future, and the certainties that +we know to be shrouded there, should surely sometimes occupy a wise +man's thoughts. It is but living in a fool's paradise to soothe +ourselves with the assurance which a moment's thought will shatter: +'To-morrow shall be as this day.' We shall not always have the easy +competition with footmen; there will some time come a call to strain +our muscles to keep up with the gallop of cavalry. We shall have to +struggle to keep our feet in the swelling of Jordan, and must not +expect to have a continual leisurely life in 'a land of peace.' + +II. Think of what experience tells us as to our power to meet these +crises. + +The footmen have wearied you. The small tasks have been more than your +patience and strength could manage. No doubt great exigencies often +call forth great powers that were dormant in the humdrum of ordinary +life. But the man who knows himself best will be the most ready to +shrink with distrust from the dread possibilities of duty. + +If we think of the 'footmen' with whom we have contended as +representing the smaller faults that we have tried to overcome, does +our success in conquering some small bad habit, some 'little sin,' +encourage the hope that we could keep our footing when some great +temptation of a lifetime came down on us with a rush like the charge of +a battalion of horsemen? Or, if we cast our eyes forward to the +calamities that lie still 'on the knees of the gods' for us, do we feel +ready to meet the hours of desolating disaster, the 'hour of death and +the day of judgment'? Even in a land of peace we have all had alarms, +perturbations, and defeats enough, and our security has been at the +mercy of marauders so often that if we are wise, and take due heed of +what experience has to say to us of our reserve of force, we shall not +be hopeful of keeping our footing in the whirling currents of a river +in full flood. + +III. Think of the power that will fit us for all crises. + +With the power of Jesus in our spirits we shall never have to attempt a +duty for which we are not strengthened, nor to front a danger from and +in which He will not defend us. With His life in us we shall be ready +for the long hours of uneventful, unexciting duties, and for the short +spurts that make exacting calls on us. We 'shall run and not be weary; +we shall walk and not faint.' If we live in Jesus we shall always be in +'a land of peace,' and no 'plague shall come nigh our dwelling.' Even +when the soles of our feet rest in the waters of Jordan, the waters of +Jordan shall be cut off, and we shall pass over on dry ground into the +land of peace, where they that would swallow us up shall be far away +for ever. + + + + +AN IMPOSSIBILITY MADE POSSIBLE + +'Can the Ethiopian change his skin?'--JER. xiii. 23. 'If any man be in +Christ, he is a new creature.'--2 COR. v. 17. 'Behold, I make all +things new.'--REV. xxi. 5. + + +Put these three texts together. The first is a despairing question to +which experience gives only too sad and decisive a negative answer. It +is the answer of many people who tell us that character must be +eternal, and of many a baffled man who says, 'It is of no use--I have +tried and can do nothing.' The second text is the grand Christian +answer, full of confidence. It was spoken by one who had no superficial +estimate of the evil, but who had known in himself the power of Christ +to revolutionise a life, and make a man love all he had hated, and hate +all he had loved, and fling away all he had treasured. The last text +predicts the completion of the renovating process lying far ahead, but +as certain as sunrise. + +I. The unchangeableness of character, especially of faults. + +We note the picturesque rhetorical question here. They were +occasionally accustomed to see the dark-skinned, Ethiopian, whether we +suppose that these were true negroes from Southern Egypt or dark Arabs, +and now and then leopards came up from the thickets on the Jordan, or +from the hills of the southern wilderness about the Dead Sea. The black +hue of the man, the dark spots that starred the skin of the fierce +beast, are fitting emblems of the evil that dyes and speckles the soul. +Whether it wraps the whole character in black, or whether it only spots +it here and there with tawny yellow, it is ineradicable; and a man can +no more change his character once formed than a negro can cast his +skin, or a leopard whiten out the spots on his hide. + +Now we do not need to assert that a man has no power of +self-improvement or reformation. The exhortations of the prophet to +repentance and to cleansing imply that he has. If he has not, then it +is no blame to him that he does not mend. Experience shows that we have +a very considerable power of such a kind. It is a pity that some +Christian teachers speak in exaggerated terms about the impossibility +of such self-improvement. + +But it is very difficult. + +Note the great antagonist as set forth here--Habit, that solemn and +mystical power. We do not know all the ways in which it operates, but +one chief way is through physical cravings set up. It is strange how +much easier a second time is than a first, especially in regard to evil +acts. The hedge once broken down, it is very easy to get through it +again. If one drop of water has percolated through the dyke, there will +be a roaring torrent soon. There is all the difference between once and +never; there is small difference between once and twice. By habit we +come to do things mechanically and without effort, and we all like +that. One solitary footfall across the snow soon becomes a beaten way. +As in the banyan-tree, each branch becomes a root. All life is held +together by cords of custom which enable us to reserve conscious effort +and intelligence for greater moments. Habit tends to weigh upon us with +a pressure 'heavy as frost, and deep almost as life.' But also it is +the ally of good. + +The change to good is further made difficult because liking too often +goes with evil, and good is only won by effort. It is a proof of man's +corruption that if left alone, evil in some form or other springs +spontaneously, and that the opposite good is hard to win. Uncultivated +soil bears thistles and weeds. Anything can roll downhill. It is always +the least trouble to go on as we have been going. + +Further, the change is made difficult because custom blinds judgment +and conscience. People accustomed to a vitiated atmosphere are not +aware of its foulness. + +How long it takes a nation, for instance, to awake to consciousness of +some national crime, even when the nation is 'Christian'! And how men +get perfectly sophisticated as to their own sins, and have all manner +of euphemisms for them! + +Further, how hard it is to put energy into a will that has been +enfeebled by long compliance. Like prisoners brought out of the +Bastille. + +So if we put all these reasons together, no wonder that such +reformation is rare. + +I do not dwell on the point that it must necessarily be confined within +very narrow limits. I appeal to experience. You have tried to cure some +trivial habit. You know what a task that has been--how often you +thought that you had conquered, and then found that all had to be done +over again. How much more is this the case in this greater work! Often +the efforts to break off evil habits have the same effect as the +struggles of cattle mired in a bog, who sink the deeper for plunging. +The sad cry of many a foiled wrestler with his own evil is, 'O wretched +man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' We do +not wish to exaggerate, but simply to put it that experience shows that +for men in general, custom and inclination and indolence and the lack +of adequate motive weigh so heavily that a thorough abandonment of +evil, much more a hearty practice of good, are not to be looked for +when once a character has been formed. So you young people, take care. +And all of us listen to--- + +II. The great hope for individual renewal. + +The second text sets forth a possibility of entire individual renewal, +and does so by a strong metaphor. + +'If any man be in Christ he is a new creature,' or as the words might +be rendered, 'there is a new creation,' and not only is he renewed, but +all things are become new. He is a new Adam in a new world. + +Now (a) let us beware of exaggeration about this matter. There are +often things said about the effects of conversion which are very far in +advance of reality, and give a handle to caricature. The great law of +continuity runs on through the change of conversion. Take a man who has +been the slave of some sin. The evil will not cease to tempt, nor will +the effects of the past on character be annihilated. 'Whatsoever a man +soweth, that shall he also reap,' remains true. In many ways there will +be permanent consequences. There will remain the scars of old wounds; +old sores will be ready to burst forth afresh. The great outlines of +character do remain. + +(b) What is the condition of renewal? + +'If any man be in Christ'--how distinctly that implies something more +than human in Paul's conception of Christ. It implies personal union +with Him, so that He is the very element or atmosphere in which we +live. And that union is brought about by faith in Him. + +(c) How does such a state of union with Christ make a man over again? + +It gives a new aim and centre for our lives. Then we live not unto +ourselves; then everything is different and looks so, for the centre is +shifted. That union introduces a constant reference to Him and +contemplation of His death for us, it leads to self-abnegation. + +It puts all life under the influence of a new love. 'The love of Christ +constraineth.' As is a man's love, so is his life. The mightiest +devolution is to excite a new love, by which old loves and tastes are +expelled. 'A new affection' has 'expulsive power,' as the new sap +rising in the springtime pushes off the lingering withered leaves. So +union with Him meets the difficulty arising from inclination still +hankering after evil. It lifts life into a higher level where the +noxious creatures that were proper to the swamps cannot live. The new +love gives a new and mighty motive for obedience. + +That union breaks the terrible chain that binds us to the past. 'All +died.' The past is broken as much as if we were dead. It is broken by +the great act of forgiveness. Sin holds men by making them feel as if +what has been must be--an awful entail of evil. In Christ we die to +former self. + +That union brings a new divine power to work in us. 'I live, yet not I, +but Christ liveth in me.' + +It sets us in a new world which yet is the old. All things are changed +if we are changed. They are the same old things, but seen in a new +light, used for new purposes, disclosing new relations and powers. +Earth becomes a school and discipline for heaven. The world is +different to a blind man when cured, or to a deaf one,--there are new +sights for the one, new sounds for the other. + +All this is true in the measure in which we live in union with Christ. + +So no man need despair, nor think, 'I cannot mend now.' You may have +tried and been defeated a thousand times. But still victory is +possible, not without effort and sore conflict, but still possible. +There is hope for all, and hope for ME. + +III. The completion in a perfectly renewed creation. + +The renovation here is only partial. Its very incompleteness is +prophetic. If there be this new life in us, it obviously has not +reached its fulness here, and it is obviously not manifested here for +all that even here it is. + +It is like some exotic that does not show its true beauty in our +greenhouses. The life of a Christian on earth is a prophecy by both its +greatness and its smallness, by both its glory and its shame, by both +its brightness and its spots. It cannot be that there is always to be +this disproportion between aspiration and performance, between willing +and doing. Here the most perfect career is like a half-lighted street, +with long gaps between the lamps. + +The surroundings here are uncongenial to the new creatures. 'Foxes have +holes'--all creatures are fitted for their environment; only man, and +eminently renewed man, wanders as a pilgrim, not in his home. The +present frame of things is for discipline. The schooling over, we burn +the rod. So we look for an external order in full correspondence with +the new nature. + +And Christ throned 'makes all things new.' How far the old is renewed +we cannot tell, and we need not ask. Enough that there shall be a +universe in perfect harmony with the completely renewed nature, that we +shall find a home where all things will serve and help and gladden and +further us, where the outward will no more distract and clog the spirit. + +Brethren, let that mighty love constrain you; and look to Christ to +renew you. Whatever your old self may have been, you may bury it deep +in His grave, and rise with Him to newness of life. Then you may walk +in this old world, new creatures in Christ Jesus, looking for the +blessed hope of entire renewal into the perfect likeness of Him, the +perfect man, in a perfect world, where all old sorrows and sins have +passed away and He has made all things new. Through eternity, new joys, +new knowledge, new progress, new likeness, new service will be +ours--and not one leaf shall ever wither in the amaranthine crown, nor +'the cup of blessing' ever become empty or flat and stale. Eternity +will be but a continual renewal and a progressive increase of ever +fresh and ever familiar treasures. The new and the old will be one. + +Begin with trusting to Him to help you to change a deeper blackness +than that of the Ethiopian's skin, and to erase firier spots than stain +the tawny leopard's hide, and He will make you a new man, and set you +in His own time in a 'new heaven and earth, where dwelleth +righteousness.' + + + + +TRIUMPHANT PRAYER + +'O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do Thou it for Thy +name's sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against +Thee. 8. O the hope of Israel, the saviour thereof in time of trouble, +why shouldest Thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man +that turneth aside to tarry for a night? 9. Why shouldest Thou be as a +man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet Thou, O Lord, art +in the midst of us, and we are called by Thy name; leave us not.'--JER. +xiv. 7-9. + + +My purpose now carries me very far away from the immediate occasion of +these words; yet I cannot refrain from a passing reference to the +wonderful pathos and picturesque power with which the long-forgotten +calamity that evoked them is portrayed in the context. A terrible +drought has fallen upon the land, and the prophet's picture of it is, +if one might say so, like some of Dante's in its realism, in its +tenderness, and in its terror. In the presence of a common calamity all +distinctions of class have vanished, and the nobles send their little +ones to the well, and they come back with empty vessels and drooping +heads instead of with the gladness that used to be heard in the place +of drawing of water. The ploughmen are standing among the cracked +furrows, gazing with despair on the brown chapped earth, and in the +field the very dumb creatures are sharing in the common sorrow, and the +imperious law of self-preservation overpowers and crushes the maternal +instincts. 'Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, +because there was no grass.' And on every little hilltop where cooler +air might be found, the once untamable wild asses are standing with +open nostrils panting for the breeze, their filmy eyes failing them, +gazing for the rain that will not come. And then, from contemplating +all that sorrow, the prophet turns to God with a wondrous burst of +strangely blended confidence and abasement, penitence and trust, and +fuses together the acknowledgment of sin and reliance upon the +established and perpetual relation between Israel and God, pleading +with Him about His judgments, presenting before Him the mysterious +contradiction that such a calamity should fall on those with whom God +dwelt, and casting himself lowly before the throne, and pleading the +ancient name: 'Do Thou it! Leave us not.' + +It is to the wonderful fulness and richness of this prayer that I ask +your attention in these few remarks. Expositors have differed as to +whether the drought that forms its basis was a literal one, or is the +prophet's way of putting the sore calamities that had fallen on Israel. +Be that as it may, I need not remind you how often in Scripture that +metaphor of the 'rain that cometh down from heaven and watereth the +earth' is the symbol for God's divine gift of His Spirit, and how, on +the other hand, the picture of the 'dry and thirsty land where no water +is' is the appropriate figure for the condition of the soul or of the +Church void of the divine presence. And I think I shall not mistake if +I say that though we have much to make us thankful, yet you and I, dear +brethren, and all our Churches and congregations, are suffering under +this drought, and the merciful 'rain, wherewith Thou dost confirm Thine +inheritance when it is weary' has not yet come as we would have it. May +we find in these words some gospel for the day that may help us to come +to the temper of mind into which there shall descend the showers to +'make soft the earth and bless the springing thereof!' + +Glancing over these clauses, then, and trying to put them into +something like order for our purpose, there are four things that I +would have you note. The first is the mysterious contradiction between +the ideal Israel and the actual state of things; the second is the +earnest inquiry as to the cause; the third the penitent confession of +our sinfulness; and the last, the triumphant confidence of believing +prayer. + +I. First of all, then, look at the illustration given to us by these +words of the mysterious contradiction between the ideal of Israel and +the actual condition of things. + +Recur, for the sake of illustration, to the historical event upon which +our text is based. The old prophet had said, 'The Lord thy God giveth +thee a good land, a land full of brooks and water, rivers and depths, a +land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not +lack anything in it'; and the startling fact is, that these men saw +around them a land full of misery for want of that very gift which had +been promised. The ancient charter of Israel's existence was that God +should dwell in the midst of them, and what was it that they beheld? +'As things are,' says the prophet, 'it looks as if that perennial +presence which Thou hast promised had been changed into visits, short +and far between. Why shouldest Thou be as a stranger in the land, and +as a wayfaring man, that turneth aside to tarry for a night?' + +Now, I suppose there are two ideas intended to be conveyed--the brief, +transitory, interrupted visits, with long, dreary stretches of absence +between them; and the indifference of the visitant, as a man who +pitches his tent in some little village to-night cares very little +about the people that he never saw before this afternoon's march, and +will never see after to-morrow morning. And not only is it so, but, +instead of the perpetual energy of this divine aid that had been +promised to Israel, as things are now, it looks as if He was a mighty +man astonied, a hero that cannot save--some warrior stricken by panic +fear into a paralysis of all his strength--a Samson with his locks +shorn. The ideal had been so great--perpetual gifts, perpetual +presence, perpetual energy; the reality is chapped ground and parched +places, occasional visitations, like vanishing gleams of sunshine in a +winter's day, and a paralysis, as it would appear, of all the ancient +might. + +Dear Christian friends, am I exaggerating, or dealing only with one set +of phenomena, and forgetting the counterpoising ones on the other side, +when I say, Change the name, and the story is told about us? God be +thanked we have much that shows us that He has not left us, but yet, +when we think of what we are, and of what God has promised that we +should be, surely we must confess that there is the most sad, and, but +for one reason, the most mysterious contradiction between the divine +ideal and the actual facts of the case. Need we go further to learn +what God meant His Church to be, than the last words that Jesus Christ +said to us--'Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world'? +Need we go further than those metaphors which come from His lips as +precepts, and, like all His precepts, are a commandment upon the +surface, but a promise in the sweet kernel--'Ye are the salt of the +earth,' 'ye are the light of the world'--or than the prophet's vision +of an Israel which 'shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from +the Lord'? Is that the description of what you and I are? Have not we +to say, 'We have not wrought any deliverance in the earth, neither have +the inhabitants of the world fallen'? 'Salt of the earth,' and we can +hardly keep our own souls from going putrid with the corruption that is +round about us. 'Light of the world,' and our poor candles burnt low +down into the socket, and sending up rather stench and smoke than +anything like a clear flame. The words sound like irony rather than +promises, like the very opposite of what we are rather than the ideals +towards which our lives strive. In our lips they are presumption, and +in the lips of the world, as we only too well know, they are a not +undeserved scoff, to be said with curved lip, 'The salt of the earth,' +and 'the light of the world'! + +And look at what we are doing: scarcely holding our own numerically. +Here and there a man comes and declares what God has done for his soul. +But what is the Church, what are the Christian men of England, with all +their multifarious activities, performing? Are we leavening the +national mind? Are we breathing a higher godliness into trade, a more +wholesome, simple style of living into society? And as for expansion, +why, the Church at home does not keep up with the actual increase of +the population; and we are conquering heathendom as we might hope to +drain the ocean by taking out thimblefuls at a time. Is that what the +Lord meant us to do? Our Father with us; yes, but oh! as a 'mighty man, +astonied,' as He might well be, 'that cannot save' for the old, old +reason, 'He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.' +No wonder that on the other side men are saying--and it is not such a +very presumptuous thing to say, if you have regard only to the facts +that appear on the surface--men are saying, 'wait a little while, and +all these organisations will come to nothing; these Christian churches, +as they are called,' and everything that you and I regard as +distinctive of Christianity, 'will be gone and be forgotten.' We +believe ourselves to be in possession of an eternal light; the world +looks at us and sees that it is like a flickering flame in a dying +lamp. Dear brethren, if I think of the lowness of our own religious +characters, the small extent to which we influence the society in which +we live, of the slow rate at which the Gospel progresses in our land, I +can only ask the question, and pray you to lay it to heart, which the +old prophet asked long ago: 'O Thou that art named the house of Jacob, +is the Spirit of the Lord straitened? Are these His doings? Do not my +words do good to them that walk uprightly?' 'Why shouldest Thou be as a +mighty man that cannot save?' + +II. Let me ask you to look at the second thought that I think may +fairly be gathered from these words, namely, that this consciousness of +our low and evil condition ought to lead to very earnest and serious +inquiry as to its cause. + +The prophet having acknowledged transgression yet asks a question, 'Why +shouldest Thou leave us? Why have all these things come upon us?' And +he asks it not as ignorant of the answer, but in order that the answer +may be deepened in the consciences and perceptions of those that listen +to him, and that they together may take the answer to the Throne of +God. There can be no doubt in a Christian mind as to the reason, and +yet there is an absolute necessity that the familiar truth as to the +reason should be driven home to our own consciences, and made part of +our own spiritual experience, by our own honest reiteration of it and +reflection upon it. + +'Why shouldest Thou leave us?' Now, I need not spend time by taking +into consideration answers that other people might give. I suppose that +none of us will say that the reason is in any variableness of that +unalterable, uniform, ever present, ever full, divine gift of God's +Spirit to His children. We do not believe in any arbitrary sovereignty +that withdraws that gift; we do not believe that that gift rises and +falls in its fulness and its abundance. We believe that the great +reservoir is always full, and that, if ever our small tanks be empty, +it is because there is something choking the pipe, not because there is +anything less in the centre storehouse. We believe, if I may take +another illustration, that it is with the seasons and the rotation of +day and night in the religious experience as it is with them in the +natural world. Summer and winter come and go, not because of any +variableness in the centre orb, but because of the variation in the +inclination of the circling satellite; day and night come not by reason +of any 'shadow cast by turning' from the sun that revolves not at +all--but by reason of the side that is turned to his life-giving and +quickening beams. We believe that all the clouds and mist that come +between us and God are like the clouds and mist of the sky, not dropped +upon us from the blue empyrean above, but sucked up from the undrained +swamps and poisonous fens of the lower earth. That is to say, if there +be any change in the fulness of our possession of the divine Spirit, +the fault lies wholly within the region of the mutable and of the +human, and not at all in the region of the perennial and divine. + +Nor do we believe, I suppose, any of us, that we are to look for any +part of the reason in failure of the adaptation of God's work and God's +ordinances to the great work which they have to do. Other people may +tell us, if they like--it will not shake our confidence--that the fire +that was kindled at Pentecost has all died down to grey ashes, and that +it is of no use trying to cower over the burnt-out embers any more in +order to get heat out of them. They may, and do, tell us that the +'rushing, mighty wind that filled the house' obeys the law of cycles as +the wind of the natural universe, and will calm into stillness after a +while, and then set in and blow from the opposite quarter. They may +tell us, and they do tell us, that the 'river of the water of life that +flows from the Throne of God and of the Lamb' is lost in the sands of +time, like the streams in the great Mongolian plateau. We do not +believe that. Everything stands exactly as it always has been in regard +to the perennial possession of Christ's Spirit as the strength and +resource of His Church; and the fault, dear friends, lies only here: 'O +Lord, our iniquities testify against us; our backslidings are many; we +have sinned against Thee.' + +Oh, let me urge upon you, and upon myself, that the first thing which +we have to do is prayerfully and patiently and honestly to search after +this cause, and not look to superficial trifles such as possible +variations and improvements in order and machinery, and polity or +creed, or anything else, as the means of changing and bettering the +condition of things, but to recognise this as being the one sole cause +that hinders--the slackness of our own hold on Christ's hand, and the +feebleness and imperfection of our own spiritual life. Dear brethren, +there is no worse sign of the condition of churches than the calm +indifference and complacency in the present condition of things which +visits very many of us; it is like a deadly malaria wherever it is to +be found, and there is no more certain precursor of a blessed change +than a widespread dissatisfaction with what we are, and an honest, +earnest search after the cause. The sleeper that is restless, and +tosses and turns, is near awakening; and the ice that cracks, and +crumbles, and groans, and heaves, is on the point of breaking up. When +Christian men and women are aroused to this, the startled recognition +of how far beneath the ideal--no, I should not say how far beneath, but +rather how absolutely opposed to, the ideal--so much of our Christian +life and work is, and when further they push the inquiry for the cause, +so as to find that it lies in their own sin, then we shall be near the +time, yea, the 'set time, to favour Zion.' + +III. And so let me point you, in the next place--and but a word or two +on that matter--to the consideration that the consciousness of the evil +condition and knowledge of its cause leads on to lowly penitence and +confession. + +I dwell upon that for a moment for one reason mainly. I suppose that it +is a very familiar observation with us all that when, by God's mercy, +any of us individually, or as communities, are awakened to a sense of +our own departure from what He would have us be, and the feebleness of +all our Christian work, we are very apt to be led away upon the wrong +scent altogether, and instead of seeking improvement and revivification +in God's order, we set up an order of our own, which is a great deal +more pleasing to our own natural inclinations. For instance, to bring +the thing to a practical illustration, suppose I were, after these +remarks of mine, as a kind of corollary from them, to ask for +volunteers for some new form of Christian work, I believe I should get +twenty for one that I should get if I simply said, 'Brethren, let us go +together and confess our sins before God, and ask Him not to leave us.' +We are always tempted to originate some new kind of work, to +manufacture a revival, to begin by bringing together the outcasts into +the fold, instead of to begin by trying to deepen our own Christian +character, and purifying our own hearts, and getting more and more of +the life of God into our own spirits, and then to let the increase from +without come as it may. The true law for us to follow is to begin with +lowly abasement at His footstool, and when we have purged ourselves +from faults and sins in the very act of confessing them, and of shaking +them from us, then when we are fit for growth, external growth, we +shall get it. But the revival of the Church is not what people fancy it +to be so often nowadays, the gathering in of the unconverted into its +fold--that is the consequence of the revival. The revival comes by the +path of recognition of sin, and confession of sin, and forsaking of +sin, and waiting before Him for His blessing and His Spirit. Let me put +all that I would say about this matter into the one remark, that the +law of the whole process is the old one which was exemplified on the +day of Pentecost. 'Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly; gather the +people, assemble the elders; let the bridegroom go forth of his +chamber, and the bride out of her closet; let the priests, the +ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar. Yea, the +Lord will be zealous for His land, and will pity His people; and I will +pour out My Spirit upon all flesh.' Brethren, to our knees and to +confessions! Let us see to it that we are right in our own inmost +hearts. + +IV. And so, finally, look at the wonderful way in which in this text of +ours the prophet fuses together into one indistinguishable and yet not +confused whole, confession, and pleading remonstrance and also the +confidence of triumphant prayer. + +I cannot touch upon the various points of that as I would gladly do; +but I must suggest one or two of them for your consideration. Look at +the substance of his petition: 'Do Thou it for Thy name's sake.' 'Leave +us not.' That is all he asks. He does not prescribe what is to be done. +He does not ask for the taking away of the calamity, he simply asks for +the continual presence and the operation of the divine hand, sure that +God is in the midst of them, and working all things right. Let us shape +our expectations in like fashion, not being careful to discover paths +for Him to run in; but contented if we can realise the sweetness and +the strength of His calming and purging presence, and willing to leave +the manner of His working in His own hand. + +Then, look at what the text suggests as pleas with God, and grounds of +confidence for ourselves. 'Do Thou it for Thy name's sake, the hope of +Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of trouble. Thou art in the midst +of us, we are called by Thy name.' There are three grounds upon which +we may base our firm confidence. The one is the name--all the ancient +manifestations of Thy character, which have been from of old, and +remain for our perpetual strength. 'As we have heard, so have we seen +in the city of the Lord of Hosts.' 'That which is Thy memorial unto all +generations pledges Thee to the constant reiteration and reproduction, +hour by hour, according to our necessity, of all the might, and the +miracles, and the mercies of the past. Do Thou it for Thy name's sake.' + +And then Jeremiah turns to the throne of God with another plea--'the +hope of Israel'--and thereby fills his mouth with the argument drawn +from the fact that the confidence of the Church is fixed upon Him, and +that it cannot be that He will disappoint it. 'Because Thou hast given +us Thy name, and because Thy name, by Thy grace, has become, through +our faith, our hope, Thou art doubly bound--bound by what Thou art, +bound by what we expect--to be with us, our strength and our +confidence.' + +And the final plea is the appeal to the perennial and essential +relationship of God to His Church. 'We are called by Thy name'--'we +belong to Thee. It were Thy concern and ours that Thy Gospel should +spread in the world, and the honour of our Lord should be advanced. +Thou hast not surely lost Thy hold of Thine own, or Thy care for Thine +own property.' The psalmist said, 'Thou wilt not suffer him that is +devoted to Thee to see corruption.' And what his faith felt to be +impossible in regard to the bodily life is still more unthinkable in +regard to the spiritual. It cannot be that that which belongs to Him +should pass and perish. 'We are called by Thy name, and Thou, Lord, art +in the midst of us'--not a Samson shorn of his locks; not a wayfaring +man turning aside to delay for a night; but the abiding Presence which +makes the Church glad. + +Dear brethren, calm and confident expectation should be our attitude, +and lowly repentance should rise to triumphant believing hope, because +God is moving round about us in this day. Thanks be to His name, there +is spread through us all an expectation of great things. That +expectation brings its own fulfilment, and is always God's way of +preparing the path for His own large gifts, like the strange, +indefinable attitude of expectation which we know filled the civilised +world before the birth of Jesus Christ--like the breath of the morning +that springs up before the sun rises, and says, 'The dawn; the dawn,' +and dies away. The expectation is the precursor of the gift, and the +prayer is the guarantee of the acceptance. Take an illustration. Those +great lakes in Central Africa that are said to feed the Nile are filled +with melting snows weeks and weeks before the water rises away down in +Egypt, and brings fertility across the desert that it makes to glisten +with greenness, and to rejoice and blossom as the rose. And so in +silence, high up upon the mountains of God, fed by communion with +Himself, the expectation rises to a flood-tide ere it flows down +through all the channels of Christian organisation and activity, and +blesses the valleys below. It is not for us to hurry the work of God, +nor spasmodically to manufacture revivals. It is not for us, under the +pretence of waiting for Him, to be cold and callous; but it is for us +to question ourselves wherefore these things have come upon us, with +lowly, penitent confession to turn to God, and ask Him to bless us. Oh, +if we were to do this, we should not ask in vain! Let us take the +prayer of our context, and say, 'We acknowledge, O Lord, our +wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against +Thee. Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause +rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not Thou He, O Lord, our +God? Therefore we will wait upon Thee.' Be sure that the old merciful +answer will come to us, 'I will pour rivers of water upon him that is +thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground; and I will pour My Spirit upon +thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring.' + + + + +SIN'S WRITING AND ITS ERASURE + +'The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of +a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the +horns of your altars.'--JER. xvii. 1. + +'Ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by +us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in +tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.'-2 COR. iii. 3. + +'Blotting out the handwriting that was against us.'---COL .ii. 14. + + +I have put these verses together because they all deal with +substantially the same metaphor. The first is part of a prophet's +solemn appeal. It describes the sin of the nation as indelible. It is +written in two places. First, on their hearts, which reminds us of the +promise of the new covenant to be written on the heart. The +'red-leaved tablets of the heart' are like waxen tables on which an +iron stylus makes a deep mark, an ineradicable scar. So Judah's sin +is, as it were, eaten into their heart, or, if we might so say, +tattooed on it. It is also written on the stone horns of the altar, +with a diamond which can cut the rock (an illustration of ancient +knowledge of the properties of the diamond). That sounds a strange +place for the record of sin to appear, but the image has profound +meaning, as we shall see presently. + +Then the two New Testament passages deal with other applications of the +same metaphor. Christ is, in the first, represented as writing on the +hearts of the Corinthians, and in the second, as taking away 'the +handwriting contrary to us.' The general thought drawn from all is that +sin's writing on men's hearts is erased by Christ and a new inscription +substituted. + +I. The handwriting of sin. + +Sin committed is indelibly written on the heart of the doer. + +'The heart,' of course, in Hebrew means more than merely the supposed +seat of the affections. It is figuratively the centre of the spiritual +life, just as physically it is the centre of the natural. Thoughts and +affections, purposes and desires are all included, and out of it are +'the issues of life,' the whole outgoings of the being. It is the +fountain and source of all the activity of the man, the central unity +from which all comes. Taken in this wide sense it is really the whole +inner self that is meant, or, as is said in one place, 'the hidden man +of the heart.' And so the thought in this vigorous metaphor may be +otherwise put, that all sin makes indelible marks on the whole inward +nature of the man who does it. + +Now to begin with, think for a moment of that truth that everything +which we do reacts on us the doers. + +We seldom think of this. Deeds are done, and we fancy that when done, +they are done _with_. They pass, as far as outward seeming goes, and +their distinguishable consequences in the outward world, in the vast +majority of cases, soon apparently pass. All seems evanescent and +irrecoverable as last year's snows, or the water that flowed over the +cataract a century ago. But there is nothing more certain than that all +which we do leaves indelible traces on ourselves. The mightiest effect +of a man's actions is on his own inward life. The recoil of the gun is +more powerful than the blow from its shot. Our actions strike inwards +and there produce their most important effects. The river runs +ceaselessly and its waters pass away, but they bring down soil, which +is deposited and makes firm land, or perhaps they carry down grains of +gold. + +This is the true solemnity of life, that in all which we do we are +carrying on a double process, influencing others indeed, but +influencing ourselves far more. + +Consider the illustrations of this law in regard to our sins. + +Now the last thing people think of when they hear sermons about 'sin' +is that what is meant is the things that they are doing every day. I +can only ask you to try to remember, while I speak, that I mean those +little acts of temper, or triflings with truth, or yieldings to passion +or anger, or indulgence in sensuality, and above all, the living +without God, to which we are all prone. + +(a) All wrong-doing makes indelible marks on character. It makes its +own repetition easier. Habit strengthens inclination. Peter found +denying his Lord three times easier than doing it once. It weakens +resistance. In going downhill the first step is the only one that needs +an effort; gravity will do the rest. + +It drags after it a tendency to other evil. All wrong things have so +much in common that they lead on to one another. A man with only one +vice is a rare phenomenon. Satan sends his apostles forth two by two. +Sins hunt in couples, or more usually in packs, like wolves, only now +and then do they prey alone like lions. Small thieves open windows for +greater ones. It requires continually increasing draughts, like +indulgence in stimulants. The palate demands cayenne tomorrow, if it +has had black pepper to-day. + +So, whatever else we do by our acts, we are making our own characters, +either steadily depraving or steadily improving them. There will come a +slight slow change, almost unnoticed but most certain, as a dim film +will creep over the peach, robbing it of all its bloom, or some +microscopic growth will steal across a clearly cut inscription, or a +breath of mist will dim a polished steel mirror. + +(b) All wrong-doing writes indelible records on the memory, that awful +and mysterious power of recalling past things out of the oblivion in +which they seem to lie. How solemn and miserable it is to defile it +with the pictures of things evil! Many a man in his later years has +tried to 'turn over a new leaf,' and has never been able to get the +filth out of his memory, for it has been printed on the old page in +such strong colours that it shines through. I beseech you all, and +especially you young people, to keep yourselves 'innocent of much +transgression,' and 'simple concerning evil'--to make your memories +like an illuminated missal with fair saints and calm angels bordering +the holy words, and not an _Illustrated_ Police News. Probably there +is no real oblivion. Each act sinks in as if forgotten, gets overlaid +with a multitude of others, but it is there, and memory will one day +bring it to us. + +And all sin pollutes the imagination. It is a miserable thing to have +one's mind full of ugly foul forms painted on the inner walls of our +chamber of imagery, like the hideous figures in some heathen temple, +where gods of lust and murder look out from every inch of space on the +walls. + +(c) All wrong-doing writes indelible records on the conscience. It does +so partly by sophisticating it--the sensibility to right and wrong +being weakened by every evil act, as a cold in the head takes away the +sense of smell. It brings on colour-blindness to some extent. One does +not know how far one may go towards 'Evil! be thou my good'--or how far +towards incapacity of distinguishing evil. But at all events the +tendency of each sin is in that direction. So conscience may become +seared, though perhaps never so completely as that there are no +intervals when it speaks. It may long lie dormant, as Vesuvius did, +till great trees grow on the floor of the crater, but all the while the +communication with the central fires is open, and one day they will +burst out. + +The writing may be with invisible ink, but it will be legible one day. +So, then, all this solemn writing on the heart is done by ourselves. +What are you writing? There is a presumption in it of a future +retribution, when you will have to read your autobiography, with +clearer light and power of judging yourselves. At any rate there is +retribution now, which is described by many metaphors, such as sowing +and reaping, drinking as we have brewed, and others--but this one of +indelible writing is not the least striking. + +Sin is graven deep on sinful men's worship. + +The metaphor here is striking and not altogether clear. The question +rises whether the altars are idolatrous altars, or Jehovah's. If the +former, the expression may mean simply that the Jews' idolatry, which +was their sin, was conspicuously displayed in these altars, and had, as +it were, its most flagrant record in their sacrifices. The altar was +the centre point of all heathen and Old Testament worship, and altars +built by sinners were the most conspicuous evidences of their sins. + +So the meaning would be that men's sin shapes and culminates in their +religion; and that is very true, and explains many of the profanations +and abominations of heathenism, and much of the formal worship of +so-called Christianity. + +For instance, a popular religion which is a mere Deism, a kind of vague +belief in a providence, and in a future state where everybody is happy, +is but the product of men's sin, striking out of Christianity all which +their sin makes unwelcome in it. The justice of God, punishment, +sinfulness of sin, high moral tone, are all gone. And the very horns of +their altars are marked with the signs of the worshippers' sin. + +But the 'altars' may be God's altars, and then another idea will come +in. The horns of the altar were the places where the blood of the +sacrifice was smeared, as token of its offering to God. They were then +a part of the ritual of propitiation. They had, no doubt, the same +meaning in the heathen ritual. And so regarded, the metaphor means that +a sense of the reality of sin shapes sacrificial religion. + +There can be no doubt that a very real conviction of sin lies at the +foundation of much, if not all, of the system of sacrifices. And it is +a question well worth considering whether a conviction so widespread is +not valid, and whether we should not see in it the expression of a true +human need which no mere culture, or the like, will supply. + +At all events, altars stand as witnesses to the consciousness of sin. +And the same thought may be applied to much of the popular religion of +this day. It may be ineffectual and shallow but it bears witness to a +consciousness of evil. So its existence may be used in order to urge +profounder realisation of evil on men. You come to worship, you join in +confessions, you say 'miserable sinners'--do you mean anything by it? +If all that be true, should it not produce a deeper impression on you? + +But another way of regarding the metaphor is this. The horns of the +altar were to be touched with the blood of propitiation. But look! the +blood flows down, and after it has trickled away, there, deep carven on +the horns, still appears the sin, _i.e._ the sin is not expiated by the +sinner's sacrifice. Jeremiah is then echoing Isaiah's word, 'Bring no +more vain oblations.' The picture gives very strikingly the +hopelessness, so far as men are concerned, of any attempt to blot out +this record. It is like the rock-cut cartouches of Egypt on which time +seems to have no effect. There they abide deep for ever. Nothing that +we can do can efface them. 'What I have written, I have written.' +Pen-knives and detergents that we can use are all in vain. + +II. Sin's writing may be erased, and another put in its place. + +The work of Christ, made ours by faith, blots it out. + +(a) Its influence on conscience and the sense of guilt. The accusations +of conscience are silenced. A red line is drawn across the indictment, +or, as Colossians has it, it is 'nailed to the cross.' There is power +in His death to set us free from the debt we owe. + +(b) Its influence on memory. Christ does not bring oblivion, but yet +takes away the remorse of remembrance. Faith in Christ makes memory no +longer a record which we blush to turn over, or upon which we gloat +with imaginative delight in guilty pleasures past, but a record of our +shortcomings that humbles us with a penitence which is not pain, but +serves as a beacon and warning for the time to come. He who has a clear +beam of memory on his backward track, and a bright light of hope on his +forward one, will steer right. + +(c) Its influence on character. + +We attain new hopes and tastes. 'We become epistles of Christ known and +read of all men,' like palimpsests, Homer or Ovid written over with the +New Testament gospels or epistles. + +Christ's work is twofold, erasure and rewriting. For the one, 'I will +blot out as a cloud their transgressions.' None but He can remove +these. For the other, 'I will put My law into their minds and will +write it on their hearts.' He can impress all holy desires on, and can +put His great love and His mighty spirit into, our hearts. + +So give your hearts to Him. They are all scrawled over with hideous and +wicked writing that has sunk deep into their substance. Graven as if on +rock are your sins in your character. Your worship and sacrifices will +not remove them, but Jesus Christ can. He died that you might be +forgiven, He lives that you may be purified. Trust yourself to Him, and +lean all your sinfulness on His atonement and sanctifying power, and +the foul words and bad thoughts that have been scored so deep into your +nature will be erased, and His own hand will trace on the page, poor +and thin though it be, which has been whitened by His blood, the fair +letters and shapes of His own likeness. Do not let your hearts be the +devil's copybooks for all evil things to scrawl their names there, as +boys do on the walls, but spread them before Him, and ask Him to make +them clean and write upon them His new name, indicating that you now +belong to another, as a new owner writes his name on a book that he has +bought. + + + + +THE HEATH IN THE DESERT AND THE TREE BY THE RIVER + +'He shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good +cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt +land and not inhabited...He shall be as a tree planted by the waters, +and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when +heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in +the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.'--JER. +xvii. 6, 8. + + +The prophet here puts before us two highly finished pictures. In the +one, the hot desert stretches on all sides. The fierce 'sunbeams like +swords' slay every green thing. The salt particles in the soil glitter +in the light. No living creature breaks the melancholy solitude. It is +a 'waste land where no one came, or hath come since the making of the +world.' Here and there a stunted, grey, prickly shrub struggles to +live, and just manages not to die. But it has no grace of leaf, nor +profitableness of fruit; and it only serves to make the desolation more +desolate. + +The other carries us to some brimming river, where everything lives +because water has come. The pictures are coloured by Eastern +experience. For in those lands more than beneath our humid skies and +weaker sunshine, the presence or absence of running water makes the +difference between barrenness and fertility. Dipping their boughs in +the sparkling current, and driving their roots through the moist soil, +the bordering trees lift aloft their pride of foliage and bear fruits +in their season. + +So, says Jeremiah, the two pictures represent two sets of men; the one, +he who diverts from their true object his heart-capacities of love and +trust, and clings to creatures and to men, 'making flesh his arm and +departing from the living God'; the other, he who leans the whole +weight of his needs and cares and sins and sorrows upon God. We can +make choice of which shall be the object of our trust, and according as +we choose the one or the other, the experience of these vivid pictures +will be ours. + +Let me briefly, then, draw out the points of contrast in these two +companion sketches. + +I. The one is in the desert, the other by the river. + +Underneath the pictures there lies this thought, that the direction of +a man's trust determines the whole cast of his life, because it +determines, as it were, the soil in which he grows. We can alter our +habitat. The plant is fixed; but 'I saw men as trees--yes! but as +'trees walking.' We can walk, and can settle where we shall be rooted +and whence we shall draw our inspiration, our confidence, our security. +The man that chooses-for it is a matter of choice--to trust in any +creature thereby wills, though he does not know it, that he shall dwell +in a 'salt land and not inhabited.' The man that chooses to cast his +whole self into the arms of God, and in a paroxysm of self-distrust to +realise the divine helpfulness and presence, that man will soon know +that he is 'planted by the river.' + +Now, the poor, little dusty shrub in the desert, whose very leaves have +been modified into prickles, is fit for the desert, and is as much at +home there as are the willows by the water-courses with their lush +vegetation in their moist bed. But if a _man_ makes that fatal choice +which so-many of us are making, of shutting out God from his confidence +and his love, and squandering these upon earth and upon creatures, he +is as fatally out of harmony with the place which he has chosen for +himself, and as much away from his natural soil, as a tropical plant +would be amongst the snows of Arctic glaciers, or a water-lily in the +Sahara. + +Considering all that I am and need, what and where is my true home and +the soil in which I can grow securely, and fear no evil? Brethren, +there is only one answer to that question. The very make of a man's +spirit points to God, and to God alone, as the natural place for him to +root and grow in. You, I, the poorest and humblest of men, will never +be right, never feel that we are in our native soil, and compassed with +the appropriate surroundings, until we have laid our hearts and our +hands on the breast of God, and rested ourselves on Him. Not more +surely do gills and fins proclaim that the creature that has them is +meant to roam through the boundless ocean, nor the anatomy and wings of +the bird witness more plainly to its destination to soar in the open +heavens than the make of your spirits testifies that God, and none less +or lower, is your portion. We are built for God, and unless we +recognise and act upon that conviction, we are like the prickly shrub +in the desert, whatever good may be around us; and if we do recognise +and act upon it, whatever parched ground may seem to stretch on all +sides, there will be soil moist enough for us to draw refreshment and +vitality from it. + +If that be so, brethren, what insanity the lives of multitudes of us +are! As well might bees try to suck honey from a vase of wax flowers as +we to draw what we need from creatures, from ourselves, from visible +and material things. + +What would you business men think of some one who went and sold out all +his stock of Government or other sound securities, and then flung the +proceeds down a hole in South Africa, out of which no gold will ever +come? He would be about as wise as are the people who fancy that these +hearts of theirs will ever be at home except they find a home in God. + +Where else will you find love that will never fail, nor change, nor +die? Where else will you find an object for the intellect that will +yield inexhaustible material of contemplation and delight? Where else +infallible direction for the will? Where else shall weakness find +unfailing strength, or sorrow, adequate consolation, or hope, certain +fulfilment, or fear, a safe hiding-place? Nowhere besides. Oh! then, +brethren, do, I beseech you, turn away your heart's confidence and love +from earth and creatures; for until the roots of your life go down into +God, and you draw your life from Him, you are not in your right soil. + +II. The one can take in no real good; the other can fear no evil. + +One verse of our text says, 'He shall not see when good cometh'; the +other one, according to our Authorised Version, 'He shall not see when +heat cometh.' But a very slight alteration of one word in the original +gives a better reading, which is adopted in the Revised Version, where +we have, 'and shall not fear when heat cometh.' That alteration is +obviously correct, because there follows immediately a parallel clause, +'and shall not be careful'--or anxious--'in the year of drought.' In +both these clauses the metaphor of the tree is a little let go; and the +man who is signified by it comes rather more to the front than in the +remainder of the picture. But that is quite natural. + +So look at these two simple thoughts for a moment. He whose trust is +set upon creatures is thereby disabled from recognising what is his +highest good. His judgment is perverted. _There_ is the explanation of +the fact that men are contented with the partial and evanescent +blessedness that may be drawn from human loves and companionship and +material things. It is because they have gone blind, and the false +direction of their confidence, has put out their eyes. And if any of my +hearers are living careless about God, and all that comes from Him, and +perfectly contented with that which they find in this visible, diurnal +sphere, that is not because they have the good which they need, but +because they do not know that good when they see it, and have lost the +power of discerning what is really for their benefit and blessedness. + +There is nothing sadder in this world than the conspiracy into which +men seem to have entered to ignore the highest good, and to profess +themselves contented with the lowest. I remember a rough parable of +Luther's--the roughness of which may be pardoned for the force and +vividness of it--which bears on this matter. He tells how a company of +swine were offered all manner of dainty and refined foods, and how, +with a unanimous swinish grunt, they answered that they preferred the +warm, reeking 'grains' from the mash-tub. The illustration is coarse, +but it is not an unfair representation of the choice that some of us +are making. + +'He cannot see when good cometh.' God comes, and I would rather have +some more money. God comes, and I prefer some woman's love. God comes, +and I would rather have a prosperous business. God comes, and I prefer +beer. So I might go the whole round. The man that cannot see good when +it is there before his face, because the false direction of his +confidence has blinded his eyes, cannot open his heart to it. It comes, +but it does not come in. It surrounds him, but it does not enter into +him. You are plunged, as it were, in a sea of possible felicity, which +will be yours if your heart's direction is towards God, and the +surrounding ocean of blessedness has as little power to fill your heart +as the sea has to enter some hermetically sealed flask, dropped into +the middle of the Atlantic. 'He cannot see when good cometh.' Blind, +blind, blind! are multitudes of us. + +Turn to the other side. 'He shall not fear when heat cometh,' which is +evil in those Eastern lands, 'and shall not be careful in the year of +drought.' The tree, that sends its roots towards a river that never +fails, does not suffer when all the land is parched. The man who has +driven his roots into God, and is drawing from that deep source what is +needful for his life and fertility, has no occasion to dread any evil, +nor to gnaw his heart with anxiety as to what he is to do in parched +days. Troubles may come, but they do not go deeper than the surface. It +may be all cracked and caked and dry, 'a thirsty land where no water +is,' and yet deep down there may be moisture and coolness. + +Faith, which is trust, and fear are opposite poles. If a man has the +one, he can scarcely have the other in vigorous operation. He that has +his trust set upon God does not need to dread anything except the +weakening or the paralysing of that trust; for so long as it lasts it +is a talisman which changes evil into good, the true philosopher's +stone which transmutes the baser metals into gold; and, so long as it +lasts, God's shield is round him and no evil can befall him. + +Brethren, if our trust is in God, it is unworthy of it and of us to +fear, for all things are His, and there is no evil in evil as men call +it, so long as it does not draw away our hearts from our Father and our +Hope. Therefore, he that fears let him trust; he that trusts let him +not be afraid. He that sets his heart and anchors his hopes of safety +on any except God, let him be afraid, for he is in a very stern world, +and if he is not fearful he is a fool. + +So the direction of our trust, if it is right, shuts all real evil out +from us, and if it is wrong, shuts us out from all real good. + +III. The one is bare, the other clothed with the beauty of foliage. + +The word which is translated 'heat' has a close connection with, if it +does not literally mean, 'naked' or 'bare.' Probably, as I have said, +it designates some inconspicuously leaved desert shrub, the particular +species not being ascertainable or a matter of any consequence. Leaves, +in Scripture, have a recognised symbolical meaning. 'Nothing but +leaves' in the story of the fig-tree meant only beautiful outward +appearance, with no corresponding outcome of goodness of heart, in the +shape of fruit. So I may venture here to draw a distinction between +leafage and fruit, and say that the one points rather to a man's +character and conduct as lovely in appearance, and in the other as +morally good and profitable. + +This is the lesson of these two clauses--misdirected confidence in +creatures strips a man of much beauty of character, and true faith in +God adorns a soul with a leafy vesture of loveliness. Now, I have no +doubt that there start up in your minds at once two objections to that +statement: first, that a great many godless men do present fair and +attractive features of character; and secondly, that a great many +Christian men do not. I admit both things frankly, and yet I say that, +for the highest good, the perfect crowning beauty of any human +character, this is needed, that it should cling to God. 'Whatsoever +things are lovely and of good report' lack their supreme excellence, +the diamond on the top of the royal crown, the glittering gold on the +summit of the campanile, unless there is in them a distinct reference +to God. + +I believe that I am speaking to some who would not profess themselves +to be religious men, and who yet are truly desirous of cultivating in +their character the Fair and the Good. To them I would venture to +say--brethren, you will never be so completely, so refinedly, so truly, +graceful as you might be, unless the roots of your character 'are hid +with Christ in God.' + + 'A servant with this clause + Makes drudgery divine,' + +said good old George Herbert. And any act, however humble, on which the +light from God falls, will gleam with a lustre else unattainable, like +some piece of broken glass in the furrows of a ploughed field. + +Sure I am that if we Christian people had a deeper faith, we should +have fairer lives. And I beseech you, my fellow-believers in Jesus +Christ, not to supply the other side with arguments against +Christianity, by showing that it is possible for a man to say and to +suppose that he sets his heart on God, and yet to bear but little +leafage of beauty or grace of character. Goodness is beauty; beauty is +goodness. Both are to be secured by communion and union with Him who is +fairer than the children of men. Dip your roots into the fountain of +life--it is the fountain of beauty as well as of life, and your lives +will be green. + +IV. Lastly, the one is sterile, the other fruitful. + +I admit, as before, that this statement often seems to be contradicted, +both by the good works of godless men, and by the bad works of godly +ones. But for all that, I would urge you to consider that the only +works of men worth calling 'fruit,' if regard is had to their +capacities, relations, and obligations, are those done as the outcome +and consequence of hearts trusting in the Lord. The rest of the man's +activities may be busy and multiplied, and, from the point of view of a +godless morality, many may be fair and good; but if we think of him as +being destined, as his chief end, 'to glorify God, and (so) to enjoy +Him for ever,' what correspondence between such a creature and acts +that are done without reference to God can there ever be? They are not +worth calling 'fruit.' At the most they are 'wild grapes,' and there +comes a time when they will be tested and the axe laid to the root of +the trees, and these imperfect deeds will shrivel up and disappear. + +Trust will certainly be fruitful. In so saying we are upon Christian +ground, which declares that the outcome of faith is conduct in +conformity with the will of Him in whom we trust, and that the +productive principle of all good in man is confidence in God manifest +to us in Jesus Christ. + +So we have not to begin with work; we have to begin with character. +'Make the tree good,' and its fruit will be good. Faith will give power +to bring forth such fruit; and faith will set agoing the motive of love +which will produce it. Thus, dear brethren, we come back to this--the +prime thing about a man is the direction which his trust takes. Is it +to God? Then the tree is good; and its fruit will be good too. If you +will trust yourselves to 'God manifest in the flesh,' to Jesus Christ +and His work for you and in you, then you will be as if 'planted by the +rivers of water,' you will be able to receive into yourselves, and will +receive, all good, and be masters of all evil, will exhibit graces of +character else impossible, and will bring forth 'fruit that shall +remain.' Separated from Him we are nothing, and can bring forth nothing +that will stand the light of that last moment. + +Brother, turn your trust to that dear Lord, and then you will have your +'fruit unto holiness, and the end shall be everlasting life,' when the +transplanting season comes, and they that have been 'planted in the +house of the Lord' below shall 'flourish in the courts of our God' +above, and grow more green and fruitful, beside the 'river of the water +of life that proceedeth from the throne of God and of the Lamb.' + + + + +A SOUL GAZING ON GOD + +'A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our +sanctuary.'--JER. xvii. 12. + + +I must begin by a word or two of explanation as to the language of this +passage. The word 'is' is a supplement, and most probably it ought to +be omitted, and the verse treated as being, not a statement, but a +series of exclamations. The next verse runs thus, 'O Lord! the hope of +Israel, all that forsake Thee shall be ashamed'; and the most natural +and forcible understanding of the words of my text is reached by +connecting them with these following clauses: 'O Lord! the hope of +Israel,' and, regarding the whole as one long exclamation of adoring +contemplation, 'A glorious throne,' or '_Thou_ glorious throne, high +from the beginning; the place of our sanctuary, O Lord! the hope of +Israel.' + +I. If we look at the words so, we have here, to begin with, a wonderful +vision of what God is. + +'A glorious throne,' or, as the original has it, 'a throne of +glory,'--which is not quite the same thing--' high from the beginning, +the place of our sanctuary.' There are three clauses. Now they all seem +to me to have reference to the Temple in Jerusalem, which is taken, by +a very natural figure of speech, as a kind of suggestive description of +Him who is worshipped there. There is the same kind of use of the name +of a place to stand for the person who occupies or inhabits it, in many +familiar phrases. For instance, 'The Sublime Porte' is properly the +name of a lofty gateway which belonged to the palace in Constantinople, +and so has come to mean the Turkish Government if Government it can be +called. So we talk of the 'Papal See' having done this or that, and +scarcely remember that a 'see' is a bishop's seat, or, again, the +decision of 'the Chair' is final in the House of Commons. Or, if you +will accept a purely municipal parallel, if any one were told that 'the +Town Hall' had issued a certain order, he would know that our +authorities, the Mayor and Corporation, had decreed so and so. So, in +precisely the same way here, the prophet takes the outward facts of the +Temple as symbolising great and blessed spiritual thoughts of the God +that filled the Temple with His own lustre. + +'A glorious throne'--that is grand, but that is not what Jeremiah +means--'A throne of glory' is the true rendering. And to what does that +refer? Now, in the greater number of cases, you will find that in the +Old Testament, where 'glory' is ascribed to God, the word has a very +distinct and specific meaning, viz. the light which was afterwards +called the 'Shekinah,' and dwelt between the cherubim, and was the +symbol of the divine presence and the assurance that that presence +would be self-revealing and would manifest Himself to His people. So +here the throne on which glory rests is what we call the _mercy-seat_ +within the veil, where, above the propitiatory table on which once a +year the High Priest sprinkled the blood of sacrifice, and beneath +which were shut up the tables of the covenant which constituted the +bond between God and Israel, shone the Light in the midst of the +darkness of the enclosed inner shrine, the token of the divine +presence. The throned glory, the glory that reigns and rules as King in +Israel, is the idea of the words before us. It is the same throne that +a later writer in the New Testament speaks of when he says, 'Let us +come boldly to the Throne of Grace.' For that light of a manifested +divine presence was no malign lustre that blinded or slew those who +gazed upon it, but though no eye but that of the High Priest dared of +old to look, yet he, the representative and, as it were, the +concentration of the collective Israel, could stand, unshrinking and +unharmed, before that piercing light, because he bore in his hand the +blood of sacrifice and sprinkled it on the mercy-seat. So was it of +old, but now we all can draw near, through the rent veil, and wall +rejoicingly in the light of the Lord. His glory is grace; His grace is +glory. + +This, then, is the first of Jeremiah's great thoughts of God, and it +means--'The Lord God omnipotent reigneth,' there is none else but He, +and His will runs authoritative and supreme into all corners of the +universe. But it is 'glory' that is throned. That is equivalent to the +declaration that our God has never spoken in secret, in the dark places +of the earth, nor said to any seeking heart, 'Seek ye My face in vain.' +For the light which shone in that Holy Place as His symbol, had for its +message to Israel the great thought that, as the sun pours out its +lustre into all the corners of its system, so He, by the +self-communication which is inherent in His very nature, manifests +Himself to every gazing eye, and is a God who is Light, 'and in whom is +no darkness at all.' + +But reigning glory is also redeeming grace. For the light of the bright +cloud, which is the glory of the Lord, shines still, with no thunder in +its depths, nor tempests in its bosom, above the mercy-seat, where +spreads the blood of sprinkling by which Israel's sins are all taken +away. Well may the prophet lift up his heart in adoring wonder, and +translate the outward symbol into this great word, 'The throne of +glory; Jehovah, the hope of Israel.' + +Then the next clause is, I think, equally intelligible by the same +process of interpretation--' High from the beginning.' It was a piece +of the patriotic exaggeration of Israel's prophets and psalmists that +they made much of the little hill upon which the Temple was set. We +read of the 'hill of the Lord's house' being 'exalted above the tops of +the mountains.' We read of it being a high hill, 'as the hill of +Bashan.' And though to the eye of sense it is a very modest elevation, +to the eye of faith it was symbolical of much. Jeremiah felt it to be a +material type, both of the elevation and of the stable duration of the +God whom he would commend to Israel's and to all men's trust. 'High +from the beginning,' separated from all creatural limitation and +lowness, He whose name is the Most High, and on whose level no other +being can stand, towers above the lowness of the loftiest creature, and +from that inaccessible height He sends down His voice, like the trumpet +from amidst the darkness of Sinai, proclaiming, 'I am God, and there is +none beside Me.' Yet while thus 'holy'--that is, separate from +creatures--He makes communion with Himself possible to us, and draws +near to us in Christ, that we in Christ may be made nigh to Him. + +And the loftiness involves, necessarily, timeless and changeless Being; +so that we can turn to Him, and feel Him to be 'the same yesterday, and +to-day, and for ever.' No words are needed, and no human words are +anything but tawdry attempts to elaborate, which only result in +weakening, these two great thoughts. 'High--from the beginning.' + +The last of this series of symbols, even more plainly than the other +two, refers originally to the Temple upon the hill of Zion; and +symbolically, to the God who filled the Temple. He is 'the place of our +sanctuary.' That is as though the prophet would point, as the wonderful +climax of all, to the fact that He of whom the former things were true +should yet be accessible to our worship; that, if I might so say, our +feet could tread the courts of the great Temple; and we draw near to +Him who is so far above the loftiest, and separate from all the +magnificences which Himself has made, and who yet is 'our sanctuary,' +and accessible to our worship. + +Ay! and more than that--'Lord! Thou hast been our _dwelling-place_ in +all generations.' In old days the Temple was more than a place of +worship. It was a place where a man coming had, according to ancient +custom, guest rights with God; and if he came into the Temple of the +Most High as to an asylum, he dwelt there safe and secure from avengers +or foes. + +'The place of our sanctuary,' then, declares that God Himself, like +some ancestral dwelling-place in which generation after generation of +fathers and children have abode, whence they have been carried, and +where their children still live, is to all generations their home and +their fortress. The place of our sanctuary implies access to the +inaccessibly High, communion with the infinitely Separate, security and +abode in God Himself. He that dwelleth in God dwelleth in peace. These, +then, are the points of the prophet's vision of God. + +II. Note, further, the soul rapt in meditation and this vision of God. + +To me, this long-drawn-out series of linked clauses without grammatical +connection, this succession of adoring exclamations of rapture, wonder, +and praise, is very striking. It suggests the manner in which we should +vivify all our thoughts of God, by turning them into material for +devout reverence; awe-struck, considering meditation. There is nothing +told us in the Bible about God simply in order that we may know it. It +is all meant to be fuel to the fire of our divine affection; to kindle +in us the sentiments of faith and love and rapturous adoration. It is +easy to know the theology of the Old and the New Testaments, and a man +may rattle over the catalogue of the divine 'attributes,' as they are +called, with perfect accuracy, and never be a hair the better for +knowing all of them. So I urge, on you and on myself, the necessity of +warming our thoughts and kindling our conceptions of what God is until +they melt us into fluidity and adoration and love. + +I believe that there are few things which we Christian people more lack +in this generation, and by the lack of which we suffer more, than the +comparative decay of the good old habit of frequent and patient +meditation on the things that we most surely believe. We are so busy in +adding to our stock of knowledge, in following out to their latest +consequence the logical effects of our Christianity, and in defending +it, or seeking to be familiar with the defences, against modern +assaults, or in practical work on its behalf, that the last thing that +a great many of us do is to feed upon the truth which we know already. +We should be like ruminant animals who first crop the grass--which, +being interpreted, means, get Scripture truth into our heads--and then +chew the cud, which being interpreted is, then put these truths through +a second process by meditation on them, so that they may turn into +nourishment and make flesh. 'He that eateth Me,' said Jesus Christ (and +He used there the word which is specially applied to rumination), +'shall live by Me.' It does us no good to know that God is 'the Throne +of Glory, high from the beginning, the place of our sanctuary,' unless +we turn theology into devotion by meditation upon it. 'Suffer the word +of exhortation '--in busy, great communities like ours, where we are +all driven so hard, there is need for some voices sometimes to be +lifted up in pressing upon Christian people the duty of quiet +rumination upon the truths that they have. + +III. We may see in our text, further, the meditative soul going out to +grasp God thus revealed, as its portion and hope. + +As I have already said, the text is best understood as part of a series +of exclamations which extends into the following verse. If we take +account of the whole series, and regard the subsequent part of it as +led up to, by the part which is our text, we get an important thought +as to what should be the outcome of the truths concerning God, and of +our meditative contemplation of them. + +My relation to these truths is not exhausted even when I have meditated +upon them, and they have touched me into a rapture of devotion. I can +conceive that to have been done, and yet the next necessary step not to +have been taken. What is that step? The next verse tells us, when it +goes on to exclaim, 'O Lord! _the hope of Israel_.' I must cast myself +upon Him by faith as my only hope, and turn away from all other +confidences which are vain and impotent. So we are back upon that +familiar Christian ground, that the bond which knits a man to God, and +by which all that God is becomes that man's personal property, and +available for the security and the shaping of his life, is the simple +flinging of himself into God's arms, in sure and certain trust. Then, +every one of these characteristics of which I have been speaking will +contribute its own special part to the serenity, the security, the +godlikeness, the blessedness, the righteousness, the strength of the +man who thus trusts. + +But such confidence which makes all these things my own possessions, +which makes Him 'a throne of glory,' to which I have access; which +makes Him a place in which I dwell by this exercise of personal faith; +which makes Him my hope, has for its other side the turning away from +all other grounds of confidence and security. The subsequent context +tells us how wise it is thus to turn away, and what folly it is to make +anything else our hope except that 'throne of glory.' 'They that depart +from Me shall be written in the earth,' because 'they have forsaken the +Lord, the fountain of living waters.' If we say, 'O Lord! Thou art my +hope,' we shall have the 'anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast, which +entereth within the veil,' and fixes on Him who is within it, the +throned Grace between the cherubim, our Brother and our Hope. So we may +dwell in God, and from the secure height of our house look down +serenely on impotent foes, and never know the bitterness of vain hopes, +nor remove from the safe asylum of our home in God. + + + + +TWO LISTS OF NAMES + +'They that depart from Me shall be written in the earth'--JER. xvii. +13. 'Rejoice that your names are written in heaven.'--LUKE x. 20. + + +A name written on earth implies that the bearer of the name belongs to +earth, and it also secondarily suggests that the inscription lasts but +for a little while. Contrariwise, a name written in heaven implies that +its bearer belongs to heaven, and that the inscription will abide. + +We find running throughout Scripture the metaphor of books in which +men's names are written. Moses thought of a book which God has written, +and in which his name was enrolled. A psalmist speaks of the 'book of +the living,' and Isaiah of those who are 'written among the living in +Jerusalem.' Ezekiel threatens the prophets who speak lies in Jehovah's +name that they 'shall not be written in the writing of the house of +Israel.' The Apocalypse has many references to the book which is +designated as 'the Lamb's book of life,' and which is opened at the +final judgment along with the books in which each man's life-history is +written, and only 'they who are written in the Lamb's book of life' +enter into the city that comes down out of heaven. + +I. The principle on which the two lists are made up. + +It is commonly supposed that the idea of unconditional predestination +is implied in the writing of the names in the book of life. There is +nothing in the figure itself to lead to that, and the text from +Jeremiah suggests, on the contrary, that the voluntary attitude of men +to God determines their being or not being inscribed in the book of +heaven, since it is 'they who depart from God' whose 'names are written +on earth.' + +Then, since in the New Testament the book of life is called 'the +Lamb's,' we are led to think of Christ as writing in it, and hence of +our faith in Him as being the condition of enrolling our names. + +II. The significance of the lists. + +They are lists of the living and of the dead. + +True life is in fellowship with God. The other is the register of the +burials in a graveyard. + +They are lists of the citizens of two cities. + +The idea is that the one class have relations and affinities with the +celestial, are 'fellow-citizens with the saints,' and have heaven as +their metropolis, their mother city. Therefore they are but as aliens +here, and should not wish to be naturalised. The other class are +citizens of the earthly, belonging to the present, with all their +thoughts and desires bounded by this visible diurnal sphere. + +They are lists of those who shall be forgotten, and their works +annihilated, and of those who shall be remembered and their work +crowned. + +The names written on earth are swiftly obliterated, like a child's +scrawl on the sand which is washed away by the next tide, or covered up +by the next storm that blows about the sand-hills. What a contrast is +that of the names written on the heavens, high up above all earthly +mutations! + +In one sense oblivion soon seizes on us all. In another none of us is +ever forgotten by God, but good and bad alike live in His thought. +Still this idea of a special remembrance has place, as suggesting that, +however unnoticed or forgotten on earth, God's children live in the +true 'Golden Book.' Their names are in the book of life. 'Of so much +fame, in heaven expect the meed.' Ay, and as, too, suggesting how brief +after all is the honour that comes from men. + +Also, there will be annihilation or perpetuation of their life's work. +Nothing lasts but the will of God. Men who live godless lives are +engaged in true Sisyphean labour. They are running counter to the whole +stream of things, and what can be left at the end but frustrated +endeavours covered with a gloomy pall? + +Is your life to be wasted? + +They are lists of those who are accepted in judgment, and of those who +are not. + +Rev. xx. 12, 15; xxi. 27. + +The books of men's lives are to be opened, and also the book of life. +What is written in the former can only bring condemnation. If our names +are written in the latter, then He will 'confess our names before His +Father and the holy angels.' And He will joyfully inscribe them there +if we say to Him, like the man in _Pilgrim's Progress_, 'Set down my +name.' He will write them not only there, but on the palms of His hands +and the tablets of His heart. + + + + +YOKES OF WOOD AND IRON + +'Go and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord; Thou hast broken +the yokes of wood; but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron.'--JER. +xxviii. 13. + + +I suppose that I had better begin by a word of explanation as to the +occasion of this saying. One king of Judah had already been carried off +to Babylon, and the throne refilled by his brother, a puppet of the +conquerors. This shadow of a king, with the bulk of the nation, was +eager for revolt. Jeremiah had almost single-handed to stem the tide of +the popular wish. He steadfastly preached submission, not so much to +Nebuchadnezzar as to God, who had sent the invaders as chastisement. +The lesson was a difficult one to learn, and the people hated the +teacher. In the Jerusalem of Jeremiah's day, as in other places and at +other times, a love of country which is not blind to its faults and +protests against a blatant militarism, was scoffed at as 'unpatriotic,' +'playing into the hands of the enemy,' 'seeking peace at any price,' +whilst an insane eagerness to rush to arms without regard to resources +or righteousness was called a 'spirited foreign policy.' So Jeremiah +had plenty of enemies. + +He had adopted a strange way of enforcing his counsel, which would be +ridiculous to-day, but was natural and impressive then and there. He +constantly for months went about with an ox-yoke on his neck, as a +symbol of the submission which he advocated. One day, in the temple, +before a public assembly, a certain Hananiah, a member of the opposite +faction, made a fierce attack on the prophet and his teaching, and +uttered a counter-prophecy to the effect that, in two years, the +foreign invasion would be at an end, and all would be as it used to be. +Our prophet answered very quietly, saying in effect, 'I hope to God +that it may be true; the event will show.' And then Hananiah, +encouraged by his meekness, proceeded to violence, tore the yoke off +his shoulders and snapped it in two, reiterating his prophecy. Then +Jeremiah went away home. + +Soon after, the voice which he knew to be God's, and not his own +thoughts, spoke within him, and gave a much sharper answer. God +declared, through Jeremiah, the plain truth that, for a tiny kingdom +like Judah to perk itself up in the face of a world-conquering power +like Babylon, could only bring down greater severity from the +conqueror. And then he declared that Hananiah, for rebellion--not +against Babylon, but against God, the true King of Israel--would be +taken from the earth. He died in a couple of months. + +My text forms the first word of this divine message. I have nothing +more to do with its original application. It gives a picturesque +setting to a very impressive and solemn truth; very familiar, no doubt, +but none the less because of its familiarity needing to be dinned into +people's ears. It is that to throw off legitimate authority is to bind +on a worse tyranny. To some kind of yoke all of us must bend our necks, +and if we slip them out we do not thereby become independent, but +simply bring upon ourselves a heavier pressure of a harder bondage. The +remainder of my remarks will simply go to illustrate that principle in +two or three cases of ascending importance. I begin at the bottom. + +I. We have the choice between the yoke of law and the iron yoke of +lawlessness. + +We all know that society could not be held together without some kind +of restraints upon what is done, and some stimulus to do what is apt to +be neglected. Even a band of brigands, or a crew of pirates, must have +some code. I have read somewhere that the cells in a honeycomb are +circles squeezed by the pressure of the adjacent cells into the +hexagonal shape which admits of contiguity. If they continued circles +there would be space and material lost, and no complete continuity. So, +in like manner, you cannot keep five men together without some mutual +limitations which are shaped into a law. Now, as long as a man keeps +inside it, he does not feel its pressure. A great many of us, for +instance, who are in the main law-abiding people, do not ever remember +that there is such a thing as restrictions upon our licence, or as +obligations to perform certain duties; for we never think either of +taking the licence or of shirking the duties. The yoke that is accepted +ceases to press. Once let a man step outside, and what then? Why, then, +he is an outlaw; and the rough side of the law is turned to him, and +all possible terrors, which people within the boundary have nothing to +do with, gather themselves together and frown down upon him. The sheep +that stops inside the pasture is never torn by the barbed wires of the +fence. If you think of the life of a criminal, with all its tricks and +evasions, taking 'every bush to be an officer,' as Shakespeare says; or +as the first of the brood who was the type of them all said, 'Every man +that seeth me shall kill me': if you think of the sword that hangs over +the head of every law-breaker, and which he knows is hanging by a hair; +if you think of men in counting-houses who have manipulated the books +of the firm, and who durst not be away from their desks for a day lest +all should come to light; and if you think of the punishment that +follows sooner or later, you will see that it is better to bear the +light yoke of the law than the heavy yoke of crime. Some men buy their +ruin very dearly. + +So much for the individual. But there is another aspect of this same +principle on which I venture to say a word, although it is only a word, +in passing. I do not suppose that there are many of my hearers who are +likely to commit overt breaches of the law. But there are a great many +of us who are apt to neglect the obligations of citizenship. In a +community like ours, laziness, fastidiousness, absorption in our own +occupations, and a number of other more or less reputable reasons, +tempt many to stand aloof from the plain imperative obligations of +every citizen in a free country. Every man who thus neglects to do his +part for the common weal does his part in handing over the rule of the +community to the least worthy. You will find--as you see in some +democratic countries to-day, where the cultivated classes, and the +classes with the sternest morality, have withdrawn in disgust from the +turmoil--the mob having the upper hand, the least worthy scrambling +into high places, and the community suffering, and bearing a heavier +yoke, by reason of the unwillingness of some to bear the yoke and do +the duty of a citizen. Vice lifts up its head, morality is scouted, +self-interest is pursued unblushingly, and the whole tone of public +opinion is lowered. Christian men and women, remember that you are +members of a community, and you bear the yoke of responsibility +therefore; and if you do not discharge your obligation, then you will +have a heavier burden still to bear. + +I need not remind you, I suppose, of how this same thesis--that we have +to choose between the yoke of law and the iron yoke of lawlessness--is +illustrated in the story of almost all violent revolutions. They run +the same course. First a nation rises up against intolerable +oppression, then revolution devours its own children, and the scum +rises to the top of the boiling pot. Then comes, in the language of the +picturesque historian of the French Revolution, the type of them +all--then comes at the end 'the whiff of grapeshot' and the despot. +First the government of a mob, and then the tyranny of an emperor, +crush the people that shake off the yoke of reasonable law. That is my +first point. + +II. Let me take a higher illustration;--we have to choose between the +yoke of virtue and the iron yoke of vice. + +We are under a far more spiritual and searching law than that written +in any statute-book, or administered by any court. Every man carries +within his own heart the court, the tribunal; the culprit and the +judge. And here too, if law is not obeyed, the result is not liberty, +but the slavery of lawlessness. + +No man can ponder his own nature and make without feeling that on every +fibre of him is stamped a great law which he is bound to obey, and that +on every fibre of him is impressed the necessity of part of his nature +coercing, restraining, or spurring other parts of it. For, if we take +stock of ourselves, what do we find? The broad basis of the pyramid, as +it were, is laid in the faculties nearest the earth, the appetites +which are inseparable from our corporeal being, and these know nothing +about right or wrong, but are utterly blind to such distinctions. Put a +loaf before a hungry man, and his mouth waters, whether the loaf +belongs to himself or whether it is inside a baker's window. + +Then above these, as the next course of the pyramid, there are other +desires, sentiments, affections, and emotions, less grossly sensuous +than those of which I have been speaking, but still equally certain to +be excited by the presence of their appropriate object, without any +consideration of whether law is broken or kept in securing of it. Above +these, which are, so to speak, branded on their very foreheads with the +iron of slavery, stand certain faculties which are as clearly anointed +to rule as the others are intended to serve. There is reason or +intelligence, which is evidently meant to be eyes to these blind +instincts and emotions of desire, and there is what we call the power +of will, that stands like an engine-driver with his hand upon the lever +which will either stop the engine or accelerate its revolutions. It +says to passions and desires 'Go!' and they go; and, alas! it sometimes +says 'Halt!' and they will not halt. Then there is conscience, which +brings to light for every man something higher than himself. A great +philosopher once said that the two sublimest things in the universe +were the moral law and the starry heavens; and that law 'I ought' bends +over us like the starry heavens with which he associated it. No man can +escape from the pressure of duty, and on every man is laid, by his very +make, the twofold obligation, first to look upwards and catch the +behests of that solemn law, and then to turn his eyes and his strength +inwards and coerce or spur, as the case may be, the powers of his +nature, and rule the kingdom within himself. + +Now, as long as a man lets the ruling parts of his nature guide the +lower faculties, he feels comparatively no pressure from the yoke. But, +if he once allows beggars to ride on horseback whilst princes +walk--sense and appetite and desire, and more or less refined forms of +inclination, to take the place which belongs only to conscience +interpreting duty--then he has exchanged the easy yoke for one that is +heavy indeed. + +What does a man do when, instead of loyally accepting the conditions of +his nature, and bowing himself to serve the all-embracing and +all-penetrating law of duty, he sets up inclination of any sort in its +place? What does he do? I will tell you. He unships the helm; he flings +compass and sextant overboard; he fires up the furnaces, and screws +down the safety-valve, and says, 'Go ahead!' And what will be the end +of that, think you? Either an explosion or a crash upon a reef; and you +may take your choice of which is the better kind of death--to be blown +up or to go down. Keep within the law of conscience, and let it govern +all inclinations, and most of all the animal part of your nature; and +you will feel little pressure, and no pain, from the yoke. Shake it +off, and there is fulfilled in the disobedient man the threatening of +my text, which rightly translated ought to be, 'Thou hast broken the +yokes of wood, and thou _hast_ made instead of them yokes of iron.' + +For do you think it will be easy to serve the base-born parts of your +nature, when you set them on the throne and tell them to govern you? +Did you never hear of such a thing as a man's vices getting such a hold +on him that, when his weakened will tried to shake them off, they +laughed in his face and said, 'Here we are still'? Did you never hear +of that other solemn truth--and have you never experienced how true it +is?--that no man can say, 'I will let my inclination have its fling +this once'? There are never 'this onces.' or very, very seldom. When +you are glissading down a snowy Alpine slope, you cannot stop when you +like, though you strike your alpenstock ever so deep into the powdery +snow. If you have started, away you must go. God be thanked! the +illustration does not altogether apply, for a man can stop if he will +repent, but he cannot stop unless he does. Did you never hear that a +teaspoonful of narcotic to-day will have to be a tablespoonful in a +week or two, to produce the same effect? Are there not plenty of men +who have said with all the force that a weakened will has left in it, +'I will never touch a drop of drink again, as long as I live, God +helping me'?--and they have gone down the street, and they have turned +in, not at the first or the second public-house, but at the fourth or +the fifth. Ah! brother, 'they promised them liberty, but they are the +servants of corruption.' Fix this in your minds. 'He that committeth +sin is the slave of sin,' of the sin that he commits. Do not put off +the easy yoke of obedience to conscience and duty, or you will find +that there is an iron one, with many a sharp point in its unpolished +surface rubbing into your skin and wounding your shoulders. 'It's wiser +to be good than bad. It's safer to be meek than fierce.' 'Thou hast +broken the yokes of wood'; it is not difficult to do that; 'thou hast +made instead of them yokes of iron.' That is my second point. + +III. Lastly, we have the choice between the yoke of Christ and the iron +yoke of godlessness. + +You may think that to be a very harsh saying, and much too vehement an +antithesis. Let me vindicate it according to my own belief in a +sentence or two. It seems to me that for civilised and cultivated +Europe at this day, the choice lies between accepting Jesus Christ as +the _Revealer_ of God, or wandering away out into the wastes of +uncertainty, or as they call it nowadays, agnosticism and doubt. I +believe myself, and I venture to state it here--though there is not +time to do more than state it--that no form of what is now called +Theism, which does not accept the historic revelation of God in Jesus +Christ as the 'master-light of all our seeing,' will ever be able to +sustain itself permanently in the face of present currents of opinion. +If you do not take Christ for your Teacher, you are handed over either +to the uncertainty of your own doubts, or to pinning your faith to some +man and enrolling yourself as a disciple who is prepared to swallow +down whole whatsoever the rabbi may say, and so giving to him what you +will not give to Jesus; or else you will sink back into utter indolence +and carelessness about the whole matter; or else you will go and put +your belief and your soul into the hands of a priest, and shut your +eyes and open your mouth and take whatever tradition may choose to send +you. The one refuge from all these, as I believe, is to go to Him and +learn of Him, and so take His yoke upon your shoulders. + +But, let me say further, it is better to obey Christ's _commandments_ +than to set ourselves against them. For if we will take His will for +our law, and meekly assume the yoke of loyal and loving obedience to +Him, the door into an earthly paradise is thrown open to us. His yoke +is easy, not because its prescriptions and provisions lower the +standard of righteousness and morality, but because love becomes the +motive; and it is always blessed to do that which the Beloved desires. +When 'I will' and 'I ought' cover exactly the same ground, then there +is no kind of pressure from the yoke. Christ's yoke is easy because, +too, He gives the power to obey His commandments. His burden is such a +burden (as I think one of the old fathers puts it) as sails are to a +ship or wings to a bird. They add to the weight, but they carry that +which carries them. So Christ's yoke bears the man that bears it. It is +easy, too, because 'in,' and not only after or for, 'keeping of it +there is great reward'; seeing that He commands nothing which is not +congruous with the highest good, and bringing along with it the purest +blessing. Instead of that yoke, what has the world to offer, or what do +we get to dominate us, if we cast off Christ? Self, the old anarch +self, and that is misery. To be self-ruled is to be self-destroyed. + +There is no need that I should remind you of how it is better to accept +Christ's _providences_ than to kick against them. Sorrow to which we +submit loses all its bitterness and much of its sadness. Kicking +against the affliction makes its sharp point penetrate our limbs. The +bird that will dash itself against the wires of its cage beats itself +all bloody and torn. Let us take the providence and it ceases to be +hard. + +One last word;--we all carry an iron yoke upon our shoulders. For, hard +as it is for us preachers to get our friends that listen to us to +believe and realise it, 'We all have sinned and come short of the glory +of God.' That yoke is on us all. And I, for my part, believe that no +man by his own efforts can cast it off, but that the attempt to do so +often brings greater strength to the sins that we seek to cast out, +just as the more you mow the grass, the thicker and the stronger it +grows. So I come with the great message which Jesus Christ Himself +struck as the keynote and prelude of His whole ministry, when in the +synagogue He said, 'The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me ... to preach +deliverance to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that +are bound.' He, and He only, will break every yoke and let the +oppressed go free. And then He addresses us, after He has done that, +with the immortal words, the sweetness of whose sound, sweet as it is, +is less than the sweetness of their sense: 'Take My yoke upon you ... +and ye shall find rest to your souls.' Oh, brother! will you not +answer, 'O Lord! truly I am Thy servant. Thou hast loosed my bonds, and +thereby bound me for ever to wear Thy yoke'; as the slave clings to his +ransomer, and delights to serve him all the days of his life? + + + + +WHAT THE STABLE CREATION TEACHES + +'If those ordinances depart from before Me, saith the Lord, then the +seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me for +ever.'--JER. xxxi. 36. + + +This is the seal of the new covenant, which is to be made in days +future to the prophet and his contemporaries, with the house of Israel +and of Judah. That new covenant is referred to in Hebrews as the +fundamental law of Christ's kingdom. Therefore we have the right to +take to ourselves the promises which it contains, and to think of 'the +house of Israel' and 'the seed of Jacob' as including us, 'though +Abraham be ignorant of us.' + +The covenant and its pledge are equally grand. The very idea of a +covenant as applied to God is wonderful. It is meant to teach us that, +from all the infinite modes of action possible to Him, He has chosen +One; that He has, as it were, marked out a path for Himself, and +confined the freedom of His will and the manifold omnipotences of His +power to prescribed limits, that He has determined the course of His +future action. It is meant to teach us, too, the other grand thought +that He has declared to us what that course is, not leaving us to learn +it piecemeal by slow building up of conclusions about His mind from His +actions as they come forth, but inversely telling us His mind and +purpose in articulate and authentic words by which we are to interpret +each successive work of His. He makes known His purposes. 'Before they +spring forth I tell you of them.' + +It is meant to teach us, too, that He regards Himself as bound by the +declaration which He has made, so that we may rest secure on this +strong foundation of His faithfulness and His truth, and for all doubts +and fears find the sufficient cure in His own declaration: 'My covenant +will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of My lips.' No +wonder that the dying king found the strength of his failing heart in +the thought, 'He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in +all things and sure.' + +The weighty promises of this solemn bond of God's cover the whole +ground of our spiritual necessities--forgiveness of sins, true, +personal, direct acquaintance with God, an intercommunion of mutual +possession between Him who is ours and us who are His, and an inward +sanctification by which His precepts shall coincide with our desires. +These are the blessings which He binds Himself to bestow. + +And of this transcendent pact, the seal and guarantee is worthy. God +descends to ratify a bond with man. By it He binds Himself to give all +possible good for the soul. And to confirm it heaven and earth are +called in. He points us to all that is august, stable, immense, +inscrutable in the works of His hands, and bids us see there His pledge +that He will be a faithful, covenant-keeping God. Sun, moon and stars, +heaven, earth and sea--'ye are My witnesses,' saith the Lord. + +God's unchangeable love is the true lesson from the stable regularity +of the universe. The tone in which Scripture speaks of external nature +in all its parts is very remarkable, altogether peculiar. It does not +take the aesthetic or the scientific, but the purely religious point of +view. + +I. The facts. All nature is directly the effect of God's will and +power. 'He giveth,' 'He divideth' (v. 35). + +The physical universe presents a spectacle of stable regularity. + +This regularity is the consequence of sovereign, divine will. These +ordinances are not laws of _nature_, but of God. + +II. The use commonly made of the facts. + +Ordinary unthinking worldliness sees nothing noticeable in them because +they come uniformly. Earthquakes startle, but the firmness of the solid +earth attracts no observation. God is thought to speak in the +extraordinary, but most men do not hear His voice in the normal. + +Scientific godlessness formularises this tendency into a system, and +proclaims that laws are everything and God a mere algebraical _x_. + +III. The lesson which they are meant to teach. + +God's works are a revelation of God. + +There is nothing in effect which is not in cause, and the stability of +these ordinances carries our thoughts back to an unchanging Ordainer. + +They witness to His constancy of purpose or will. His acts do not come +from caprice, nor are done as experiments, but are the stable +expression of uniform and unchanging will. + +They witness to His unfailing energy of power, which 'operates unspent' +and is to-day as fresh as at creation's birth. + +They witness to a single end pursued through all changes, and by all +varieties of means. Darkness and light, sun rising and setting, storm +and sunshine, summer and winter, all serve one end. As a horizontal +thrust may give rise to opposite circular motions which all issue in +working out an onward progress, so the various dealings of Providence +with us are all adapted to 'work together,' and that 'for good.' + +They witness that life, joy, beauty, flow from obedience. + +Thus, then, these ordinances in their stability are witnesses. But they +are inferior witnesses. The noblest revelation of the divine +faithfulness and unchangeable purpose of good is in Jesus. And these +witnesses will one day pass. Even now they have their changes, slow and +unmarked by a short-lived man. Stars burn out, there have been violent +convulsions, shocks and shatterings in the heavens, and a time comes, +as even physical science predicts, when 'the heavens shall vanish away +like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment,' but that to +which they witnessed shall endure, 'My salvation shall be for ever, and +My righteousness shall not be abolished.' The created lights grow dim +and die out, but in 'the Father of lights' is 'no variableness, neither +shadow that is cast by turning.' + +Hence we see what our confidence should be. It should stand firm and +changeless as the Covenant, and we should move in our orbits as the +stars and hearken to the voice of His word as do they. Let us see to it +that we have faith to match His faithfulness, and that our confidence +shall be firmer than the mountains, more stable than the stars. + + + + +WHAT THE IMMENSE CREATION TEACHES + +'If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth +searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for +all that they have done, saith the Lord.'--JER. xxxi. 37. + +In the former sermon we considered the previous verse as presenting the +stability of creation as a guarantee of the firmness of God's gracious +covenant. Now we have to consider these grand closing words which bring +before us another aspect of the universe as a guarantee for another +side of God's gracious character. The immensity of creation is a symbol +of the inexhaustibleness of the forgiving love of God. + +I. A word or two as to the fact here used as a symbol of the divine +long-suffering. + +The prophet had very likely no idea at all beyond the ordinary one that +presents itself to the senses--a boundless vault above an endless plain +on which we stand, deep, sunless foundations, the Titanic substructions +on which all rests, going down who knows where, resting on who knows +what. We may smile at the rude conception, but it will be well for us +if we can get as vivid an impression of the fact as He had. + +We thankfully avail ourselves of modern science to tell us something +about the dimensions of this awful universe of ours. We learn to know +that there are millions of miles between these neighbour orbs, that +light which has been travelling for thousands of years may not yet have +fallen on some portion of the mighty whole, that the planetary masses +of our system are but tiny specks in the whole, that every fresh stride +which astronomical observation takes but opens up new nebulae to be +resolved, where suns and constellations and systems are dwarfed by +distance into hazy brightness which hardly deserves the name of light. +We know all this, and can find all about the distances in any book. So +much for space. Then the geologist comes to bewilder us still more, +with extension in time. + +But while all this may serve to give definiteness to the impression, +after all, perhaps, it is the eye alone, as it gazes, that really feels +the impression. Astronomy is really a very prosaic science. + +II. The effects which this immensity often produces on men. + +Very commonly in old days it led to actual idolatry, bowing down before +these calm, unreachable brightnesses. In our days it too often leads to +forgetting God altogether, and not seldom to disbelief that man can be +of any account in such a universe. We are told that the notions of a +covenant, a redemption, or that God cares about us are presumptuous. We +all know the talk of men who are so modestly conscious of their own +insignificance that they rebuke God for saying that He loves us, and +Christians for believing Him. + +III. The true lesson. + +The immensity of the material universe is for us a symbol of the +infinity of God's long-suffering love. + +The creation proceeds from a greater Creator. That gigantic and +overwhelming magnitude, that hoary and immemorial age, that complicated +and innumerable multitude of details, what less can they show than ONE +Eternal and Infinite? + +The immense suggests the infinite. + +Granted that you cannot from the immense creation rise logically to the +Infinite Creator, still the facts that the soul conceives that there is +an infinite God, and is conscious of the spontaneous evoking of that +thought by the contemplation of the immeasurable, are strong reasons +for believing that it is a legitimate process of thought which hears +the name of God thundered from the far-off depths of the silent +heavens. The heavens cannot be measured, no plummet can reach to the +deep foundations of the earth. We are surrounded by a universe which to +our apprehensions is boundless. How much more so from expansions of our +conceptions of celestial magnitudes since Jeremiah's days, and what is +to be the lesson from that? That we are insignificant atoms in this +mighty whole? that God is far away from us? that the material stretches +so far that perhaps there is nothing beyond? + +The thought of faith is that the material immensity teaches me my God's +infinity, and especially His inexhaustible patience with us sinners. It +teaches us the unfathomed depths of His gracious heart, and the abysses +of His mysterious providence, and the unbounded sweep of His +long-suffering forgiveness. His forgiving forbearance reaches further +than the limits of the heavens. Not till these can be measured will it +be exhausted, and the seed of Israel cast off for what they have done. + +He, the Infinite Father, above all creation, mightier than it, is our +true home, and living in Him we have an abode which can never be +'dissolved,' and above us stretch far-shining glories, unapproached +masses of brightness, nebulae of blessedness, spaces where the eye +fails and the imagination faints. All is ours, our eternal possession, +the inexhaustible source of our joy. Astronomers tell of light which +has been travelling for millenniums and has not yet reached this globe; +but what is that to the flashing glories which through eternity shall +pour on us from Him? So, then, our confidence should be firm and +inexhaustible. + +God has written wondrous lessons in His creation. But they are +hieroglyphs, of which the key is lost, till we hear Christ and learn of +Him. God has set His glories in the heavens and the earth is full of +His mercy, but these are lesser gifts than that which contains them all +and transcends them all, even His Son by whom He made the worlds, +and--mightier still--by whom He redeemed man. God has written His mercy +in the heavens and His faithfulness in the clouds, but His mercy and +His faithfulness are more commended to us in Him who was before all +things, and of whom it is written: 'As a vesture shalt Thou fold them +up, but Thou art the same and Thy years shall not fail.' God has +confirmed the covenant of His love to us by the faithful witnesses in +the heavens, but the love shall abide when they have perished. The +heavens bend above us all, and over the head of every man the zenith +stands. Every spot of this low earth is smiled upon by that serene +apocalypse of the loving will of God. No lane is so narrow and foul in +the great city, no spot is so bare and lonely in the waste desert, but +that thither the sunlight comes, and there some patch of blue above +beckons the downcast eye to look up. The day opens its broad bosom +bathed in light, and shows the sun in the heavens, the Lord of light, +to preach to us of the true light. The night opens deeper abysses and +fills them with stars, to preach to us how fathomless and immense His +loving kindnesses and tender mercy are. They are witnesses to thee, +dear friend, whatsoever thy heart, whatsoever thy sins, whatsoever thy +memories. No iniquity can shut out God's forgiving love. You cannot +build out the heavens. He will not be sent away; you cannot measure, +you cannot conceive, you cannot exhaust, His pardoning love. No storms +disturb that serene sky. It is always there, blazing down upon us +unclouded with all its orbs. Trust Christ; and then as years roll on, +you will find that infinite love growing ever greater to your loving +eyes, and through eternity will move onwards in the happy atmosphere +and boundless heaven of the inexhaustible, deep heart and changeless +love of God. + + + + +A THREEFOLD DISEASE AND A TWOFOLD CURE. + +'I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned +against Me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have +sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against Me.'--JER. xxxiii. 8. + + +Jeremiah was a prisoner in the palace of the last King of Judah. The +long, national tragedy had reached almost the last scene of the last +act. The besiegers were drawing their net closer round the doomed city. +The prophet had never faltered in predicting its fall, but he had as +uniformly pointed to a period behind the impending ruin, when all +should be peace and joy. His song was modulated from a saddened minor +to triumphant jubilation. In the beginning of this chapter he has +declared that the final struggles of the besieged will only end in +filling the land with their corpses, and then, from that lowest depth, +he soars in a burst of lyrical prophecy conceived in the highest poetic +style. The exiles shall return, the city shall be rebuilt, its desolate +streets shall ring with hymns of praise and the voices of the +bridegroom and the bride. The land shall be peopled with peaceful +husbandmen, and white with flocks. There shall be again a King upon the +throne; sacrifices shall again be offered. 'In those days, and at that +time, will I cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto +David.... In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell +safely; and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, the Lord +our righteousness.' That fair vision of the future begins with the +offer of healing and cure, and with the exuberant promise of my text. +The first thing to be dealt with was Judah's sin; and that being taken +away, all good and blessing would start into being, as flowerets will +spring when the baleful shadow of some poisonous tree is removed. Now, +my text at first reading seems to expend a great many unnecessary words +in saying the same thing over and over again, but the accumulation of +synonyms not only emphasises the completeness of the promise, but also +presents different aspects of that promise. And it is to these that I +crave your attention in this sermon. The great words of my text are as +true a gospel for us--and as much needed by us, God knows!--as they +were for Jeremiah's contemporaries; and we can understand them better +than either he or they did, because the days that were to come then +have come now, and the King who was to reign in righteousness is +reigning to-day, and His Name is Christ. My object now is, as simply as +I can, to draw your attention to the two points in this text: a +threefold view of our sad condition, and a twofold bright hope. + +Now for the first of these. There is here-- + +I. A threefold view of the sad condition of humanity. + +Observe the recurrence of the same idea in our text in different words: +'Their iniquity whereby they have sinned against Me.' ... 'Their +iniquity whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed +against Me.' You see there are three expressions which roughly may be +taken as referring to the same ugly fact, but yet not meaning quite the +same--'iniquity, or iniquities, sin, transgression.' These three all +speak of the same sad element in your experience and mine, but they +speak it from somewhat different points of view, and I wish to try to +bring out that difference for you. + +Suppose that three men were to describe a snake. One of them fixes his +attention on its slimy coils, and describes its sinuous gliding +movements. Another of them is fascinated by its wicked beauty, and +talks about its livid markings and its glittering eye. The third thinks +only of the swift-darting fangs, and of the poison-glands. They all +three describe the snake, but they describe it from different points of +view; and so it is here. 'Iniquity,' 'sin,' 'transgression' are +synonyms to some extent, but they do not cover the same ground. They +look at the serpent from different points of view. + +First, a sinful life is a twisted or warped life. The word rendered +'iniquity,' in the Old Testament, in all probability literally means +something that is not straight, but is bent, or, as I said, twisted or +warped. That is a metaphor that runs through a great many languages. I +suppose 'right' expresses a corresponding image, and means that which +is straight and direct; and I suppose that 'wrong' has something to do +with 'wrung'--that which has been forcibly diverted from a right line. +We all know the conventional colloquialism about a man being +'straight,' and such-and-such a thing being 'on the straight.' All sin +is a twisting of the man from his proper course. Now there underlies +that metaphor the notion that there is a certain line to which we are +to conform. The schoolmaster draws a firm, straight line in the child's +copybook; and then the little unaccustomed hand takes up on the second +line its attempt, and makes tremulous, wavering pot-hooks and hangers. +There is a copyhead for us, and our writing is, alas! all uneven and +irregular, as well as blurred and blotted. There is a law, and you know +it. You carry in yourself--I was going to say, the standard measure, +and you can see whether when you put your life by the side of that, the +two coincide. It is not for me to say; I know about my own, and you may +know about yours, if you will be honest. The warped life belongs to us +all. + +The metaphor may suggest another illustration. A Czar of Russia was +once asked what should be the course of the railway from St. Petersburg +to Moscow, and he took up a ruler and drew a straight line upon the +chart, and said, 'There; that is the course.' There is a straight road +marked out for us all, going, like the old Roman roads, irrespective of +physical difficulties in the contour of the country, climbing right +over Alps if necessary, and plunging down into the deepest valleys, +never deflecting one hairsbreadth, but going straight to its aim. And +we--what are we? what are 'our crooked, wandering ways in which we +live,' by the side of that straight path? This very prophet has a +wonderful illustration, in which he compares the lives of men who have +departed from God to the racing about in the wilderness of a wild +dromedary, 'entangling her ways,' as he says, crossing and recrossing, +and getting into a maze of perplexity. Ah, my friend, is that not +something like your life? Here is a straight road, and there are the +devious footpaths that we have made, with many a detour, many a bend, +many a coming back instead of going forward. 'The labour of the foolish +wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the +city.' All sin is deflection from the straight road, and we are all +guilty of that. + +Let me urge you to consult the standard that you carry within +yourselves. If you never have done it before, do it now; or, better, +when you are alone by yourselves. It is easy to imagine that a line is +straight. But did you ever see the point of a needle under a +microscope? However finely it is polished, and apparently tapering +regularly, the scrutinising investigation of the microscope shows that +it is all rough and irregular. What would a builder do if he had not a +T-square and a level? His wall would be ever so far out, whilst he +thought it perfectly perpendicular. And remember that a line at a very +acute angle of deflection only needs to be carried out far enough to +diverge so widely from the other line that you could put the whole +solar system in between the two. The smallest departure from the line +of right will end, unless it is checked, away out in the regions of +darkness beyond. That is the lesson of the first of the words here. + +The second of them, rendered in our version 'sin,' if I may recur to my +former illustration, looks at the snake from a different point of view, +and it declares that all sin misses the aim. The meaning of the word in +the original is simply 'that which misses its mark.' And the meaning of +the prevalent word in the New Testament for 'sin' means, in accordance +with the ethical wisdom of the Greek, the same thing. Now, there are +two ways in which that thought may be looked at. Every wrong thing that +we do misses the aim, if you consider what a man's aim ought to be. We +have grown a great deal wiser than the Puritans nowadays, and people +make cheap reputations for advanced thought by depreciating their +theology. We have not got beyond the first answer of the Shorter +Catechism, 'Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for +ever.' That is the only aim which corresponds to our constitution, to +our circumstances. A palaeontologist will pick up part of a skeleton +embedded in the rocks, and from the study of a bone or two will tell +you whether that creature was meant to swim, or to fly, or to walk; +whether its element was sea, or sky, or land. Our destination for God +is as plainly stamped on heart, mind, will, practical powers, as is the +destination of such a creature deducible from its skeleton. 'Whose +image and superscription hath it?' God's, stamped deep upon us all. And +so, brother, whatever you win, unless you win God, you have missed the +aim. Anything short of knowing Him and loving Him, serving Him, being +filled and inspired by Him, is contrary to the destiny stamped upon us +all. And if you have won God, then, whatever other human prizes you may +have missed, you have made the best of life. Unless He is yours, and +you are His, you have made a miss, and if I might venture to add, a +mess, of yourself and of your life. + +Then there is another side to this. The solemn teaching of this word is +not confined to that thought, but also opens out into this other, that +all godlessness, all the low, sinful lives that so many of us live, +miss the shabby aim which they set before themselves. I do not believe +that any men or women ever got as much good, even of the lowest kind, +out of a wrong thing as they expected to get when they ventured on it. +If they did, they got something else along with it that took all the +gilt off the gingerbread. Take the lowest kind of gross evil--sins of +lust or of drunkenness. Well, no doubt the physical satisfaction +desired is secured. Yes; and what about what comes after, in addition, +that was not aimed at? The drunkard gets his pleasurable oblivion, his +desired excitement. What about the corrugated liver, the palsied hand, +the watery eye, the wrecked life, the broken hearts at home, and all +the other accompaniments? There is an old Greek legend about a certain +messenger that came to earth with a box, in which were all manner of +pleasant gifts, and down at the bottom was a speckled pest that, when +the box was emptied, crawled out into the sunshine and infected the +land. That Pandora's box is like 'the good things' that sin brings to +men. You gain, perhaps, your advantage, and you get something that +spoils it all. Is not that your experience? I do not deny that you may +satisfy your lower desires by a godless life. I know only too well how +hard it is to get people to have higher tastes, and how all we +ministers of religion are spending our efforts in order to win people +to love something better than the world can give them. I also know +that, if I could get to the very deepest recess of your hearts, you +would admit that pleasures or advantages that are complete, that is to +say, that satisfy you all round, and that are lasting, and that can +front conscience and God who is at the back of conscience, are not to +be won on the paths of sin and godlessness. + +There is an old story that speaks of a knight and his company who were +travelling through a desert, and suddenly beheld a castle into which +they were invited and hospitably welcomed. A feast was spread before +them, and each man ate and drank his fill. But as soon as they left the +enchanted halls, they were as hungry as before they sat at the magic +table. That is the kind of food that all our wrongdoing provides for +us. 'He feedeth on ashes,' and hungers after he has fed. So, dear +friends, learn this ancient wisdom, which is as true today as it ever +was; and be sure, of this, that there is only one course in this world +which will give a man true, lasting satisfaction; that there is only +one life, the life of obedience to and love of God, about which, at the +end, there will not need to be said, 'This their way is their folly.' + +And now, further, there is yet another word here, carrying with it +important lessons. The expression which is translated in our text +'transgressed,' literally means 'rebelled.' And the lesson of it is, +that all sin is, however little we think it, a rebellion against God. +That introduces a yet graver thought than either of the former have +brought us face to face with. Behind the law is the Lawgiver. When we +do wrong, we not only blunder, we not only go aside from the right +line, but also we lift up ourselves against our Sovereign King, and we +say, 'Who is the Lord that we should serve Him? Our tongues are our +own. Who is Lord over us? Let us break His bands asunder, and cast away +His cords from us.' There are crimes against law; there are faults +against one another. Sins are against God; and, dear friends, though +you do not realise it, this is plain truth, that the essence, the +common characteristic, of all the acts which, as we have seen, are +twisted and foolish, is that in them we are setting up another than the +Lord our God to be our ruler. We are enthroning ourselves in His place. +Do you not feel that that is true, and that in some small thing in +which you go wrong, the essence of it is that you are seeking to please +yourself, no matter what duty--which is only a heathen name for +God--says to you? + +Does not that thought make all these apparently trivial and +insignificant deeds terribly important? Treason is treason, no matter +what the act by which it is expressed. It may be a little thing to haul +down a union-jack from a flagstaff, or to tear off a barn-door a +proclamation with the royal arms at the top of it, but it may be +rebellion. And if it is, it is as bad as to turn out a hundred thousand +men in the field, with arms in their hands. There are small faults, +there are trivial crimes; there are no small sins. An ounce of arsenic +is arsenic, just as much as a ton; and it is a poison just as surely. + +Now I have enlarged perhaps unduly on this earlier part of my subject, +and can but briefly turn to the second division which I suggested, +viz.:-- + +II. The twofold bright hope which shines through this darkness. + +'I will cleanse ... I will pardon.' + +If sin combines in itself all these characteristics that I have touched +upon, then clearly there is guilt, and clearly there are stains; and +the gracious promise of this text deals with both the one and the other. + +'I will pardon.' What is pardon? Do not limit it to the analogy of a +criminal court. When the law of the land pardons, or rather when the +administrator of the law pardons, that simply means that the penalty is +suspended. But is that forgiveness? Certainly it is only a part of it, +even if it is a part. What do you fathers and mothers do when you +forgive your child? You may use the rod or you may not, that is a +question of what is best for the child. Forgiveness does not lie in +letting him off the punishment; but forgiveness lies in the flowing to +the child, uninterrupted, of the love of the parent heart, and that is +God's forgiveness. Penalties, some of them, remain--thank God for it! +'Thou wast a God that forgavest them, though Thou tookest vengeance of +their inventions,' and the chastisement was part of the sign of the +forgiveness. The great penalty of all, which is separation from God, is +taken away; but the essence of that pardon, which it is my blessed work +to proclaim to all men, is, that in spite of the prodigal's rags and +the stench of the sty, the Father's love is round about him. It is +round about you, brother. + +Do you need pardon? Do you not? What does conscience say? What does the +sense of remorse that sometimes blesses you, though it tortures, say? +There are tendencies in this generation, as always, but very strong at +present, to ignore the fact that all sin must necessarily lead to +tremendous consequences of misery. It does so in this world, more or +less. A man goes into another world as he left this one, and you and I +believe that 'after death is the judgment.' Do you not require pardon? +And how are you to get it? 'Himself bore our sins in His own body on +the tree.' Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died that the loving +forgiveness of God might find its way to every heart, and might take +all men to its bosom, whilst yet the righteousness of God remained +untarnished. I know not any gospel that goes deep enough to touch the +real sore place in human nature, except the gospel that says to you and +me and all of us, 'Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of +the world.' + +But forgiveness is not enough, for the worst results of past sin are +the habits of sin which it leaves within us; so that we all need +cleansing. Can we cleanse ourselves? Let experience answer. Did you +ever try to cure yourself of some little trick of gesture, or manner, +or speech? And did you not find out then how strong the trivial habit +was? You never know the force of a current till you try to row against +it. 'Can the Ethiopian change his skin?' No; but God can change it for +him. So, again, we say that Jesus Christ who died for 'the remission of +sins that are past,' lives that He may give to each of us His own +blessed life and power, and so draw us from our evil, and invest us in +His good. Dear brother, I beseech you to look in the face the fact of +your rebellion, of your missing your aim, of your perverted life, and +to ask yourself the question, 'Can I deal either with the guilt of the +past, or with the imperative tendency to repeated sin in the future?' +You may have your leprous flesh made 'like the flesh of a little +child.' You may have your stained robe washed and made lustrous 'white +in the blood of the Lamb.' Pardon and cleansing are our two deepest +needs. There is one hand from which we can receive them both, and one +only. There is one condition on which we shall receive them, which is +that we trust in Him, 'Who was crucified for our offences, and lives to +hallow us into His own likeness.' + + + + +THE RECHABITES + +'The sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have performed the commandment +of their father, which he commanded them; but this people have not +hearkened unto Me.'--JER. xxxv. 16. + + +The Rechabites had lived a nomad life, dwelling in tents, not +practising agriculture, abstaining from intoxicants. They were therein +obeying the command of their ancestor, Jonadab. They had been driven by +the Babylonian invasion to take refuge in Jerusalem, and, no doubt, +were a nine days' wonder there, with their strange ways. Jeremiah +seized on their loyalty to their dead ancestor's command as an +object-lesson, by which he put a still sharper edge on his rebukes. The +Rechabites gave their ancestral law an obedience which shamed Judah's +disobedience to Jehovah. God asks from us only what we are willing to +give to one another, and God is often refused what men have but to ask +and it is given. The virtues which we exercise to each other rebuke us, +because we so often refuse to exercise them towards God. + +I. Men's love to men condemns their lovelessness towards God. + +These Rechabites witnessed to the power of loyal love to their +ancestor. Think of the wealth of love which we have all poured out on +husbands, wives, parents, children, and of the few drops that we have +diverted to flow towards God. What a full flood fills the one channel; +what a shrunken stream the other! + +Think of the infinitely stronger reasons for loving God than for loving +our dearest. + +II. Men's faith in men condemns their distrust of God. + +However you define faith, you find it abundantly exercised by us on the +low plane of earthly relations. Is it belief in testimony? You men of +business regulate your course by reports of markets on the other side +of the world, and in a hundred ways extend your credence to common +report, with but little, and often with no examination of the evidence. +'If we believe the witness of men, the witness of God is greater.' And +how do we treat it? We are ready to accept and to act on men's +testimony; we are slow to believe God's, and still slower to act on it, +and to let it mould our lives. + +Is faith the realising of the unseen? We exercise it in reference to +the earthly unseen; we are slow to do so in reference to the heavenly +things which are invisible. + +Is faith the act of trust? Life is impossible without it. Not only is +commerce a great system of credit, but no relations of life could last +for a day without mutual confidence. We depend on one another, like a +row of slightly built houses that help to hold each other up. These +earthly exercises of trust should make it easier for us to rise to +trusting God as much as we do each other. They ought to reveal to us +the heavenly things. For indeed our human trust in one another should +be a sample and shadow of our wise trust in the adequate Object of +trust. + +III. Men's obedience to human authority condemns their rebellion +against God. + +Jonadab's commandment evoked implicit obedience from his descendants +for generations. Side by side in man's strange nature, with his +self-will and love of independence, lies an equally strong tendency to +obey and follow any masterful voice that speaks loudly and with an +assumption of authority. The opinions of a clique, the dogmas of a +sect, the habits of a set, the sayings of a favourite author, the +fashions of our class--all these rule men with a sway far more absolute +than is exercised on them by the known will of God. The same man is a +slave to usurped authority and a rebel against rightful and divine +dominion. + +Whether we consider the law of God in its claims or its contents, or +its ultimate object, it is worthy of entire obedience. And what does it +receive? + +God asks from us only what we willingly give to men. Even the qualities +and acts, such as love, trust, obedience, which as exercised towards +men give dignity and beauty and strength, rise up in judgment to +condemn us. There is a sense in which Augustine's often-denounced +saying that they are 'splendid vices' is true, for they are turned in +the wrong direction, and very often their being directed so completely +towards men and women is the reason why they are not directed towards +God, who alone deserves and alone can satisfy and reward them. Then +they become sins and condemn us. + + + + +JEREMIAH'S ROLL BURNED AND REPRODUCED + +'Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it to Baruch ... who wrote +therein ... all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had +burned in the fire, and there were added besides unto them many like +words.'--JER. xxxvi. 32. + + +This story brings us into the presence of the long death agony of the +Jewish monarchy. The wretched Jehoiakim, the last king but two who +reigned in Jerusalem, was put on the throne by the King of Egypt, as +his tributary, and used by him as a buffer to bear the brunt of the +Babylonian invasion. He seems to have had all the vices of Eastern +sovereigns. He was covetous, cruel, tyrannous, lawless, heartless, +senseless. He was lavishing money on a grand palace, built with cedar +and painted in vermilion, when the nation was in its death-throes. He +had neither valour nor goodness, and so little did he understand the +forces at work in his times that he held by the rotten support of Egypt +against the grim power of Babylon, and of course, when the former was +driven like chaff before the assault of the latter, he shared the fate +of his principal, and Judaea was overrun by Babylon, Jerusalem +captured, and the poor creature on the throne bound in chains to be +carried to Babylon, but, as would appear, discovered by Nebuchadnezzar +to be pliable enough to make it safe to leave him behind, as his +vassal. His capture took place but a few months after the incident with +which I am dealing now. It would appear probable that the confusion and +alarm of the Babylonian assault on Egypt had led to a solemn fast in +Jerusalem, at which the nation assembled. Jeremiah, who had been +prophesying for some thirty years, and had already been in peril of his +life from the godless tyrant on the throne, was led to collect, in one +book, his scattered prophecies and read them in the ears of the people +gathered for the fast. That reading had no effect at all on the people. +The roll was then read to the princes, and in them roused fear and +interested curiosity, and kindly desire for the safety of Jeremiah and +Baruch, his amanuensis. It was next read to the king, and he cut the +roll leaf by leaf and threw it on the brasier, not afraid, nor +penitent, but enraged and eager to capture Jeremiah and Baruch. The +burnt roll was reproduced by God's command, 'and there were added +besides ... many like words.' + +I. The love of God necessarily prophesying evil. + +As a matter of fact, the prophets of the Old Testament were all +prophets of evil. They were watchmen seeing the sword and giving +warning. No one ever spoke more plainly of the penalties of sin than +did Christ. The authoritative revelation of the consequences of +wrongdoing is an integral part of the gospel. + +It is not the highest form of appeal. It would be higher to say, 'Do +right because it is right; love Christ because Christ is lovely.' The +purpose of such an appeal is to prepare us for the true gospel. But the +appeal to a reasonable self-love, by warnings of the death which is the +wages of sin, is perfectly legitimate. Dehortations from sin on the +ground of its consequences is part of God's message. + +Further, the warning comes from love. Punishment must needs follow on +sin. Even His love must compel God to punish, and to warn before He +does. Surely that is kind. His punishments are made known beforehand +that we may be sure that caprice and anger have no part in inflicting +them, but that they are the settled order of an inviolable law, and +constitutional procedure of a just kind. Whether is it better to live +under a despot who smites as he will, or under a constitutional king +whose code is made public. + +Surely it is needful to have clearly set forth the consequences of sin, +in view of the sophistries buzzing round us all and nestling in our own +hearts, of the deceitfulness of sin, of siren voices whispering, 'Ye +shall not surely die.' + +God's prophecies of evil are all conditional. They are sent on purpose +that they may not be fulfilled. + +II. The loving warnings disregarded and disliked. Jehoiakim's behaviour +is very human and like what we all do. We see the same thing repeated +in all similar crises. Cassandra. Jewish prophets. Christ. English +Commonwealth. French Revolution. Blindness to all signs and hostility +to the men that warn. + +We see it in the attitude to the gospel revelation. The Scripture +doctrine of punishment always rouses antagonism, and in this day +revolts men. There is much in present tendencies to weaken the idea of +future retribution. Modern philanthropy makes it hard sometimes to +administer even human laws. The feeling is good, but this exaggeration +of it bad. It is a reaction to some extent against an unchristian way +of preaching Christian truth, but even admitting that, it still remains +true that an integral part of the Christian revelation is the +revelation of death as the wages of sin. + +We see the same recoil of feeling operating in individual cases. How +many of you are quite indifferent to the preaching of a judgment to +come, or only conscious of a movement of dislike! But how foolish this +is! If a man builds a house on a volcano, is it not kind to tell him +that the lava is creeping over the side? Is it not kind to wake, even +violently, a traveller who has fallen asleep on the snow, before +drowsiness stiffens into death? + +III. The impotent rejection and attempted destruction of the message. + +The roll is destroyed, but it is renewed. You do not alter facts by +neglecting them, nor abrogate a divine decree by disbelieving it. The +awful law goes on its course. It is not pre-eminent seamanship to put +the look-out man in irons because he sings out, 'Breakers ahead.' The +crew do not abolish the reef _so_, but they end their last chance of +avoiding it, and presently the shock comes, and the cruel coral tears +through the hull. + +IV. The neglected message made harder and heavier. + +Every rejection makes a man more obdurate. Every rejection increases +criminality, and therefore increases punishment. Every rejection brings +the punishment nearer. + +The increased severity of the message comes from love. + +Oh, think of the infinite 'treasures of darkness' which God has in +reserve, and let the words of warning lead you to Jesus, that you may +only hear and never experience the judgments of which they warn. Give +Christ the roll of judgment and He will destroy it, nailing it to His +cross, and instead of it will give you a book full of blessing. + + + + +ZEDEKIAH + +'Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned as king ... whom Nebuchadnezzar +king of Babylon made king'--JER. xxxvii. 1. + + +Zedekiah was a small man on a great stage, a weakling set to face +circumstances that would have taxed the strongest. He was a youth at +his accession to the throne of a distracted kingdom, and if he had had +any political insight he would have seen that his only chance was to +adhere firmly to Babylon, and to repress the foolish aristocracy who +hankered after alliance with the rival power of Egypt. He was mad +enough to form an alliance with the latter, which was constructive +rebellion against the former, and was strongly reprobated by Jeremiah. +Swift vengeance followed; the country was ravaged, Zedekiah in his +fright implored Jeremiah's prayers and made faint efforts to follow his +counsels. The pressure of invasion was lifted, and immediately he +forgot his terrors and forsook the prophet. The Babylonian army was +back next year, and the final investment of Jerusalem began. The siege +lasted sixteen months, and during it, Zedekiah miserably vacillated +between listening to the prophet's counsels of surrender and the +truculent nobles' advice to resist to the last gasp. The miseries of +the siege live for ever in the Book of Lamentations. Mothers boiled +their children, nobles hunted on dunghills for food. Their delicate +complexions were burned black, and famine turned them into living +skeletons. Then, on a long summer day in July came the end. The king +tried to skulk out by a covered way between the walls, his few +attendants deserted him in his flight, he was caught at last down by +the fords of the Jordan, carried prisoner to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah +away up in the north beyond Baalbec, and there saw his sons slain +before his eyes, and, as soon as he had seen that last sight, was +blinded, fettered, and carried off to Babylon, where he died. His +career teaches us lessons which I may now seek to bring out. + +I. A weak character is sure to become a wicked one. + +Moral weakness and inability to resist strong pressure was the keynote +of Zedekiah's character. There were good things in him; he had kindly +impulses, as was shown in his emancipation of the slaves at a crisis of +Jerusalem's fate. Left to himself, he would at least have treated +Jeremiah kindly, and did rescue him from lingering death in the foul +dungeon to which the ruffian nobility had consigned him, and he +provided for his being at least saved from dying of starvation during +the siege. He listened to him secretly, and would have accepted his +counsel if he had dared. But he yielded to the stronger wills of the +nobles, though he sometimes bitterly resented their domination, and +complained that 'the king is not he that can do anything against you.' + +Like most weak men, he found that temptations to do wrong abounded more +than visible inducements to do right, and he was afraid to do right, +and fancied that he was compelled by the force of circumstances to do +wrong. So he drifted and drifted, and at last was smashed to fragments +on the rocks, as all men are who do not keep a strong hand on the helm +and a steady eye on the compass. The winds are good servants but bad +masters. If we do not coerce circumstances to carry us on the course +which conscience has pricked out on the chart, they will wreck us. + +II. A man may have a good deal of religion and yet not enough to mould +his life. + +Zedekiah listened to the prophet by fits and starts. He was eager to +have the benefit of the prophet's prayers. He liberated the slaves in +Jerusalem. He came secretly to Jeremiah more than once to know if there +were any message from God for him. Yet he had not faith enough nor +submission enough to let the known will of God rule his conduct, +whatever the nobles might say. + +Are there not many of us who have a belief in God and a general +acquiescence in Christ's precepts, who order our lives now and then by +these, and yet have not come up to the point of full and final +surrender? Alas, alas, for the multitudes who are 'not far from the +kingdom,' but who never come near enough to be actually _in_ it! To be +not far from _is_ to be out of, and to be out of is to be, like +Zedekiah, blinded and captived and dead in prison at last. + +III. God's love is wonderfully patient. + +Jeremiah was to Zedekiah the incarnation of God's unwearied pleadings. +During his whole reign, the prophet's voice sounded in his ears, +through all the clamours and cries of factions, and mingled at last +with the shouts of the besiegers and the groans of the wounded, like +the sustained note of some great organ, persisting through a babel of +discordant noises. It was met with indifference, and it sounded on. It +provoked angry antagonism and still it spoke. Violence was used to +stifle it in vain. And it was not only Jeremiah's courageous +pertinacity that spoke through that persistent voice, but God's +unwearied love, which being rejected is not driven away, being +neglected becomes more beseeching, 'is not easily provoked 'to cease +its efforts, but 'beareth all' despite, and hopeth for softened hearts +till the last moment before doom falls. + +That patient love pleads with each of us as persistently as Jeremiah +did with Zedekiah. + +IV. The long-delayed judgment falls at last. + +With infinite reluctance the divine love had to do what God Himself has +called 'His strange work.' Divine Justice travels slowly, but arrives +at last. Her foot is 'leaden' both in regard to its tardiness and its +weight. There is no ground in the long postponement of retribution for +the fond dream that it will never come, though men lull themselves to +sleep with that lie. 'Because sentence against an evil work is not +executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is thoroughly +set in them to do evil.' But the sentence will be executed. The +pleading love, which has for many returning autumns spared the barren +tree and sought to make it fit to bear fruit, does not prevent the +owner saying at last to his servant with the axe in his hand, 'Now! +thou shalt cut it down.' + + + + +THE WORLD'S WAGES TO A PROPHET + +'And it came to pass, that when the army of the Chaldeans was broken up +from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh's arm, 12. Then Jeremiah went forth +out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin, to separate himself +thence in the midst of the people. 13. And when he was in the gate of +Benjamin, a captain of the ward was there, whose name was Irijah, the +son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he took Jeremiah the +prophet, saying, Thou fallest away to the Chaldeans. 14. Then said +Jeremiah, It is false; I fall not away to the Chaldeans. But he +hearkened not to him: so Irijah took Jeremiah, and brought him to the +princes. 15. Wherefore the princes were wroth with Jeremiah, and smote +him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe: for +they had made that the prison. 16. When Jeremiah was entered into the +dungeon, and into the cabins, and Jeremiah had remained there many +days; 17. Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took him out: and the king +asked him secretly in his house, and said, Is there any word from the +Lord? And Jeremiah said, There is: for, said he, thou shalt be +delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon. 18. Moreover, Jeremiah +said unto king Zedekiah, What have I offended against thee, or against +thy servants, or against this people, that ye have put me in prison? +19. Where are now your prophets which prophesied unto you, saying, The +king of Babylon shall not come against you, nor against this land? 20. +Therefore hear now, I pray thee, O my lord the king: let my +supplication, I pray thee, be accepted before thee; that thou cause me +not to return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there. +21. Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah +into the court of the prison, and that they should give him daily a +piece of bread out of the bakers' street, until all the bread in the +city were spent. Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the +prison.'--JER. xxxvii. 11-21. + + +SOME sixteen years had passed since Jehoiakim had burned the roll, +during all of which the slow gathering of the storm, which was to break +over the devoted city, had been going on, and Jeremiah had been vainly +calling on the people to return to Jehovah. The last agony was now not +far off. But there came a momentary pause in the siege, produced by the +necessity of an advance against a relieving army from Egypt, which +created fallacious hopes in the doomed city. It was only a pause. Back +came the investing force, and again the terrible, lingering process of +starving into surrender was resumed. Our text begins with the raising +of the siege, and extends to some point after its resumption. It needs +little elucidation, so clearly is the story told, and so natural are +the incidents; but perhaps we shall best gather its instruction if we +look at the three sets of actors separately, and note the hostile +authorities, the patient prophet and prisoner, and the feeble king. The +play of these strongly contrasted characters is full of vividness and +instruction. + +I. We have that rough 'captain of the ward,' who laid hands on the +prophet at the gate on the north side of the city, leading to the road +to the territory of Benjamin. No doubt there was a considerable exodus +from Jerusalem when the Assyrian lines were deserted, and common +prudence would have facilitated it, as reducing the number of mouths to +be fed, in case the siege were renewed; but malice is not prudent, and, +instead of letting the hated Jeremiah slip quietly away home to +Anathoth, and so getting rid of his prophecies and him, Irijah ('the +Lord is a beholder') arrested him on a charge of meditating desertion +to the enemy. It was a colourable accusation, for Jeremiah's constant +exhortation had been to 'go out to the Chaldeans,' and so secure life +and mild treatment. But it was clearly false, for the Chaldeans were +for the moment gone, and the time was the very worst that could have +been chosen for a contemplated flight to their camp. + +The real reason for the prophet's wish to leave the city was only too +simple. It was to see if he could get 'a portion'--some of his +property, or perhaps rather some little store of food--to take back to +the famine-scourged city, which, he knew, would soon be again at +starvation-point. There appears to have been a little company of +fellow-villagers with him, for 'in the midst of the people' (v. 12) is +to be construed with 'to go into the land of Benjamin.' The others seem +to have been let pass, and only Jeremiah detained, which makes the +charge more evidently a trumped-up excuse for laying hands on him. +Jeremiah calls it in plain words what it was--'a lie'--and protests his +innocence of any such design. But the officious Irijah knew too well +how much of a feather in his cap his getting hold of the prophet would +be, to heed his denials, and dragged him off to the princes. + +Sixteen years ago 'the princes' round Jehoiakim had been the prophet's +friends; but either a new generation had come with a new king, or else +the tempers of the men had changed with the growing misery. Their +behaviour was more lawless than the soldiers' had been. They did not +even pretend to examine the prisoner, but blazed up at once in anger. +They had him in their power now, and did their worst, lawlessly +scourging him first, and then thrusting him into 'the house of the +pit'--some dark, underground hole, below the house of an official, +where there were a number of 'cells'--filthy and stifling, no doubt; +and there they left him. What for? + +The charge of intended desertion was a mere excuse for wreaking their +malice on him. They hated Jeremiah because he had steadily opposed the +popular determination to fight, and had foretold disaster. Add to this +that he had held up a high standard of religion and morality to a +corrupt and idolatrous people, and his 'unpopularity' is sufficiently +explained. + +Would that the same causes did not produce the same effects now! +Individuals still think an honest rebuke of their faults an insult, and +a plain statement of their danger a sign of ill-feeling. Try to warn a +drunkard or a profligate by telling him of the disease and misery which +will dog his sins, or by setting plainly before him God's law of purity +and sobriety, and you will find that the prophet's function still +brings with it, in many cases, the prophet's doom. But still more truly +is this the case with masses, whether nations or cities. A spurious +patriotism resents as unpatriotic the far truer love of country which +sets a trumpet to its mouth to tell the people their sins. In all +democratic communities, whether republican or regal in their form of +government, a crying evil is flattery of the masses, exalting their +virtues and foretelling their prosperity, while hiding their faults and +slurring over the requirements of morality and religion, which are the +foundations of prosperity. What did England do with her prophets? What +did America do with hers? What wages do they get to-day? The men who +dare to tell their countrymen their faults, and to preach temperance, +peace, civic purity, personal morality, are laid hold of by the Irijahs +who preside over the newspapers, and are pilloried as deserters and +half traitors at heart. + +II. We see the patient, unmoved prophet. One flash of honest +indignation repels the charge of deserting, and then he is silent. 'As +a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.' It is +useless to plead before lawless violence. A silent martyr eloquently +condemns an unjust judge. So, without opposition or apparent +remonstrance, Jeremiah is cast into the foul den where he lies for +'many days,' patiently bearing his fate, and speaking his complaint to +God only. How long his imprisonment lasted does not appear; but the +context implies that during it the siege was resumed, and that there +was difficulty in procuring bread. Then the king sent for him secretly. + +Zedekiah's temper at the time will be considered presently. Here we +have to do with Jeremiah's answer to his question. In it we may note, +as equally prominent and beautifully blended, respect, submission, +consciousness of peril and impending death, and unshaken boldness. He +knew that his life was at the disposal of the capricious, feeble +Zedekiah. He bows before him as his subject, and brings his +'supplication'; but not one jot of his message will he abate, nor +smooth down its terribleness an atom. He repeats as unfalteringly as +ever the assurance that the king of Babylon will take the city. He +asserts his own innocence as regards king and courtiers and people; and +he asks the scornful question what has become of all the smooth-tongued +prophets of prosperity, as if he were bidding the king look over the +city wall and see the tokens of their lies and of Jeremiah's truth in +the investing lines of the all but victorious enemy. + +Such a combination of perfect meekness and perfect courage, unstained +loyalty to his king, and supreme obedience to his God, was only +possible to a man who lived in very close communion with Jehovah, and +had learned thereby to fear none less, because he feared Him so well, +and to reverence all else whom He had set in places of reverence. True +courage, of the pattern which befits God's servants, is ever gentle. +Bluster is the sign of weakness. A Christian hero--and no man will be a +Christian as he ought to be, who has not something of the hero in +him--should win by meekness. Does not the King of all such ride +prosperously 'because of truth and meekness,' and must not the armies +which follow Him do the same? Faithful witnessing to men of their sins +need not be rude, harsh, or self-asserting. But we must live much in +fellowship with the Lord of all the meek and the pattern of all patient +sufferers and faithful witnesses, if we are ever to be like Him, or +even like His pale shadow as seen in this meek prophet. The fountains +of strength and of patience spring side by side at the foot of the +cross. + +III. We have the weak Zedekiah, with his pitiable vacillation. He had +been Nebuchadnezzar's nominee, and had served him for some years, and +then rebelled. His whole career indicates a feeble nature, taking the +impression of anything which was strongly laid on it. He was a king of +putty, when the times demanded one of iron. He was cowed by the +'princes.' Sometimes he was afraid to disobey Jeremiah, and then afraid +to let his masters know that he was so. Thus he sends for the prophet +stealthily, and his first question opens a depth of conflict in his +soul. He did believe that the prophet spoke the word of Jehovah, and +yet he could not muster up courage to follow his convictions and go +against the princes and the mob. He wanted another 'word' from Jehovah, +by which he meant a word of another sort than the former. He could not +bring his mind to obey the word which he had, and so he weakly hoped +that perhaps God's word might be changed into one that he would be +willing to obey. Many men are, like him, asking, 'Is there any word +from the Lord?' and meaning, 'Is there any change in the condition of +receiving His favour?' + +He had interest enough in the prophet to interfere for his comfort, and +to have him put into better quarters in the palace and provided with a +'circle' (a round loaf) of bread out of Baker Street, as long as there +was any in the city--not a very long time. But why did he do so much, +and not do more? He knew that Jeremiah was innocent, and that his word +was God's; and what he should have done was to have shaken off his +masterful 'servants,' followed his conscience, and obeyed God. Why did +he not? Because he was a coward, infirm of purpose, and therefore +'unstable as water.' + +He is another of the tragic examples, with which all life as well as +scripture is studded, of how much evil is possible to a weak character. +In this world, where there are so many temptations to be bad, no man +will be good who cannot strongly say 'No.' The virtue of strength of +will may be but like the rough fence round young trees to keep cattle +from browsing on them and east winds from blighting them. But the fence +is needed, if the trees are to grow. 'To be weak is to be miserable,' +and sinful too, generally. 'Whom resist' must be the motto for all +noble, God-like, and God-pleasing life. + + + + +THE LAST AGONY + +'In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came +Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and +they besieged it. 2. And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the +fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up. 3. +And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the +middle gate, even Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarse-chim, Rab-saris, +Nergal-sharezer, Rab-mag, with all the residue of the princes of the +king of Babylon. 4. And it came to pass, that when Zedekiah the king of +Judah saw them, and all the men of war, then they fled, and went forth +out of the city by night, by the way of the king's garden, by the gate +betwixt the two walls: and he went out the way of the plain. 5. But the +Chaldeans' army pursued after them, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains +of Jericho; and when they had taken him, they brought him up to +Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath, where +he gave judgment upon him. 6. Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of +Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes: also the king of Babylon slew all +the nobles of Judah. 7. Moreover he put out Zedekiah's eyes, and bound +him with chains, to carry him to Babylon. 8. And the Chaldeans burned +the king's house, and the houses of the people, with fire, and brake +down the walls of Jerusalem. 9. Then Nebuzar-adan the captain of the +guard carried away captive into Babylon the remnant of the people that +remained in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to him, with +the rest of the people that remained. 10. But Nebuzar-adan the captain +of the guard left of the poor of the people, which had nothing, in the +land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same +time.'--JER. xxxix. 1-10. + + +Two characteristics of this account of the fall of Jerusalem are +striking,--its minute particularity, giving step by step the details of +the tragedy, and its entire suppression of emotion. The passionless +record tells the tale without a tear or a sob. For these we must go to +the Book of Lamentations. This is the history of God's judgment, and +here emotion would be misplaced. But there is a world of repressed +feeling in the long-drawn narrative, as well as in the fact that three +versions of the story are given here (chap, lii., 2 Kings xxv.). Sorrow +curbed by submission, and steadily gazing on God's judicial act, is the +temper of the narrative. It should be the temper of all sufferers. 'I +was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.' But we may +note the three stages in the final agony which this section +distinguishes. + +I. There is the entrance of the enemy. Jerusalem fell not by assault, +but by famine. The siege lasted eighteen months, and ended when 'all +the bread in the city was spent.' The pitiful pictures in Lamentations +fill in the details of misery, telling how high-born women picked +garbage from dung-heaps, and mothers made a ghastly meal of their +infants, while the nobles were wasted to skeletons, and the little +children piteously cried for bread. At length a breach was made in the +northern wall (as Josephus tells us, 'at midnight'), and through it, on +the ninth day of the fourth month (corresponding to July), swarmed the +conquerors, unresisted. The commanders of the Babylonians planted +themselves at 'the middle gate,' probably a gate in the wall between +the upper and lower city, so securing for them the control of both. + +How many of these fierce soldiers are named in verse 3? At first sight +there seem to be six, but that number must be reduced by at least two, +for Rab-saris and Rab-mag are official titles, and designate the +offices (chief eunuch and chief magician) of the two persons whose +names they respectively follow. Possibly Samgar-Nebo is also to be +deducted, for it has been suggested that, as that name stands, it is +anomalous, and it has been proposed to render its first element, +_Samgar_, as meaning _cup-bearer_, and being the official title +attached to the name preceding it; while its second part, _Nebo_, is +regarded as the first element in a new name obtained by reading +_shashban_ instead of Sarsechim, and attaching that reading to Nebo. +This change would bring verse 3 into accord with verse 13, for in both +places we should then have Nebo-shashban designated as chief of the +eunuchs. However the number of the commanders is settled, and whatever +their names, the point which the historian emphasises is their presence +there. Had it come to this, that men whose very names were invocations +of false gods ('Nergal protect the king,' 'Nebo delivers me' if we read +'Nebo-shashban,' or 'Be gracious, Nebo,' if Samgar-nebo) should sit +close by the temple, and have their talons fixed in the Holy City? + +These intruders were all unconscious of the meaning of their victory, +and the tragedy of their presence there. They thought that they were +Nebuchadnezzar's servants, and had captured for him, at last, an +obstinate little city, which had given more trouble than it was worth. +Its conquest was but a drop in the bucket of his victories. How little +they knew that they were serving that Jehovah whom they thought that +Nebo had conquered in their persons! How little they knew that they +were the instruments of the most solemn act of judgment in the world's +history till then! + +The causes which led to the fall of Jerusalem could be reasonably set +forth as purely political without a single reference to Israel's sins +or God's judgment; but none the less was its capture the divine +punishment of its departure from Him, and none the less were +Nergal-sharezer and his fellows God's tools, the axes with which He +hewed down the barren tree. So does He work still, in national and +individual history. You may, in a fashion, account for both without +bringing Him in at all; but your philosophy of either will be partial, +unless you recognise that 'the history of the world is the judgment of +the world.' It was the same hand which set these harsh conquerors at +the middle gate of Jerusalem that sent the German armies to encamp in +the Place de la Concorde in Paris; and in neither case does the +recognition of God in the crash of a falling throne absolve the victors +from the responsibility of their deeds. + +II. We have the flight and fate of Zedekiah and his evil advisers (vs. +4-7). His weakness of character shows itself to the end. Why was there +no resistance? It would have better beseemed him to have died on his +palace threshold than to have skulked away in the dark between the +shelter of the 'two walls.' But he was a poor weakling, and the curse +of God sat heavy on his soul, though he had tried to put it away. +Conscience made a coward of him; for he, at all events, knew who had +set the strangers by the middle gate. Men who harden heart and +conscience against threatened judgments are very apt to collapse, when +the threats are fulfilled. The frost breaks up with a rapid thaw. + +Ezekiel (Ezek. xii. 12) prophesied the very details of the flight. It +was to be 'in the dark,' the king himself was to 'carry' some of his +valuables, they were to 'dig through' the earthen ramparts; and all +appears to have been literally fulfilled. The flight was taken in the +opposite direction from the entrance of the besiegers; two walls, which +probably ran down the valley between Zion and the temple mount, +afforded cover to the fugitives as far as to the south city wall, and +there some postern let them out to the king's garden. That is a tragic +touch. It was no time then to gather flowers. The forlorn and +frightened company seems to have scattered when once outside the city; +for there is a marked contrast in verse 4 between 'they fled' and 'he +went.' In the description of his flight Zedekiah is still called, as in +verses 1 and 2, the king; but after his capture he is only 'Zedekiah.' + +Down the rocky valley of the Kedron he hurried, and had a long enough +start of his pursuers to get to Jericho. Another hour would have seen +him safe across Jordan, but the prospect of escape was only dangled +before his eyes to make capture more bitter. Probably he was too much +absorbed with his misery and fear to feel any additional humiliation +from the mighty memories of the scene of his capture; but how solemnly +fitting it was that the place which had seen Israel's first triumph, +when 'by faith the walls of Jericho fell down,' should witness the +lowest shame of the king who had cast away his kingdom by unbelief! The +conquering dead might have gathered in shadowy shapes to reproach the +weakling and sluggard who had sinned away the heritage which they had +won. The scene of the capture underscores the lesson of the capture +itself; namely, the victorious power of faith, and the defeat and shame +which, in the long-run, are the fruits of an 'evil heart of unbelief, +departing from the living God.' + +That would be a sad march through all the length of the fair land that +had slipped from his slack fingers, up to far-off Riblah, in the great +valley between the Lebanon and the anti-Lebanon. Observe how, in verses +5 and 6, the king of Babylon has his royal title, and Zedekiah has not. +The crown has fallen from his head, and there is no more a king in +Judah. He who had been king now stands chained before the cruel +conqueror. Well might the victor think that Nebo had overcome Jehovah, +but better did the vanquished know that Jehovah had kept his word. + +Cruelty and expediency dictated the savage massacre and mutilation +which followed. The death of Zedekiah's sons, and of the nobles who had +scoffed at Jeremiah's warnings, and the blinding of Zedekiah, were all +measures of precaution as well as of savagery. They diminished the +danger of revolt; and a blind, childless prisoner, without counsellors +or friends, was harmless. But to make the sight of his slaughtered sons +the poor wretch's last sight, was a refinement of gratuitous delight in +torturing. Thus singularly was Ezekiel's enigma solved and harmonised +with its apparent contradictions in Jeremiah's prophecies: 'Yet shall +he not see it, though he shall die there' (Ezek. xii. 13). + +Zedekiah is one more instance of the evil which may come from a weak +character, and of the evil which may fall on it. He had good impulses, +but he could not hold his own against the bad men round him, and so he +stumbled on, not without misgivings, which only needed to be attended +to with resolute determination, in order to have reversed his conduct +and fate. Feeble hands can pull down venerable structures built in +happier times. It takes a David and a Solomon to rear a temple, but a +Zedekiah can overthrow it. + +III. We have the completion of the conquest (vs. 8-10). The first care +of the victors was, of course, to secure themselves, and fires and +crowbars were the readiest way to that end. But the wail in the last +chapter of Lamentations hints at the usual atrocities of the sack of a +city, when brutal lust and as brutal ferocity are let loose. Chapter +lii. shows that the final step in our narrative was separated from the +capture of the city by a month, which was, no doubt, a month of +nameless agonies, horrors, and shame. Then the last drop was added to +the bitter cup, in the deportation of the bulk of the inhabitants, +according to the politic custom of these old military monarchies. What +rending of ties, what weariness and years of long-drawn-out yearning, +that meant, can easily be imagined. The residue left behind to keep the +country from relapsing into waste land was too weak to be dangerous, +and too cowed to dare anything. One knows not who had the sadder lot, +the exiles, or the handful of peasants left to till the fields that had +once been their own, and to lament their brethren gone captives to the +far-off land. + +Surely the fall of Jerusalem, though all the agony is calmed ages ago, +still remains as a solemn beacon-warning that the wages of sin is +death, both for nations and individuals; that the threatenings of God's +Word are not idle, but will be accomplished to the utmost tittle; and +that His patience stretches from generation to generation, and His +judgments tarry because He is not willing that any should perish, but +that for all the long-suffering there comes a time when even divine +love sees that it is needful to say 'Now!? and the bolt falls. The +solemn word addressed to Israel has application as real to all +Christian churches and individual souls: 'You only have I known of all +the inhabitants of the earth; therefore I will punish you for your +iniquities.' + + + + +EBEDMELECH THE ETHIOPIAN + +'For I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, +but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee: because thou hast put thy +trust in Me, saith the Lord.'--JER. xxxix. 18. + + +Ebedmelech is a singular anticipation of that other Ethiopian eunuch +whom Philip met on the desert road to Gaza. It is prophetic that on the +eve of the fall of the nation, a heathen man should be entering into +union with God. It is a picture in little of the rejection of Israel +and the ingathering of the Gentiles. + +I. The identity in all ages of the bond that unites men to God. + +It is a common notion that faith is peculiar to the New Testament. But +the Old Testament 'trust' is identical with the New Testament 'faith,' +and it is a great pity that the variation in translation has obscured +that identity. The fact of the prominence given to law in the Old +Testament does not affect this. For every effort to keep the law must +have led to consciousness of imperfection, and that consciousness must +have driven to the exercise of penitent trust. The difference of +degrees of revelation does not affect it, for faith is the same, +however various the contents of the creed. + +Note further the personal object of Faith--'in ME.' The object of Faith +is not a proposition but a Person. That Person is the same in the Old +Testament and in the New. The Jehovah of the one is the God in Christ +of the other. Consequently faith must be more than intellectual assent, +it must be voluntary and emotional, the act of the whole man, 'the +synthesis of the reason and the will.' + +II. The contrast of a formal and real union with God. + +The king, prophets, priests, the whole nation, had an outward +connection with Him, but it meant nothing. And this foreigner, a slave, +perhaps not even a proselyte, a eunuch, had what the children of the +covenant had not, a true union with God through Faith. + +Judaism was not an exclusive system, but was intended to bring in the +nations to share in its blessings. Outward descent gave outward place +within the covenant, but the distinction of real and formal place there +was established from the beginning. What else than this is the meaning +of all the threatenings of Deuteronomy? What else did Isaiah mean when +he called the rulers in Jerusalem 'Rulers of Sodom'? Here the fates of +Ebedmelech and of Zedekiah illustrate both sides of the truth. The +danger of trusting in outward possession and of thinking that God's +mercy is our property besets all Churches. Organisations of +Christianity are necessary, but it is impossible to tell the harm that +formal connection with them has done. There is only one bond that +unites men to God--personal trust in Him as 'in Christ reconciling the +world to Himself.' + +III. The possibility of exercising uniting faith even in most +unfavourable circumstances. + +This Ebedmelech had everything against him. The contemptuous exclusion +of him from any share in the covenant might well have discouraged him. +The poorest Jew treated him as a heathen dog, who had no right even to +crumbs from the table spread for the children only. He was plunged into +a sea of godlessness, and saw examples enough of utter carelessness as +to Jehovah in His professed servants to drive him away from a religion +which had so little hold on its professed adherents. The times were +gloomy, and the Jehovah whom Judah professed to worship seemed to have +small power to help His worshippers. It would have been no wonder if +the conduct of the people of Jerusalem had caused the name of Jehovah +to be blasphemed by this Gentile, nor if he had revolted from a +religion that was alleged to be the special property of one race, and +that such a race! But he listened to the cry of his own heart, and to +the words of God's prophet, and his faith pierced through all +obstacles--like the roots of some tree feeling for the water. He found +the vitalising fountain that he sought, and His name stands to all ages +as a witness that no seeking heart, that longs for God, is ever balked +in its search, and that a faith, very imperfect as to its knowledge, +may be so strong as to its substance that it unites him who exercises +it with God, while the possessors of ecclesiastical privileges and of +untarnished and full-orbed orthodox knowledge have no fellowship with +Him. + +IV. The safety given by such uniting faith. + +To Ebedmelech, escape from death by the besiegers' swords was promised. +To us a more blessed safety and exemption from a worse destruction are +assured. 'The life which is life indeed' may be ours, and shall +assuredly be ours, if our trust knits us to Him who is the Life, and +who has said 'He that liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.' + + + + +GOD'S PATIENT PLEADINGS + +'I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending +them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate.'--JER. +xliv. 4. + + +The long death-agony of the Jewish kingdom has come to an end. The +frivolous levity, which fed itself on illusions and would not be +sobered by facts, has been finally crushed out of the wretched people. +The dreary succession of incompetent kings--now a puppet set up by +Egypt, now another puppet set up by Babylon, has ended with the weak +Zedekiah. The throne of David is empty, and the long line of kings, +which numbered many a strong, wise, holy man, has dwindled into a +couple of captives, one of them blind and both of them paupers on an +idolatrous monarch's bounty. The country is desolate, the bulk of the +people exiles, and the poor handful, who had been left by the +conqueror, flitting like ghosts, or clinging, like domestic animals, to +their burnt homes and wasted plains, have been quarrelling and fighting +among themselves, murdering the Jewish ruler whom Babylon had left +them, and then in abject terror have fled _en masse_ across the border +into Egypt, where they are living wretched lives. What a history that +people had gone through since they had lived on the same soil before! +From Moses to Zedekiah, what a story! From Goshen till now it had been +one long tragedy which seems to have at last reached its fifth act. +Nine hundred years have passed, and this is the issue of them all! + +The circumstances might well stir the heart of the prophet, whose +doleful task it had been to foretell the coming of the storm, who had +had to strip off Judah's delusions and to proclaim its certain fall, +and who in doing so had carried his life in his hand for forty years, +and had never met with recognition or belief. + +Jeremiah had been carried off by the fugitives to Egypt, and there he +made a final effort to win them back to God. He passed before them the +outline of the whole history of the nation, treating it as having +accomplished one stadium--and what does he find? In all these days +since Goshen there has been one monotonous story of vain divine +pleadings and human indifference, God beseeching and Israel turning +away--and now at last the crash, long foretold, never credited, which +had been drawing nearer through all the centuries, has come, and Israel +is scattered among the people. + +Such are the thoughts and emotions that speak in the exquisitely tender +words of our text. It suggests-- + +I. God's antagonism to sin. + +II. The great purpose of all His pleadings. + +III. God's tender and unwearied efforts. + +IV. The obstinate resistance to His tender pleadings. + + * * * * * + +I. God's antagonism to sin. + +It is the one thing in the universe to which He is opposed. Sin is +essentially antagonism to God. People shrink from the thought of God's +hatred of sin, because of-- + +An underestimate of its gravity. Contrast the human views of its +enormity, as shown by men's playing with it, calling it by half-jocose +names and the like, with God's thought of its heinousness. + +A false dread of seeming to attribute human emotions to God. But there +is in God what corresponds to our human feelings, something analogous +to the attitude of a pure human mind recoiling from evil. + +The divine love must necessarily be pure, and the mightier its energy +of forth-going, the mightier its energy of recoil. God's 'hate' is Love +inverted and reverted on itself. A divine love which had in it no +necessity of hating evil would be profoundly immoral, and would be +called devilish more fitly than divine. + +II. The great purpose of the divine pleadings. + +To wean from sin is the main end of prophecy. It is the main end of all +revelation. God must chiefly desire to make His creatures like Himself. +Sin makes a special revelation necessary. Sin determines the form of it. + +III. God's tender and unwearied efforts. + +'Rising early' is a strong metaphor to express persistent effort. The +more obstinate is our indifference, the more urgent are His calls. He +raises His voice as our deafness grows. Mark, too, the tenderness of +the entreaty in this text, 'Oh, do not this abominable thing that I +hate!' His hatred of it is adduced as a reason which should touch any +heart that loves Him. He beseeches as if He, too, were saying, 'Though +I might be bold to enjoin thee' that which is fitting, 'yet for love's +sake I rather beseech thee.' The manifestation of His disapproval and +the appeal to our love by the disclosure of His own are the most +powerful, winning and compelling dehortations from sin. Not by +brandishing the whip, not by a stern law written on tables of stone, +but by unveiling His heart, does God win us from our sins. + +IV. The obstinate resistance to God's tender pleadings. + +The tragedy of the nation is summed up in one word, 'They hearkened +not.' + +That power of neglecting God's voice and opposing God's will is the +mystery of our nature. How strange it is that a human will should be +able to lift itself in opposition to the Sovereign Will! But stranger +and more mysterious and tragic still is it that we should choose to +exercise that power and find pleasure, and fancy that we shall ever +find advantage, in refusing to listen to His entreaties and choosing to +flout His uttered will. + +Such opposition was Israel's ruin. It will be ours if we persist in it. +'If God spared not the natural branches, neither will He spare thee.' + + + + +THE SWORD OF THE LORD + +'O thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? put +up thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still. 7. How can it be +quiet, seeing the Lord hath given it a charge?'--JER. xlvii. 6, 7. + + +The prophet is here in the full tide of his prophecies against the +nations round about. This paragraph is entirely occupied with +threatenings. Bearing the cup of woes, he turns to one after another of +the ancestral enemies of Israel, Egypt and Philistia on the south and +west, Moab on the south and east, then northwards to Ammon, south to +Edom, north to Damascus, Kedar, Hagor, Elam, and finally to the great +foe--Babylon. In the hour of Israel's lowest fortunes and the foe's +proudest exultation these predictions are poured out. Jeremiah stands +as if wielding the sword of which our text speaks, and whirls and +points the flashing terror of its sharpened edge against the ring of +foes. It turns every way, like the weapon of the angelic guard before +the lost paradise, and wherever it turns a kingdom falls. + +In the midst of his stern denunciations he checks himself to utter this +plaintive cry of pity and longing. A tender gleam of compassion breaks +through the heart of the thunder-cloud. It is very beautiful to note +that the point at which the irrepressible welling up of sweet waters +breaks the current of his prophecy is the prediction against Israel's +bitterest, because nearest, foe, 'these uncircumcised Philistines.' He +beholds the sea of wrath drowning the great Philistine plain, its rich +harvests trampled under foot by 'stamping of hoofs of his strong ones,' +and that desolation wrings from his heart the words of our text. I take +them to be spoken by the prophet. That, of course, is doubtful. It may +be that they are meant to give in a vivid dramatic form the effect of +the judgments on the sufferers. They recognise these as 'the sword of +the Lord.' Their only thought is an impatient longing that the +judgments would cease,--no confession of sin, no humbling of them +selves, but only--'remove Thy hand from us.' + +And the answer is either the prophet's or the divine voice; spoken in +the one case to himself, in the other to the Philistines; but in either +setting forth the impossibility that the sweeping sword should rest, +since it is the instrument in God's hand, executing His charge and +fulfilling His appointment. + +I. The shrinking from the unsheathed sword of the Lord. + +We may deal with the words as representing very various states of mind. + +They may express the impatience of sufferers. Afflictions are too often +wasted. Whatever the purpose of chastisement, the true lesson of it is +so seldom learned, even in regard to the lowest wisdom it is adapted to +teach. In an epidemic, how few people learn to take precautions, such +as cleanliness or attention to diet! In hard times commercially, how +slow most are to learn the warning against luxury, over-trading, haste +to be rich! And in regard to higher lessons, men have a dim sense +sometimes that the blow comes from God, but, like Balaam, go on their +way in spite of the angel with the sword. It does not soften, nor +restrain, nor drive to God. The main result is, impatient longing for +its removal. + +The text may express the rooted dislike to the thought and the fact of +punishment as an element in divine government. This is a common phase +of feeling always, and especially so now. There is a present tendency, +good in many aspects, but excessive, to soften away the thought of +punishment; or to suppose that God's punishments must have the same +purposes as men's. We cannot punish by way of retribution, for no +balance of ours is fine enough to weigh motives or to determine +criminality. Our punishments can only be deterrent or reformatory, but +this is by reason of our weakness. He has other objects in view. + +Current ideas of the love of God distort it by pitting it against His +retributive righteousness. Current ideas of sin diminish its gravity by +tracing it to heredity or environment, or viewing it as a necessary +stage in progress. The sense of God's judicial action is paralysed and +all but dead in multitudes. + +All these things taken together set up a strong current of opinion +against any teaching of punitive energy in God. + +The text may express the pitying reluctance of the prophet. + +Jeremiah is remarkable for the weight with which 'the burden of the +Lord' pressed upon him. The true prophet feels the pang of the woes +which he is charged to announce more than his hearers do. + +Unfair charges are made against gospel preachers, as if they delighted +in the thought of the retribution which they have to proclaim. + +II. The solemn necessity for the unsheathing of the sword. + +The judgments must go on. In the text the all-sufficient reason given +is that God has willed it so. But we must take into account all that +lies in that name of 'Lord' before we understand the message, which +brought patience to the heart of the prophet. If a Jewish prophet +believed anything, he believed that the will of the Lord was absolutely +good. Jeremiah's reason for the flashing sword is no mere beating down +human instincts, by alleging a will which is sovereign, and there an +end. We have to take into account the whole character of Him who has +willed it, and then we can discern it to be inevitable that God should +punish evil. + +His character makes it inevitable. God's righteousness cannot but hate +sin and fight against it. To leave it unpunished stains His glory. + +God's love cannot but draw and wield the sword. It is unsheathed in the +interests of all that is 'lovely and of good report.' If God is God at +all, and not an almighty devil, He must hate sin. The love and the +righteousness, which in deepest analysis are one, must needs issue in +punishment. There would be a blight over the universe if they did not. + +The very order of the universe makes it inevitable. All things, as +coming from Him, must work for His lovers and against His enemies, as +'the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.' + +The constitution of men makes it inevitable. Sin brings its own +punishment, in gnawing conscience, defiled memories, incapacity for +good, and many other penalties. + +It is to be remembered that the text originally referred to retribution +on nations for national sins, and that what Jeremiah regarded as the +strokes of the Lord might be otherwise regarded as political +catastrophes. Let us not overlook that application of the principles of +the text. Scripture regards the so-called 'natural consequences' of a +nation's sins as God's judgments on them. The Christian view of the +government of the world looks on all human affairs as moved by God, +though done by men. It takes full account of the responsibility of men +the doers, but above all, recognises 'the rod and Him who hath +appointed it.' We see exemplified over and over again in the world's +history the tragic truth that the accumulated consequences of a +nation's sins fall on the heads of a single generation. Slowly, drop by +drop, the cup is filled. Slowly, moment by moment, the hand moves round +the dial, and then come the crash and boom of the hammer on the +deep-toned bell. Good men should pray not, 'Put up thyself into thy +scabbard,' but, 'Gird Thy sword on Thy thigh, O thou most mighty... on +behalf of truth and meekness and righteousness.' + +III. The sheathing of the sword. + +The passionate appeal in the text, which else is vain, has in large +measure its satisfaction in the work of Christ. + +God does not delight in punishment. He has provided a way. Christ bears +the consequence of man's sin, the sense of alienation, the pains and +sorrows, the death. He does not bear them for Himself. His bearing them +accomplishes the ends at which punishment aims, in expressing the +divine hatred of sin and in subduing the heart. Trusting in Him, the +sword does not fall on us. In some measure indeed it still does. But it +is no longer a sword to smite, but a lancet to inflict a healing wound. +And the worst punishment does not fall on us. God's sword was sheathed +in Christ's breast. So trust in Him, then shall you have 'boldness in +the day of judgment.' + + + + +THE KINSMAN-REDEEMER + +'Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of Hosts is His name: He shall +thoroughly plead their cause.'--JER. l. 34. + + +Among the remarkable provisions of the Mosaic law there were some very +peculiar ones affecting the next-of-kin. The nearest living blood +relation to a man had certain obligations and offices to discharge, +under certain contingencies, in respect of which he received a special +name; which is sometimes translated in the Old Testament 'Redeemer,' +and sometimes 'Avenger' of blood. What the etymological signification +of the word may be is, perhaps, somewhat doubtful. It is taken by some +authorities to come from a word meaning 'to set free.' But a +consideration of the offices which the law prescribed for the 'Goel' is +of more value for understanding the peculiar force of the metaphor in +such a text as this, than any examination of the original meaning of +the word. Jehovah is represented as having taken upon Himself the +functions of the next-of-kin, and is the Kinsman-Redeemer of His +people. The same thought recurs frequently in the Old Testament, +especially in the second half of the prophecies of Isaiah, and it were +much to be desired that the Revised Version had adopted some means of +showing an English reader the instances, since the expression suggests +a very interesting and pathetic view of God's relation to His people. + +I. Let me state briefly the qualifications and offices of the +kinsman-redeemer, _'the Goel.'_ + +The qualifications may be all summed up in one--that he must be the +nearest blood relation of the person whose Goel he was. He might be +brother, or less nearly related, but this was essential, that of all +living men, he was the most closely connected. That qualification has +to be kept well in mind when thinking of the transference of the office +to God in His relation to Israel, and through Israel to us. + +Such being his qualification, what were his duties? Mainly three. The +first was connected with property, and is thus stated in the words of +the law, 'If thy brother be waxen poor, and sell some of his +possession, then shall his _kinsman_ that is next unto him come, and +shall redeem that which his brother hath sold' (Lev. xxv. 25, R. V.). +The Mosaic law was very jealous of large estates. The prophet +pronounced a curse upon those who joined 'land to land, and field to +field... that they may be alone in the midst of the earth.' One great +purpose steadily kept in view in all the Mosaic land-laws was the +prevention of the alienation of the land from its original holders, and +of its accumulation in a few hands. The idea underlying the law was +that of the tribal or family ownership--or rather occupancy, for God +was the owner and Israel but a tenant--and not individual possession. +That thought carries us back to a social state long since passed away, +but of which traces are still left even among ourselves. It was carried +out thoroughly in the law of Moses, however imperfectly in actual +practice. The singular institution of the year of Jubilee operated, +among other effects, to check the acquisition of large estates. It +provided that land which had been alienated was to revert to its +original occupants, and so, in substance, prohibited purchase and +permitted only the lease of land for a maximum term of fifty years. We +do not know how far its enactments were a dead letter, but their spirit +and intention were obviously to secure the land of the tribe to the +tribe for ever, to keep the territory of each distinct, to discourage +the creation of a landowning class, with its consequent landless class, +to prevent the extremes of poverty and wealth, and to perpetuate a +diffused, and nearly uniform, modest wellbeing amongst a pastoral and +agricultural community, and to keep all in mind that the land was 'not +to be sold for ever, for it is Mine,' saith the Lord. + +The obligation on the next-of-kin to buy back alienated property was +quite as much imposed on him for the sake of the family as of the +individual. + +The second of his duties was to buy back a member of his family fallen +into slavery. 'If a stranger or sojourner with thee be waxen rich, and +thy brother be waxen poor beside him, and sell himself unto the +stranger... after that he is sold, he may be redeemed; one of his +brethren may redeem him.' The price was to vary according to the time +which had to elapse before the year of Jubilee, when all slaves were +necessarily set free. So Hebrew slavery was entirely unlike the thing +called by the same name in other countries, and by virtue of this power +of purchase at any time, which was vested in the nearest relative, +taken along with the compulsory manumission of all 'slaves' every +fiftieth year, came to be substantially a voluntary engagement for a +fixed time, which might be ended even before that time had expired, if +compensation for the unexpired term was made to the master. + +It is to be observed that this provision applied only to the case of a +Hebrew who had sold himself. No other person could sell a man into +slavery. And it applied only to the case of a Hebrew who had sold +himself to a foreigner. No Jew was allowed to hold a Jew as a slave. +'If thy brother be waxen poor with thee, and sell himself unto thee, +thou shalt not make him to serve as a bondservant: as an hired servant, +and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee.' (Lev. xxv. 39, R. V.). + +The last of the offices of the kinsman-redeemer was that of avenging +the blood of a murdered relative. If a man were stricken to death, it +became a solemn obligation to exact life for life, and the blood-feud +incumbent on all the family was especially binding on the next-of-kin. +The obligation shocks a modern mind, accustomed to relegate all +punishment to the action of law which no criminal thinks of resisting. +But customs and laws are unfairly estimated when the state of things +which they regulated is forgotten or confused with that of today. The +law of blood-feud among the Hebrews was all in the direction of +restricting the wild justice of revenge, and of entrusting it to +certain chosen persons out of the kindred of the murdered man. The +savage vendetta was too deeply engrained in the national habits to be +done away with altogether. All that was for the time possible was to +check and systematise it, and this was done by the institution in +question, which did not so much put the sword into the hand of the +next-of-kin as strike it out of the hand of all the rest of the clan. + +These, then, were the main parts of the duty of the Goel, the +kinsman-redeemer--buying back the alienated land, purchasing the +freedom of the man who had voluntarily sold himself as a slave, and +avenging the slaying of a kinsman. + +II. Notice the grand mysterious transference of this office to Jehovah. + +This singular institution was gradually discerned to be charged with +lofty meaning and to be capable of being turned into a dim shadowing of +something greater than itself. You will find that God begins to be +spoken of in the later portions of Scripture as the Kinsman-Redeemer. I +reckon eighteen instances, of which thirteen are in the second half of +Isaiah. The reference is, no doubt, mainly to the great deliverance +from captivity in Egypt and Babylon, but the thought sweeps a much +wider circle and goes much deeper down than these historical facts. +There was in it some dim feeling that though God was separated from +them by all the distance between finitude and infinitude, yet they were +nearer to Him than to any one else; that the nearest living relation +whom these poor persecuted Jews had was the Lord of Hosts, beneath +whose wings they might come to trust. Therefore does the prophet kindle +into rapture and triumphant confidence as he thinks that the Lord of +Hosts, mighty, unspeakable, high above our thoughts, our words, or our +praise, is Israel's Kinsman, and, therefore, their Redeemer. How +profound a consciousness that man was made in the image of God, and +that, in spite of all the gulf between finite and infinite, and the yet +deeper gulf between sinful man and righteous God, He was closer to a +poor struggling soul than even the dearest were, must have been at all +events dawning on the prophet who dared to think of the Holy One in the +Heavens as Israel's Kinsman. No doubt, he was dwelling mostly on +historical outward deliverances wrought for the nation, and his idea of +Israel's kinship to God applied to the people, not to individuals, and +meant chiefly that the nation had been chosen for God's. But still the +thought must have been felt to be great and wonderful, and some faint +apprehension of the yet deeper sense in which it is true that God is +the next-of-kin to every soul and ready to be its Redeemer, would no +doubt begin to be felt. + +The deepening of the idea from a reference to external and national +deliverances, and the large, dim hopes which clustered round it, may be +illustrated by one or two significant instances. Take, for example, +that mysterious and very beautiful utterance in the Book of Job, where +the man, in the very depth of his despair, and just because there is +not a human being that has any drop of pity for him, turns from earth, +and striking confidence out of his very despair, like fire from flint, +sees there his Kinsman-Redeemer. 'I know that my Redeemer liveth.' Men +may mock him, friends may turn against him, the wife of his bosom may +tempt him, comforters may pour vitriol instead of oil into his wounds, +yet he, sitting on his dunghill there, poverty-stricken and desolate, +knows that God is of kin to him, and will do the kinsman's part by him. +The very metaphor implies that the divine intervention which he expects +is to take place after his death. It was a dead man whose blood the +Goel avenged. Thus the view which sees in the subsequent words a hope, +however dim and undefined, of an experience of a divine manifestation +on his behalf beyond the grave is the only one which gives its full +force to the central idea of the passage, as well as to the obscure +individual expressions. Most strikingly, then, he goes on to say, +carrying out the allusion, 'and that he shall stand at the last upon +the dust.' Little did it boot the murdered man, lying there stark, with +the knife in his bosom, that the murderer should be slain by the swift +justice of his kinsman-avenger, but Job felt that, in some mysterious +way, God would appear for him, after he had been laid in the dust, and +that he would somehow share in the gladness of His manifestation--for +he believes that 'without his flesh' he will see God, 'whom I shall see +for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another.' Large and +mysterious hopes are gathering round the metaphor, which flash some +light into the darkness of the grave, and give to the troubled soul the +assurance that when life with all its troubles is past, and flesh has +seen corruption, the inmost personal being of every man who commits his +cause to God will behold Him coming forth his Kinsman-Redeemer. + +Another illustration of the hopes which gathered round this image is +found in the great psalm which prophesies of the true King of Peace, in +language too wide for any poetical licence to warrant if intended only +to describe a Jewish king (Ps. lxxii. 14). The universal dominion of +this great King is described in terms which, though they may be partly +referred to the Jewish monarchy at its greatest expansion, sweep far +beyond its bounds in exulting anticipation that 'all kings shall fall +down before Him, all nations shall serve Him.' The reason for this +world-wide dominion is not military power, as was the case with the +warrior kings of old, who bound nations together for a little while in +an artificial unity with iron chains, but His dominion is universal, +'_for_ He shall deliver the needy when he crieth,...He shall _redeem_ +their souls from oppression and violence, and precious shall their +blood be in His sight.' Two of the functions of the Kinsman-Redeemer +are here united. He buys back slaves from their tyrannous masters, and +He avenges their shed blood. And because His Kingdom is a kingdom of +gentle pity and loving help, because He is of the same blood with His +subjects, and brings liberty to the captives, therefore it is universal +and everlasting. For the strongest thing in all the world is love, and +He who can staunch men's wounds, and will hear their cries and help +them, will rule them with authority which conquerors cannot wield. + +This universal King, the kinsman and the sovereign of all the needy, is +not God. A human figure is rising before the prophet-psalmist's eye, +whose meekness as well as His majesty, and whose kingdom as well as His +redeeming power, seem to pass beyond human limits. Divine offices seem +to be devolved on a man's shoulders. Dim hopes are springing which +point onwards. So that great psalm leads us a step further. + +III. See the perfect fulfilment of this divine office by the man Christ +Jesus. + +Job's anticipation and the psalmist's rapturous vision are fulfilled in +the Incarnate Word, in whom God comes near to us all and makes Himself +kindred to our flesh, that He may discharge all those blessed offices, +of redeeming from slavery, of recovering our alienated inheritance, and +of guarding our lives, which demand at once divine power and human +nearness. Christ is our Kinsman. True, the divine nature and the human +are nearly allied, so that even apart from the Incarnation, men may +feel that none is so truly and closely akin to them as their Father in +Heaven is. But how much more blessed than even that kinship is the +consanguinity of Christ, who is doubly of kin to each soul of man, both +because in His true manhood He is bone of our bone and flesh of our +flesh, and because in His divinity He is nearer to us than the closest +human kindred can ever be. By both He comes so near to us that we may +clasp Him by our faith, and rest upon Him, and have Him for our nearest +friend, our brother. He is nearer to each of us than our dearest is. He +loves us with the love of kindred, and can fill our hearts and wills, +and help our weakness in better, more inward ways than all sympathy and +love of human hearts can do. Between the atoms of the densest of +material bodies there is an interspace of air, as is shown by the fact +that everything is compressible if you can find the force sufficient to +compress it. That is to say, in the material universe no particle +touches another. And so in the spiritual region, there is an awful film +of separation between each of us and all others, however closely we may +be united. We each live on our own little island in the deep, 'with +echoing straits between us thrown.' We have a solemn consciousness of +personality, of responsibility unshared by any, of a separate destiny +parting us from our dearest. Arms may be twined, but they must be +unlinked some day, and each in turn must face the awful solitude of +death, as each has really faced that scarcely less awful solitude of +life, alone. But 'he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit,' and our +kinsman, Christ, will come so near to us, that we shall be in Him and +He in us, one spirit and one life. He is your nearest relation, nearer +than husband, wife, parent, brother, sister, or friend. He is nearer to +you than your very selves. He is your better self. That is His +qualification for His office. + +Because He is man's kinsman, He buys back His enslaved brethren. The +bondage from which 'one of His brethren' might 'redeem' the Israelite +was a voluntary bondage into which he had sold himself. And such is our +slavery. None can rob us of our freedom but ourselves. The world and +the flesh and the devil cannot put their chains on us unless our own +wills hold out our hands for the manacles. + +And, alas! it is often an unsuspected slavery. 'How sayest thou, ye +shall be made free. We were never in bondage to any man,' boasted the +angry disputants with Christ. And if they had lifted up their eyes they +might have seen from the Temple courts in which they stood, the citadel +full of Roman soldiers, and perhaps the golden eagles gleaming in the +sunshine on the loftiest battlements. Yet with that strange power of +ignoring disagreeable facts they dared to assert their freedom. 'Never +in bondage to any man!'--what about Egypt, and Assyria, and Babylon? +Had there never been an Antiochus? Was Rome a reality? Did it lay no +yoke on them? Was it all a dream? + +Some of us are just as foolish, and try as desperately to annihilate +facts by ignoring them, and to make ourselves free by passionately +denying that we are slaves. But 'he that committeth sin is the slave of +sin.' That sounds a paradox. I am master of my own actions, you may +say, and never freer than when I break the bonds of right and duty and +choose to do what is contrary to them, for no reason on earth but +because I choose. That is liberty, emancipation from the burdensome +restraints which your narrow preaching about law and conscience would +impose. Yes, you are masters of your actions, and your sinful actions +very soon become masters of you. Do we not know that that is true? You +fall into, or walk into a habit, and then it gets the mastery of you, +and you cannot get rid of it. Whosoever sets his foot upon that +slippery inclined plane of wrongdoing, after he has gone a little way, +gravitation is too much for him and away he goes down the hill. +'Whosoever committeth sin is the slave of sin.' Did you ever try to +kill a bad habit, a vice? Did you find it easy work? Was it not your +master? You thought that a chain no stronger than a spider's web was +round your wrist till you tried to break it; and then you found it a +chain of adamant. Many men who boast themselves free are 'tied and +bound with the cords of their sins.' + +Dreaming of freedom, you have sold yourself, and that 'for nought.' Is +that not true, tragically true? + +What have you made out of sin? Is the game worth the candle? Will it +continue to be so? Ye shall be redeemed without money, for Jesus Christ +laid down His life for you and me, that by His death we might receive +forgiveness and deliverance from the power of sin. And so your Kinsman, +nearer to you than all else, has bought you back. Do not refuse the +offered emancipation, but 'if thou mayest be made free, use it rather.' +Be not like the spiritless slaves, for whose servile choice the law +provided, who had rather remain bond than go out free. Surely when +Christ calls you to liberty, you will not turn from Him to the +tyrannous masters whom you have served, and, like the Hebrew slave, let +them fasten you to their door-posts with their awl through your ear. Do +you hug your chains and prefer your bondage? + +Your Kinsman-Redeemer brings back your squandered inheritance, which is +God. God is the only possession that makes a man rich. He alone is +worth calling 'my portion.' It is only when we have God in our hearts, +God in our heads, God in our souls, God in our life--it is only when we +love Him, and think about Him, and obey Him, and bring our characters +into harmony with Him, and so possess Him--it is only then that we +become truly rich. No other possession corresponds to our capacities so +as to fill up all our needs and satisfy all our being. No other +possession passes into our very substance and becomes inseparable from +ourselves. So the mystical fervour of the psalmist's devotion spoke a +simple prose truth when he exclaimed, 'The Lord is the portion of mine +inheritance and of my cup.' + +We have squandered our inheritance. We have sinned away fellowship with +God. We have flung away our true wealth, 'wasted our substance in +riotous living.' And here is our Elder Brother, our nearest relative, +who has always been with the Father; but who, instead of grudging the +prodigals their fatted calf and their hearty welcome when they come +back, has Himself, by the sacrifice of Himself, won for them the +inheritance, its earnest in the possession of God's spirit here and its +completion in the broad fields of 'the inheritance of the saints in +light,' the entire fruition and possession of the divine in the life to +come. 'If children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with +Christ.' + +Your Kinsman-Redeemer will keep your lives under His care, and be ready +to plead your cause. 'He that touches you, touches the apple of Mine +eye.' 'He reproved kings for their sake, saying, Touch not Mine +anointed.' Not in vain does the cry go up to Him, 'Avenge, O Lord, Thy +slaughtered saints,'--and if no apparent retribution has followed, and +if often His servant's blood seems to have been shed in vain, still we +know that it has often been the seed of the Church, and that He who +puts our tears into His bottle will not count our blood less precious +in His sight. So we may rest confident that our Kinsman-Redeemer will +charge Himself with pleading our cause and intervening in our behalf, +that He will compass us about with His protection, and that we are knit +so close to Him that our woes and foes are His, and that we cannot die +as long as He lives. + +So, dear brethren, be sure of this, that if only you will take Christ +for your Saviour and brother, your Helper and Friend, if only you will +rest yourself upon that complete sacrifice which He has made for the +sins of the world, He will give you liberty, and restore your lost +inheritance, and your blood shall be precious in His sight, and He will +keep His hand around you and preserve you; and finally will bring you +into His home and yours. 'In Him we have redemption through His blood,' +and He comes to every one of you now, even through my poor lips, with +His ancient word of merciful invitation: 'Behold! I have blotted out as +a cloud thy sins and as a thick cloud thy transgressions. Turn unto Me, +for I have redeemed thee.' + + + + +'AS SODOM' + +'Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he +reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal +the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 2. And he did that which was evil +in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. 3. +For through the anger of the Lord it came to pass in Jerusalem and +Judah, till he had cast them out from his presence, that Zedekiah +rebelled against the king of Babylon. 4. And it came to pass, in the +ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the +month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, +against Jerusalem, and pitched against it, and built forts against it +round about. 5. So the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king +Zedekiah. 6. And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, +the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the +people of the land. 7. Then the city was broken up, and all the men of +war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the +gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden; (now the +Chaldeans were by the city round about) and they went by the way of the +plain. 8. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and +overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was +scattered from him. 9. Then they took the king, and carried him up unto +the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; where he gave +judgment upon him. 10. And the king of Babylon slew the sons of +Zedekiah before his eyes: he slew also all the princes of Judah in +Riblah. 11. Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of +Babylon bound him in chains, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in +prison till the day of his death.'--JER. lii. 1-11. + + +This account of the fall of Jerusalem is all but identical with that in +2 Kings xxv. It was probably taken thence by some editor of Jeremiah's +prophecies, perhaps Baruch, who felt the appropriateness of appending +to these the verification of them in that long-foretold and disbelieved +judgment. + +The absence of every expression of emotion is most striking. In one +sentence the wrath of God is pointed to as the cause of all; and, for +the rest, the tragic facts which wrung the writer's heart are told in +brief, passionless sentences, which sound liker the voice of the +recording angel than that of a man who had lived through the misery +which he recounts. The Book of Lamentations weeps and sobs with the +grief of the devout Jew; but the historian smothers feeling while he +tells of God's righteous judgment. + +Zedekiah owed his throne to 'the king of Babylon,' and, at first, was +his obedient vassal, himself going to Babylon (Jer. li. 59) and +swearing allegiance (Ezek. xvii. 13). But rebellion soon followed, and +the perjured young king once more pursued the fatal, fascinating policy +of alliance with Egypt. There could be but one end to that madness, +and, of course, the Chaldean forces soon appeared to chastise this +presumptuous little monarch, who dared to defy the master of the world. +Our narrative curtails its account of Zedekiah's reign, bringing into +strong relief only the two facts of his following Jehoiakim's evil +ways, and his rebellion against Babylon. But behind the rash, ignorant +young man, it sees God working, and traces all the insane bravado by +which he was ruining his kingdom and himself to God's 'wrath,' not +thereby diminishing Zedekiah's responsibility for his own acts, but +declaring that his being 'given over to a reprobate mind' was the +righteous divine punishment for past sin. + +An eighteen months' agony is condensed into three verses (Jer. lii. +4-6), in which the minute care to specify dates pathetically reveals +the depth of the impression which the first appearance of the besieging +army made, and the deeper wound caused by the city's fall. The memory +of these days has not faded yet, for both are still kept as fasts by +the synagogue. We look with the narrator's eye at the deliberate +massing of the immense besieging force drawing its coils round the +doomed city, like a net round a deer, and mark with him the piling of +the mounds, and the erection on them of siege-towers. We hear of no +active siege operations till the final assault. Famine was +Nebuchadnezzar's best general. 'Sitting down they watched' _her_ +'there,' and grimly waited till hunger became unbearable. We can fill +up much of the outline in this narrative from the rest of Jeremiah, +which gives us a vivid and wretched picture of imbecility, divided +counsels, and mad hatred of God's messenger, blind refusal to see +facts, and self-confidence which no disaster could abate. And, all the +while, the monstrous serpent was slowly tightening its folds round the +struggling, helpless rabbit. We have to imagine all the misery. + +The narrative hurries on to its close. What widespread and +long-drawn-out privation that one sentence covers: 'The famine was sore +in the city, so that there was no bread for the people'! Lamentations +is full of the cries of famished children and mothers who eat the fruit +of their own bodies. At last, on the memorable black day, the ninth of +the fourth month (say July), 'a breach was made,' and the Chaldean +forces poured in through it. Jeremiah xxxix. 3 tells the names of the +Babylonian officers who 'sat in the middle gate' of the Temple, +polluting it with their presence. There seems to have been no +resistance from the enfeebled, famished people; but apparently some of +the priests were slain in the sanctuary, perhaps in the act of +defending it from the entrance of the enemy. The Chaldeans would enter +from the north, and, while they were establishing themselves in the +Temple, Zedekiah 'and all the men of war' fled, stealing out of the +city by a covered way between two walls, on the south side, and leaving +the city to the conqueror, without striking a blow. They had talked +large when danger was not near; but braggarts are cowards, and they +thought now of nothing but their own worthless lives. Then, as always, +the men who feared God feared nothing else, and the men who scoffed at +the day of retribution, when it was far off, were unmanned with terror +when it dawned. + +The investment had not been complete on the southern side, and the +fugitives got away across Kedron and on to the road to Jericho, their +purpose, no doubt, being to put the Jordan between them and the enemy. +One can picture that stampede down the rocky way, the anxious looks +cast backwards, the confusion, the weariness, the despair when the rush +of the pursuers overtook the famine-weakened mob. In sight of Jericho, +which had witnessed the first onset of the irresistible desert-hardened +host under Joshua, the last king of Israel, deserted by his army, was +'taken in their pits,' as hunters take a wild beast. The march to +Riblah, in the far north, would be full of indignities arid of physical +suffering. The soldiers of that 'bitter and hasty' nation would not +spare him one insult or act of cruelty, and he had a tormentor within +worse than they. 'Why did I not listen to the prophet? What a fool I +have been! If I had only my time to come over again, how differently I +would do!' The miserable self-reproaches, which shoot their arrows into +our hearts when it is too late, would torture Zedekiah, as they will +sooner or later do to all who did not listen to God's message while +there was yet time. The sinful, mad past kept him company on one hand; +and, on the other, there attended him a dark, if doubtful, future. He +knew that he was at the disposal of a fierce conqueror, whom he had +deeply incensed, and who had little mercy. 'What will become of me when +I am face to face with Nebuchadnezzar? Would that I had kept subject to +him!' A past gone to ruin, a present honey-combed with gnawing remorse +and dread, a future threatening, problematical, but sure to be +penal--these were what this foolish young king had won by showing his +spirit and despising Jeremiah's warnings, It is always a mistake to fly +in the face of God's commands. All sin is folly, and every evildoer +might say with poor Robert Burns: + + 'I backward cast my e'e + On prospects drear! + An' forward, tho' I canna see, + I guess an' fear.' + +Nebuchadnezzar was in Riblah, away up in the north, waiting the issue +of the campaign. Zedekiah was nothing to him but one of the many +rebellious vassals of whom he had to make an example lest rebellion +should spread, and who was especially guilty because he was +Nebuchadnezzar's own nominee, and had sworn allegiance. Policy and his +own natural disposition reinforced by custom dictated his barbarous +punishment meted to the unfortunate kinglet of the petty kingdom that +had dared to perk itself up against his might. How little he knew that +he was the executioner of God's decrees! How little the fact that he +was so, diminished his responsibility for his cruelty! The savage +practice of blinding captive kings, so as to make them harmless and +save all trouble with them, was very common. Zedekiah was carried to +Babylon, and thus was fulfilled Ezekiel's enigmatical prophecy, 'I will +bring him to Babylon,... yet shall he not see it, though he shall die +there' (Ezek. xii. 13). + +The fall of Jerusalem should teach us that a nation is a moral whole, +capable of doing evil and of receiving retribution, and not a mere +aggregation of individuals. It should teach us that transgression does +still, though not so directly or certainly as in the case of Israel, +sap the strength of kingdoms; and that to-day, as truly as of old, +'righteousness exalteth a nation.' It should accustom us to look on +history as not only the result of visible forces, but as having behind +it, and reaching its end through the visible forces, the unseen hand of +God. For Christians, the vision of the Apocalypse contains the ultimate +word on 'the philosophy of history.' It is 'the Lamb before the +Throne,' who opens the roll with the seven seals, and lets the powers +of whom it speaks loose for their march through the world. It should +teach us God's long-suffering patience and loving efforts to escape the +necessity of smiting, and also God's rigid justice, which will not +shrink from smiting when all these efforts have failed. + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Expositions of Holy Scripture, by +Alexander Maclaren + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE *** + +***** This file should be named 8069.txt or 8069.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/0/6/8069/ + +Produced by Charles Franks, Michelle Shephard and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Expositions of Holy Scripture + Isaiah and Jeremiah + +Author: Alexander Maclaren + +Release Date: May, 2005 [EBook #8069] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on June 11, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Franks, Michelle Shephard +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE + + +ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. + +ISAIAH AND JEREMIAH + + + + +EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE + +ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. + +ISAIAH + +_Chaps. I to XLVIII_ + + + + +CONTENTS + +THE GREAT SUIT: JEHOVAH _versus_ JUDAH (Isaiah i. 1-9; 16-20) + +THE STUPIDITY OF GODLESSNESS (Isaiah i. 3) + +WHAT SIN DOES TO MEN (Isaiah i. 30-31) + +THE PERPETUAL PILLAR OF CLOUD AND FIRE (Isaiah iv. 5) + +A PROPHET'S WOES (Isaiah v. 8-30) + +VISION AND SERVICE (Isaiah vi. 1-13) + +THE EMPTY THRONE FILLED (Isaiah vi. 1) + +A SERAPH'S WINGS (Isaiah vi. 2) + +THE MAKING OF A PROPHET (Isaiah vi. 5) + +SHILOAH AND EUPHRATES (Isaiah viii. 6, 7) + +THE KINGDOM AND THE KING (Isaiah ix. 2-7) + +LIGHT OR FIRE? (Isaiah x. 17) + +THE SUCKER FROM THE FELLED OAK (Isaiah xi. 1-10) + +THE WELL-SPRING OF SALVATION (Isaiah xii. 3) + +THE HARVEST OF A GODLESS LIFE (Isaiah xvii. 10, 11) + +'IN THIS MOUNTAIN' (Isaiah xxv. 6-8) + +THE FEAST ON THE SACRIFICE (Isaiah xxv. 6) + +THE VEIL OVER ALL NATIONS (Isaiah xxv. 7) + +THE SONG OF TWO CITIES (Isaiah xxvi. 1-10) + +OUR STRONG CITY (Isaiah xxvi. 1-2) + +THE INHABITANT OF THE ROCK (Isaiah xxvi. 3-4) + +THE GRASP THAT BRINGS PEACE (Isaiah xxvii. 5) + +THE JUDGMENT OF DRUNKARDS AND MOCKERS (Isaiah xxviii. 1-13) + +A CROWN OF PRIDE OR A CROWN OF GLORY (Isaiah xxviii 3-5) + +MAN'S CROWN AND GOD'S (Isaiah lxii 3) + +THE FOUNDATION OF GOD (Isaiah xxviii. 16) + +GOD'S STRANGE WORK (Isaiah xxviii. 21) + +THE HUSBANDMAN AND HIS OPERATIONS (Isaiah xxviii. 23-29) + +'QUIETNESS AND CONFIDENCE' (Isaiah xxx. 15) + +GOD'S WAITING AND MAN'S (Isaiah xxx. 18) + +THREE PICTURES OF ONE REALITY (Isaiah xxxi. 5) + +THE LORD'S FURNACE (Isaiah xxxi. 9) + +THE HIDING-PLACE (Isaiah xxxii. 2) + +HOW TO DWELL IN THE FIRE OF GOD (Isaiah xxxiii. 14, 15; I John iv. 16) + +THE FORTRESS OF THE FAITHFUL (Isaiah xxxiii. 16) + +THE RIVERS OF GOD (Isaiah xxxiii. 21) + +JUDGE, LAWGIVER, KING (Isaiah xxxiii. 22) + +MIRACLES OF HEALING (Isaiah xxxv. 5-6) + +MIRAGE OR LAKE (Isaiah xxxv. 6-7) + +THE KING'S HIGHWAY (Isaiah xxxv. 8-9) + +WHAT LIFE'S JOURNEY MAY BE (Isaiah xxxv. 9-10) + +THE TRIUMPH OF FAITH (Isaiah xxxvii 14-21; 33-38) + +WHERE TO CARRY TROUBLES (Isaiah xxxvii. 14) + +GREAT VOICES FROM HEAVEN (Isaiah xl. 1-10) + +O THOU THAT BRINGEST GOOD TIDINGS (Isaiah xl. 9) + +'HAVE YE NOT? HAST THOU NOT' (Isaiah xl. 2; 28) + +UNFAILING STARS AND FAINTING MEN (Isaiah xl. 26; 29) + +THE SECRET OF IMMORTAL YOUTH (Isaiah xl. 30, 31) + +CHRIST THE ARRESTER OF INCIPIENT EVIL AND THE NOURISHER OF INCIPIENT +GOOD (Isaiah xlii. 3, 4) + +THE BLIND MAN'S GUIDE (Isaiah xlii. 16) + +THY NAME: MY NAME (Isaiah xliii, 1; 7) + +JACOB--ISRAEL--JESHURUN (Isaiah xliv. 1, 2) + +FEEDING ON ASHES (Isaiah xliv. 20) + +WRITING BLOTTED OUT AND MIST MELTED (Isaiah xliv. 22) + +HIDDEN AND REVEALED (Isaiah xlv. 15, 19) + +A RIGHTEOUSNESS NEAR AND A SWIFT SALVATION (Isaiah xlv. 12, 13) + +A RIVER OF PEACE AND WAVES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS (Isaiah xlviii. 18) + + + + +THE GREAT SUIT: JEHOVAH _VERSUS_ JUDAH + +'The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and +Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of +Judah. I Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath +spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled +against Me. 3. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: +but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. 4. Ah sinful +nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that +are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy +One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. 5. Why should ye +be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is +sick, and the whole heart faint. 6. From the sole of the foot even unto +the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and +putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither +mollified with ointment. 7. Your country is desolate, your cities are +burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and +it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. 8. And the daughter of Zion +is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, +as a besieged city. 9. Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very +small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been +like unto Gomorrah.... 16. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil +of your doings from before Mine eyes; cease to do evil; 17. Learn to do +well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead +for the widow. 18. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: +though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow: though +they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. 19. If ye be willing +and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land. 20. But if ye refuse +and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the +Lord hath spoken it.'--ISAIAH 1,1-9; 16-20. + + +The first bars of the great overture to Isaiah's great oratorio are here +sounded. These first chapters give out the themes which run through all +the rest of his prophecies. Like most introductions, they were probably +written last, when the prophet collected and arranged his life's +labours. The text deals with the three great thoughts, the _leit-motifs_ +that are sounded over and over again in the prophet's message. + +First comes the great indictment (vs. 2-4). A true prophet's words are +of universal application, even when they are most specially addressed to +a particular audience. Just because this indictment was so true of +Judah, is it true of all men, for it is not concerned with details +peculiar to a long-past period and state of society, but with the broad +generalities common to us all. As another great teacher in Old Testament +times said, 'I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy +burnt-offerings, to have been continually before me.' Isaiah has nothing +to say about ritual or ceremonial omissions, which to him were but +surface matters after all, but he sets in blazing light the foundation +facts of Judah's (and every man's) distorted relation to God. And how +lovingly, as well as sternly, God speaks through him! That divine lament +which heralds the searching indictment is not unworthy to be the very +words of the Almighty Lover of all men, sorrowing over His prodigal and +fugitive sons. Nor is its deep truth less than its tenderness. For is +not man's sin blackest when seen against the bright background of God's +fatherly love? True, the fatherhood that Isaiah knew referred to God's +relation to the nation rather than to the individual, but the great +truth which is perfectly revealed by the Perfect Son was in part shown +to the prophet. The east was bright with the unrisen sun, and the tinted +clouds that hovered above the place of its rising seemed as if yearning +to open and let him through. Man's neglect of God's benefits puts him +below the animals that 'know' the hand that feeds and governs them. Some +men think it a token of superior 'culture' and advanced views to throw +off allegiance to God. It is a token that they have less intelligence +than their dog. + +There is something very beautiful and pathetic in the fact that Judah is +not directly addressed, but that verses 2-4 are a divine soliloquy. They +might rather be called a father's lament than an indictment. The +forsaken father is, as it were, sadly brooding over his erring child's +sins, which are his father's sorrows and his own miseries. In verse 4 +the black catalogue of the prodigal's doings begins on the surface with +what we call 'moral' delinquencies, and then digs deeper to disclose the +root of these in what we call 'religious' relations perverted. The two +are inseparably united, for no man who is wrong with God can be right +with duty or with men. Notice, too, how one word flashes into clearness +the sad truth of universal experience--that 'iniquity,' however it may +delude us into fancying that by it we throw off the burden of conscience +and duty, piles heavier weights on our backs. The doer of iniquity is +'laden with iniquity.' Notice, too, how the awful entail of evil from +parents to children is adduced--shall we say as aggravating, or as +lessening, the guilt of each generation? Isaiah's contemporaries are 'a +seed of evil-doers,' spring from such, and in their turn are 'children +that are corrupters.' The fatal bias becomes stronger as it passes down. +Heredity is a fact, whether you call it original sin or not. + +But the bitter fountain of all evil lies in distorted relations to God. +'They have forsaken the Lord'; that is why they 'do corruptly.' They +have 'despised the Holy One of Israel'; that is why they are 'laden with +iniquity.' Alienated hearts separate from Him. To forsake Him is to +despise Him. To go from Him is to go 'away backward.' Whatever may have +been our inheritance of evil, we each go further from Him. And this +fatherly lament over Judah is indeed a wail over every child of man. +Does it not echo in the 'pearl of parables,' and may we not suppose that +it suggested that supreme revelation of man's misery and God's love? + +After the indictment comes the sentence (vs. 5-8). Perhaps 'sentence' is +not altogether accurate, for these verses do not so much decree a future +as describe a present, and the deep tone of pitying wonder sounds +through them as they tell of the bitter harvest sown by sin. The +penetrating question, 'Why will ye be still stricken, that ye revolt +more and more?' brings out the solemn truth that all which men gain by +rebellion against God is chastisement. The ox that 'kicks against the +pricks' only makes its own hocks bleed. We aim at some imagined good, +and we get--blows. No rational answer to that stern 'Why?' is possible. +Every sin is an act of unreason, essentially an absurdity. The +consequences of Judah's sin are first darkly drawn under the metaphor of +a man desperately wounded in some fight, and far away from physicians or +nurses, and then the metaphor is interpreted by the plain facts of +hostile invasion, flaming cities, devastated fields. It destroys the +coherence of the verses to take the gruesome picture of the wounded man +as a description of men's sins; it is plainly a description of the +consequences of their sins. In accordance with the Old Testament point +of view, Isaiah deals with national calamities as the punishment of +national sins. He does not touch on the far worse results of individual +sins on individual character. But while we are not to ignore his +doctrine that nations are individual entities, and that 'righteousness +exalteth a nation' in our days as well as in his, the Christian form of +his teaching is that men lay waste their own lives and wound their own +souls by every sin. The fugitive son comes down to be a swine-herd, and +cannot get enough even of the swine's food to stay his hunger. + +The note of pity sounds very clearly in the pathetic description of the +deserted 'daughter of Zion.' Jerusalem stands forlorn and defenceless, +like a frail booth in a vineyard, hastily run up with boughs, and open +to fierce sunshine or howling winds. Once 'beautiful for situation, the +joy of the whole earth,... the city of the great King'--and now! + +Verse 9 breaks the solemn flow of the divine Voice, but breaks it as it +desires to be broken. For in it hearts made soft and penitent by the +Voice, breathe out lowly acknowledgment of widespread sin, and see God's +mercy in the continuance of 'a very small remnant' of still faithful +ones. There is a little island not yet submerged by the sea of iniquity, +and it is to Him, not to themselves, that the 'holy seed' owe their +being kept from following the multitude to do evil. What a smiting +comparison for the national pride that is--'as Sodom,' 'like unto +Gomorrah'! + +After the sentence comes pardon. Verses 16 and 17 properly belong to the +paragraph omitted from the text, and close the stern special word to the +'rulers' which, in its severe tone, contrasts so strongly with the +wounded love and grieved pity of the preceding verses. Moral amendment +is demanded of these high-placed sinners and false guides. It is John +the Baptist's message in an earlier form, and it clears the way for the +evangelical message. Repentance and cleansing of life come first. + +But these stern requirements, if taken alone, kindle despair. 'Wash you, +make you clean'--easy to say, plainly necessary, and as plainly +hopelessly above my reach. If that is all that a prophet has to say to +me, he may as well say nothing. For what is the use of saying 'Arise and +walk' to the man who has been lame from his mother's womb? How can a +foul body be washed clean by filthy hands? Ancient or modern preachers +of a self-wrought-out morality exhort to impossibilities, and unless +they follow their preaching of an unattainable ideal as Isaiah followed +his, they are doomed to waste their words. He cried, 'Make you clean,' +but he immediately went on to point to One who could make clean, could +turn scarlet into snowy white, crimson into the lustrous purity of the +unstained fleeces of sheep in green pastures. The assurance of God's +forgiveness which deals with guilt, and of God's cleansing which deals +with inclination and habit, must be the foundation of our cleansing +ourselves from filthiness of flesh and spirit. The call to repentance +needs the promise of pardon and divine help to purifying in order to +become a gospel. And the call to 'repentance toward God, and faith +toward our Lord Jesus Christ,' is what we all, who are 'laden with +iniquity,' and have forsaken the Lord, need, if ever we are to cease to +do evil and learn to do well. + +As with one thunder-clap the prophecy closes, pealing forth the eternal +alternative set before every soul of man. Willing obedience to our +Father God secures all good, the full satisfaction of our else hungry +and ravenous desires. To refuse and rebel is to condemn ourselves to +destruction. And no man can avert that consequence, or break the +necessary connection between goodness and blessedness, 'for the mouth of +the Lord hath spoken it,' and what He speaks stands fast for ever and +ever. + + + + +THE STUPIDITY OF GODLESSNESS + +'The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel +doth not know, My people doth not consider.'--ISAIAH i. 3. + + +This is primarily an indictment against Israel, but it touches us all. +'Doth not know' _i.e._ has no familiar acquaintance with; 'doth not +consider,' _i.e._ frivolously ignores, never meditates on. + +I. This is a common attitude of mind towards God. + +Blank indifference towards Him is far more frequent than conscious +hostility. Take a hundred men at random as they hurry through the +streets, and how many of them would have to acknowledge that no thought +of God had crossed their minds for days or months? So far as they are +concerned, either in regard to their thoughts or actions, He _is_ 'a +superfluous hypothesis.' Most men are not conscious of rebellion against +Him, and to charge them with it does not rouse conscience, but they +cannot but plead guilty to this indictment, 'God is not in all their +thoughts.' + +II. This attitude is strange and unnatural. + +That a man should be able to forget God, and live as if there were no +such Being, is strange. It is one instance of that awful power of +ignoring the most important subjects, of which every life affords so +many and tragic instances. It seems as if we had above us an opium sky +which rains down soporifics, go that we are fast asleep to all that it +most concerns us to wake to. But still stranger is it that, having that +power of attending or not attending to subjects, we should so commonly +exercise it on _this_ subject. For, as the ox that knows the hand that +feeds him, and the ass that makes for his 'master's crib' where he is +sure of fodder and straw, might teach us, the stupidest brute has sense +enough to recognise who is kind to him, or has authority over him, and +where he can find what he needs. The godless man descends below the +animals' level. And to ignore Him is intensely stupid. But it is worse +than foolish, for + +III. This attitude is voluntary and criminal. + +Though there is not conscious hostility in it, the root of it is a sub- +conscious sense of discordance with God and of antagonism between His +will and the man's When we are quite sure that we love another, and that +hearts beat in accord and wills go out towards the same things, we do +not need to make efforts to think of that other, but our minds turn +towards him or her as to a home, whenever released from the holding- +back force of necessary occupations. If we love God, and have our will +set to do His will, our thoughts will fly to Him, 'as doves to their +windows.' + +It is fed by preoccupation of thought with other things. We have but a +certain limited amount of energy of thought or attention, and if we +waste it, as much as most of us do, on 'things seen and temporal,' there +is none left for the unseen realities and the God who is 'eternal, +invisible.' It is often reinforced by theoretical uncertainty, sometimes +real, often largely unreal. But after all, the true basis of it is, what +Paul gives as its cause, 'they did not _like_ to retain God in their +knowledge.' + +The criminality of this indifference! It is heartlessly ungrateful. Dogs +lick the hand that feeds them; ox and ass in their dull way recognise +something almost like obligation arising from benefits and care. No +ingratitude is meaner and baser than that of which we are guilty, if we +do not requite Him 'in whose hands our breath is, and whose are all our +ways,' by even one thankful heart-throb or one word shaped out of the +breath that He gives. + +IV. This attitude is fatal. + +It separates us from God, and separation from Him is the very definition +of Death. A God of whom we never think is all the same to us as a God +who does not exist. Strike God out of a life, and you strike the sun out +of the system, and wrap all in darkness and weltering chaos. 'This is +life eternal, to know Thee'; but if 'Israel doth not know,' Israel has +slain itself. + + + + +WHAT SIN DOES TO MEN + +'Ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no +water. 31. And the strong shall be as tow, and His work as a spark; and +they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.'--ISAIAH i. +30-31. + + +The original reference of these words is to the threatened retribution +for national idolatry, of which 'oaks' and 'gardens' were both seats. +The nation was, as it were, dried up and made inflammable; the idol was +as the 'spark' or the occasion for destruction. But a wider application, +which comes home to us all, is to the fatal results of sin. These need +to be very plainly stated, because of the deceitfulness of sin, which +goes on slaying men by thousands in silence. + + 'That grim wolf with privy paw + Daily devours apace.' + +I. Sin withers. + +We see the picture of a blasted tree in the woods, while all around are +in full leaf, with tiny leaves half developed and all brown at the +edges. The prophet draws another picture, that of a garden not +irrigated, and therefore, in the burning East, given over to barrenness. + +Sin makes men fruitless and withered. + +It involves separation from God, the source of all fruitfulness (Ps. +i.). + +Think of how many pure desires and innocent susceptibilities die out of +a sinful soul. Think of how many capacities for good disappear. Think of +how dry and seared the heart becomes. Think of how conscience is +stifled. + +All sin--any sin--does this. + +Not only gross, open transgressions, but any piece of godless living +will do it. + +Whatever a man does against his conscience--neglect of duty, habitual +unveracity, idleness--in a word, his besetting sin withers him up. + +And all the while the evil thing that is drawing his life-blood is +growing like a poisonous, blotched fungus in a wine-cask. + +II. Sin makes men inflammable. + +'As tow' or tinder. + +A subsidiary reference may be intended to the sinful man as easily +catching fire at temptation. But the main thought is that sin makes a +man ready for destruction, 'whose end is to be burned.' + +The materials for retribution are laid up in a man's nature by wrong- +doing. The conspirators store the dynamite in a dark cellar. Conscience +and memory are charged with explosives. + +If tendencies, habits, and desires become tyrannous by long indulgence +and cannot be indulged, what a fierce fire would rage then! + +We have only to suppose a man made to know what is the real moral +character of his actions, and to be unable to give them up, to have +hell. + +All this is confirmed by occasional glimpses which men get of +themselves. Our own characters are the true Medusa-head which turns a +man into stone when he sees it. + +What, then, are we really doing by our sins? Piling together fuel for +burning. + +III. Sin burns up. + +'Work as a spark.' The evil deeds brought into contact with the doer +work destruction. That is, if, in a future life or at any time, a man is +brought face to face with his acts, then retribution begins. We shake +off the burden of our actions by want of remembrance. But that power of +ignoring the past may be broken down at any time. Suppose it happens +that in another world it can no longer be exercised, what then? + +Evil deeds are the occasion of the divine retribution. They are 'a +spark.' It is they who light the pyre, not God. The prophet here +protests in God's name against the notion that He is to be blamed for +punishing. Men are their own self-tormentors. The sinful man immolates +himself. Like Isaac, he carries the wood and lays the pile for his own +burning. + +Christ severs the connection between us and our evil. He restores beauty +and freshness to the blighted tree, planting it as 'by the river of +water,' so that it 'bringeth forth its fruit in its season,' and its +'leaf also doth not wither.' + + + + +THE PERPETUAL PILLAR OF CLOUD AND FIRE + +'And the Lord will create over the whole habitation of Mount Zion, and +over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a +flaming fire by night.'--ISAIAH iv. 5. + + +The pillar of cloud and fire in the Exodus was one: there are to be as +many pillars as there are 'assemblies' in the new era. Is it straining +the language too much to find significance in that difference? Instead +of the formal unity of the Old Covenant, there is a variety which yet is +a more vital unity. Is there not a hint here of the same lesson that is +taught by the change of the one golden lamp-stand into the seven, which +are a better unity because Jesus Christ walks among them? + +The heart of this promise, thus cast into the form of ancient +experiences, but with significant variations, is that of true communion +with God. + +That communion makes those who have it glorious. + +That communion supplies unfailing guidance. + +A man in close fellowship with God will have wonderful flashes of +sagacity, even about small practical matters. The gleam of the pillar +will illumine conscience, and shine on many difficult, dark places. The +'simplicity' of a saintly soul will often see deeper into puzzling +contingencies than the vulpine craftiness of the 'prudent.' The darker +the night, the brighter the guidance. + +That communion gives a defence. + +The pillar came between Egypt and Israel, and kept the foe off the timid +crowd of slaves. Whatever forms our enemies take, fellowship with God +will invest us with a defence as protean as our perils. The same cloud +is represented in the context as being 'a pavilion for a shadow in the +heat, and for a refuge and for a covert from storm and from rain.' + + + + +A PROPHET'S WOES + +'Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till +there be no place, that they may he placed alone in the midst of the +earth! 9. In mine ears said the Lord of hosts, Of a truth many houses +shall he desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant. 10. Yea, ten +acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall +yield an ephah. 11. Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, +that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine +inflame them! 12. And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and +wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the Lord, +neither consider the operation of His hands. 13. Therefore my people are +gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their +honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. +14. Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without +measure: and their glory and their multitude, and their pomp, and he +that rejoiceth, shall descend into it. 15. And the mean man shall be +brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the +lofty shall be humbled: 16. But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in +judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness. 17. +Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of +the fat ones shall strangers eat. 18. Woe unto them that draw iniquity +with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope: 19. That say, +Let Him make speed, and hasten His work, that we may see it: and let the +counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know +it! 20. Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put +darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, +and sweet for bitter! 21. Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, +and prudent in their own sight! 22. Woe unto them that are mighty to +drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: 23. Which +justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the +righteous from him! 24. Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and +the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and +their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law +of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. +25. Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against His people, and +He hath stretched forth His hand against them, and hath smitten them: +and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of +the streets. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is +stretched out still. 26. And He will lift up an ensign to the nations +from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, +behold, they shall come with speed swiftly: 17. None shall be weary nor +stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the +girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be +broken: 28. Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their +horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a +whirlwind: 29. Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like +young lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall +carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it. 30. And in that day they +shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if one look +unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in +the heavens thereof.'--ISAIAH v. 8-30. + + +Drunkenness is, in this text, one of a ring of plague-spots on the body +politic of Judah. The prophet six times proclaims 'woe' as the +inevitable end of these; such 'sickness' is 'unto death' unless +repentance and another course of conduct bring healing. But drunkenness +appears twice in this grim catalogue, and the longest paragraph of +denunciation (vv, 11-17) is devoted to it. Its connection with the other +vices attacked is loose, but it is worth noting that all these have an +inner kinship, and tend to appear together. They are 'all in a string,' +and where a community is cursed with one, the others will not be far +away. They are a knot of serpents intertwined. We touch but slightly on +the other vices denounced by the prophet's burning words, but we must +premise the general observation that the same uncompromising plainness +and boldness in speaking out as to social sins ought to characterise +Christian teachers to-day. The prophet's office is not extinct in the +church. + +The first plague-spot is the accumulation of wealth in few hands, and +the selfish withdrawal of its possessors from the life of the community. +In an agricultural society like that of Judah, that clotting of wealth +took the shape of 'land-grabbing,' and of evicting the small +proprietors. We see it in more virulent forms in our great commercial +centres, where the big men often become big by crushing out the little +ones, and denude themselves of responsibility to the community in +proportion as they clothe themselves with wealth. Wherever wealth is +thus congested, and its obligations ignored by selfish indulgence, the +seeds are sown which will spring up one day in 'anarchism.' A man need +not be a prophet to have it whispered in his ear, as Isaiah had, that +the end of selfish capitalism is a convulsion in which 'many houses +shall be desolate,' and many fields barren. England needs the warning as +much as Isaiah's Judah did. + +Such selfish wealth leads, among other curses, to indolence and +drunkenness, as the next woe shows. The people described make drinking +the business of their lives, beginning early and sitting late. They have +a varnish of art over their swinishness, and must have music as well as +wine. So, in many a drink-shop in England, a piano or a band adds to the +attractions, and gives a false air of aestheticism to pure animalism. +Isaiah feels the incongruity that music should be so prostituted, and +expresses it by adding to his list of musical instruments 'and wine' as +if he would underscore the degradation of the great art to be the +cupbearer of sots. Such revellers are blind to the manifest tokens of +God's working, and the 'operation of His hands' excites only the tipsy +gaze which sees nothing. That is one of the curses which dog the +drunkard-that he takes no warning from the plain results of his vice as +seen in others. He knows that it means shattered health, ruined +prospects, broken hearts, but nothing rouses him from his fancy of +impunity. High, serious thoughts of God and His government of the world +and of each life are strange to him. His sin compels him to be godless, +if he is not to go mad. But sometimes he wakes to a moment's sight of +realities, and then he is miserable till his next bout buys fatal +forgetfulness. + +The prophet forces the end of a drunken nation on the unwilling +attention of the roisterers, in verses 13-17, which throb with vehemence +of warning and gloomy eloquence. What can such a people come to but +destruction? Knowledge must languish, hunger and thirst must follow. +Like some monster's gaping mouth, the pit yawns for them; and, drawn as +by irresistible attraction, the pomp and the wicked, senseless jollity +elide down into it. In the universal catastrophe, one thing alone stands +upright, and is lifted higher, because all else has sunk so far,-the +righteous judgment of the forgotten God. The grim picture is as true for +individuals and their deaths as for a nation and its decay. And modern +nations cannot afford to have this ulcer of drunkenness draining away +their strength any more than Judah could. 'By the soul only are the +nations great and free,' and a people can be neither where the drink +fiend has his way. + +Three woes follow which are closely connected. That pronounced on daring +evil-doers, who not only let sin draw them to itself, but go more than +halfway to meet it, needing no temptation, but drawing it to them +eagerly, and scoffing at the merciful warnings of fatal consequences, +comes first. Next is a woe on those who play fast and loose with plain +morality, sophisticating conscience, and sapping the foundations of law. +Such juggling follows sensual indulgence such as drunkenness, when it +becomes habitual and audacious, as in the preceding woe. Loose or +perverted codes of morality generally spring from bad living, seeking to +shelter itself. Vicious principles are an afterthought to screen vicious +practices. The last subject of the triple woes is self-conceit and +pretence to superior illumination. Such very superior persons are +emancipated from the rules which bind the common herd. They are so very +clever that they have far outgrown the creeping moralities, which may do +for old women and children. Do we not know the sort of people? Have we +none of them surviving to-day? + +Then Isaiah comes back to his theme of drunkenness, but in a new +connection. It poisons the fountain of justice. There is a world of +indignant contempt in the prophet's scathing picture of those who are +'mighty' and 'men of strength,'-but how is their strength shown? They +can stand any quantity of wine, and can 'mix their drinks,' and yet look +sober! What a noble use to put a good constitution to! These valiant +topers are in authority as judges, and they sell their judgments to get +money for their debauches. We do not see much of such scandals among us, +but yet we have heard of leagues between liquor-sellers and municipal +authorities, which certainly do _not_ 'make for righteousness.' When +shall we learn and practise the lesson that Isaiah was reading his +countrymen,--that it is fatal to a nation when the private character of +public men is regarded as of no account in political and civic life? The +prophet had no doubt as to what must be the end of a state of things in +which the very courts of law were honeycombed with corruption, and +demoralised by the power of drink. His tremendous image of a fierce fire +raging across a dry prairie, and burning the grass to its very roots, +while the air is stifling with the thick 'dust' of the conflagration, +proclaims the sure fate, sooner or later, of every community and +individual that 'rejects the law of the Lord of Hosts, and despises the +word of the Holy One of Israel.' Change the name, and the tale is told +of us; for it is 'righteousness that exalteth a nation,' and no single +vice drags after it more infallibly such a multitude of attendant demons +as the vice of drunkenness, which is a crying sin of England to-day. + + + + +VISION AND SERVICE + +'In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a +throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. 2. Above it +stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his +face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. 3. +And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of +Hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory. 4. And the posts of the +door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with +smoke. 5. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of +unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for +mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. 6. Then flew one of the +seraphims onto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken +with the tongs from off the altar: 7. And he laid it upon my mouth, and +said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, +and thy sin purged. 8. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom +shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. +9. And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand +not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. 10. Make the heart of this +people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they +see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their +heart, and convert, and be healed. 11. Then said I, Lord, how long? And +he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the +houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, 12. And the Lord +have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst +of the land. 13. But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, +and shall be eaten: as a tell tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in +them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the +substance thereof.'--ISAIAH vi. 1-13. + + +WE may deal with this text as falling into three parts: the vision, its +effect on the prophet, and his commission. + +I. The Vision.--'In the year that King Uzziah died' is more than a date +for chronological accuracy. It tells not only when, but why, the vision +was given. The throne of David was empty. + +God never empties places in our homes and hearts, or in the nation or +the Church, without being ready to fill them. He sometimes empties them +that He may fill them. Sorrow and loss are meant to prepare us for the +vision of God, and their effect should be to purge the inward eye, that +it may see Him. When the leaves drop from the forest trees we can see +the blue sky which their dense abundance hid. Well for us if the passing +of all that can pass drives us to Him who cannot pass, if the unchanging +God stands out more clear, more near, more dear, because of change. + +As to the substance of this vision, we need not discuss whether, if we +had been there, we should have seen anything. It was doubtless related +to Isaiah's thoughts, for God does not send visions which have no point +of contact in the recipient. However communicated, it was a divine +communication, and a temporary unveiling of an eternal reality. The form +was transient, but Isaiah then saw for a moment 'the things which are' +and always are. + +The essential point of the vision is the revelation of Jehovah as king +of Judah. That relation guaranteed defence and demanded obedience. It +was a sure basis of hope, but also a stringent motive to loyalty, and it +had its side of terror as well as of joyfulness. 'You only have I known +of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all +your iniquities.' The place of vision is the heavenly sanctuary of which +the temple was a prophecy. Eminently significant and characteristic of +the whole genius of the Old Testament is the absence of any description +of the divine appearance. The prophet saw things 'which it is not lawful +for a man to utter,' and his silence is not only reverent, but more +eloquent than any attempt to put the Ineffable into words. Even in this +act of manifestation God was veiled, and '_there_ was the hiding of His +power.' The train of His robe can be spoken of, but not the form which +it concealed even in revealing it. Nature is the robe of God. It hides +while it discloses, and discloses while it hides. + +The hovering seraphim were in the attitude of service. They are probably +represented as fiery forms, but are spoken of nowhere else in Scripture. +The significance of their attitude has been well given by Jewish +commentators, who say, 'with two he covered his face that he might not +see, and with two he covered his body that he might not be seen' and we +may add, 'with two he stood ready for service, by flight whithersoever +the King would send.' Such awe-stricken reverence, such humble hiding of +self, such alacrity for swift obedience, such flaming ardours of love +and devotion, should be ours. Their song celebrated the holiness and the +glory of Jehovah of hosts. We must ever remember that the root-meaning +of 'holiness' is separation, and that the popular meaning of moral +purity is secondary and derivative. What is rapturously sung in the +threefold invocation of the seraphs is the infinite exaltation of +Jehovah above all creatural conditions, limitations, and, we may add, +conceptions. That separation, of course, includes purity, as may be seen +from the immediate effect of the vision on the prophet, but the +conception is much wider than that. Very beautifully does the second +line of the song re-knit the connection between Jehovah and this world, +so far beneath Him, which the burst of praise of His holiness seems to +sever. The high heaven is a bending arch; its inaccessible heights ray +down sunshine and drop down rain, and, as in the physical world, every +plant grows by Heaven's gift, so in the world of humanity all wisdom, +goodness, and joy are from the Father of lights. God's 'glory' is the +flashing lustre of His manifested holiness, which fills the earth as the +train of the robe filled the temple. The vibrations of that mighty hymn +shook the 'foundations of the threshold' (Rev. Ver.) with its thunderous +harmonies. 'The house was filled with smoke' which, since it was an +effect of the seraph's praise, is best explained as referring to the +fragrant smoke of incense which, as we know, symbolised 'the prayers of +saints.' + +II. The effect of the vision on the prophet.--The vision kindled as with +a flash Isaiah's consciousness of sin. He expressed it in regard to his +words rather than his works, partly because in one aspect speech is even +more accurately than act a cast, as it were, of character, and partly +because he could not but feel the difference between the mighty music +that burst from these pure and burning lips and the words that flowed +from and soiled his own. Not only the consciousness of sin, but the +dread of personal evil consequences from the vision of the holy God, +oppressed his heart. We see ourselves when we see God. Once flash on a +heart the thought of God's holiness, and, like an electric search- +light, it discloses flaws which pass unnoticed in dimmer light. The +easy-going Christianity, which is the apology for religion with so many +of us, has no deep sense of sin, because it has no clear vision of God. +'I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth +Thee: wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.' + +The next stage in Isaiah's experience is that sin recognised and +confessed is burned away. Cleansing rather than forgiveness is here +emphasised. The latter is, of course, included, but the main point is +the removal of impurity. It is mediated by one of the seraphim, who is +the messenger of God, which is just a symbolical way of saying that God +makes penitents 'partakers of His holiness,' and that nothing less than +a divine communication will make cleansing possible. It is effected by a +live coal. Fire is purifying, and the New Testament has taught us that +the true cleansing fire is that of the Holy Spirit. But that live coal +was taken from the altar. The atoning sacrifice has been offered there, +and our cleansing depends on the efficacy of that sacrifice being +applied to us. + +The third stage in the prophet's experience is the readiness for service +which springs up in his purged heart. God seeks for volunteers. There +are no pressed men in His army. The previous experiences made Isaiah +quick to hear God's call, and willing to respond to it by personal +consecration. Take the motive-power of redemption from sin out of +Christianity, and you break its mainspring, so that the clock will only +tick when it is shaken. It is the Christ who died for our sins to whom +men say, 'Command what Thou wilt, and I obey.' + +III. The prophet's commission.--He was not sent on his work with any +illusions as to its success, but, on the contrary, he had a clear +premonition that its effect would be to deepen the spiritual deafness +and blindness of the nation. We must remember that in Scripture the +certain effect of divine acts is uniformly regarded as a divine design. +Israel was so sunk in spiritual deadness that the issue of the prophet's +work would only be to immerse the mass of 'this people' farther in it. +To some more susceptible souls his message would be a true divine voice, +rousing them like a trumpet, and that effect was what God desired; but +to the greater number it would deepen their torpor and increase their +condemnation. If men love darkness rather than light, the coming of the +light works only judgment. + +Isaiah recoils from the dreary prospect, and feels that this dreadful +hardening cannot be God's ultimate purpose for the nation. So he humbly +and wistfully asks how long it is to last. The answer is twofold, heavy +with a weight of apparently utter ruin in its first part, but disclosing +a faint, far-off gleam of hope on its second. Complete destruction, and +the casting of Israel out from the land, are to come. But as, though a +goodly tree is felled, a stump remains which has vital force (or +_substance_) in it, so, even in the utmost apparent desperateness of +Israel's state, there will be in it 'the holy seed,' the 'remnant,' the +true Israel, from which again the life shall spring, and stem and +branches and waving foliage once more grow up. + + + + +THE EMPTY THRONE FILLED + +'In the year that King Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a +throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple.'--ISAIAH +vi. 1. + + +Uzziah had reigned for fifty-two years, during the greater part of which +he and his people had been brilliantly prosperous. Victorious in war, he +was also successful in the arts of peaceful industry. The later years of +his life were clouded, but on the whole the reign had been a time of +great well-being. His son and successor was a young man of +five-and-twenty; and when he came to the throne ominous war-clouds were +gathering in the North, and threatening to drift to Judah. No wonder +that the prophet, like other thoughtful patriots, was asking himself +what was to come in these anxious days, when the helm was in new hands, +which, perhaps, were not strong enough to hold it. Like a wise man, he +took his thoughts into the sanctuary; and there he understood. As he +brooded, this great vision was disclosed to his inward eye. 'In the year +that King Uzziah died' is a great deal more than a date for +chronological purposes. It tells us not only the _when_, but the _why_, +of the vision. The earthly king was laid in the grave; but the prophet +saw that the true King of Israel was neither the dead Uzziah nor the +young Jotham, but the Lord of hosts. And, seeing that, fears and +forebodings and anxieties and the sense of loss, all vanished; and new +strength came to Isaiah. He went into the temple laden with anxious +thoughts; he came out of it with a springy step and a lightened heart, +and the resolve 'Here am I; send me.' There are some lessons that seem +to me of great importance for the conduct of our daily life which may be +gathered from this remarkable vision, with the remarkable note of time +that is appended to it. + +Now, before I pass on, let me remind you, in a word, of that apparently +audacious commentary upon this great vision, which the Evangelist John +gives us: 'These things said Esaias, when he had beheld _His_ glory and +spake of _Him_.' Then the Christ is the manifest Jehovah; is the King of +Glory. Then the vision which was but a transitory revelation is the +revelation of an eternal reality, and 'the vision splendid' does not +'fade but brightens, into the light of common day'; when instead of +being flashed only on the inward eye of a prophet, it is made flesh and +walks amongst us, and lives our life, and dies our death. Our eyes have +seen the King in as true a reality, and in better fashion, than ever +Isaiah did amid the sanctities of the Temple. And the eyes that have +seen only the near foreground, the cultivated valleys, and the homes of +men, are raised, and lo! the long line of glittering peaks, calm, +silent, pure. Who will look at the valleys when the Himalayas stand out, +and the veil is drawn aside? + +I. Let me say a word or two about the ministration of loss and sorrow in +preparing for the vision. + +It was when 'King Uzziah died' that the prophet 'saw the Lord sitting +upon the throne.' If the Throne of Israel had not been empty, he would +not have seen the throned God in the heavens. And so it is with all our +losses, with all our sorrows, with all our disappointments, with all our +pains; they have a mission to reveal to us the throned God. The +possession of the things that are taken away from us, the joys which our +sorrows smite into dust, have the same mission, and the highest purpose +of every good, of every blessing, of every possession, of every +gladness, of all love--the highest mission is to lead us to Him. But, +just as men will frost a window, so that the light may come in but the +sight cannot go out, so by our own fault and misuse of the good things +which are meant to lead us up to, and to show us, God, we frost and +darken the window so that we cannot see what it is meant to show us. And +then a mighty and merciful hand shivers the painted glass into +fragments, because it has been dimming 'the white radiance of Eternity.' +And though the casement may look gaunt, and the edges of the broken +glass may cut and wound, yet the view is unimpeded. When the gifts that +we have misused are withdrawn, we can see the heaven that they too often +hide from us. When the leaves drop there is a wider prospect. When the +great tree is fallen there is opened a view of the blue above. When the +night falls the stars sparkle. When other props are struck away we can +lean our whole weight upon God. When Uzziah dies the King becomes +visible. + +Is that what our sorrows, our pains, losses, disappointments do for us? +Well for those to whom loss is gain, because it puts them in possession +of the enduring riches! Well for those to whom the passing of all that +can pass is a means of revealing Him who 'is the same yesterday, and +to-day, and for ever'! The message to us of all these our pains and +griefs is 'Come up hither.' In them all our Father is saying to us, +'Seek ye My face.' Well for those who answer, 'Thy face, Lord, will I +seek. Hide not Thy face far from me.' + +Let us take care that we do not waste our griefs and sorrows. They +absorb us sometimes with vain regrets. They jaundice and embitter us +sometimes with rebellious thoughts. They often break the springs of +activity and of interest in others, and of sympathy with others. But +their true intention is to draw back the thin curtain, and to show us +'the things that are,' the realities of the throned God, the skirts that +fill the Temple, the hovering seraphim, and the coal from the altar that +purges. + +II. Let me suggest how our text shows us the compensation that is given +for all losses. + +As I have pointed out already, the thought conveyed to the prophet by +this vision was not only the general one, of God's sovereign rule, but +the special one of His rule over and for, and His protection of, the +orphan kingdom which had lost its king. The vision took the special +shape that the moment required. It was because the earthly king was dead +that the living, heavenly King was revealed. + +So there is just suggested by it this general thought, that the +consciousness of God's presence and work for us takes in each heart the +precise shape that its momentary necessities and circumstances require. +That infinite fulness is of such a nature as that it will assume any +form for which the weakness and the need of the dependent creature call. +Like the one force which scientists now are beginning to think underlies +all the various manifestations of energy in nature, whether they be +named light, heat, motion, electricity, chemical action, or gravitation, +the one same vision of the throned God, manifest in Jesus Christ, is +protean. Here it flames as light, there burns as heat, there flashes as +electricity; here as gravitation holds the atoms together, there as +chemical energy separated and decomposes them; here results in motion, +there in rest; but is the one force. And so the one God will become +everything and anything that every man, and each man, requires. He +shapes himself according to our need. The water of life does not disdain +to take the form imposed upon it by the vessel into which it is poured. +The Jews used to say that the manna in the wilderness tasted to each man +as each man desired. And the God, who comes to us all, comes to us each +in the shape that we need; just as He came to Isaiah in the +manifestation of His _kingly_ power, because the throne of Judah was +vacated. + +So when our hearts are sore with loss, the New Testament Manifestation +of the King, even Jesus Christ, comes to us and says, 'The same is my +mother and sister and brother,' and His sweet love compensates for the +love that can die, and that has died. When losses come to us He draws +near, as durable riches and righteousness. In all our pains He is our +anodyne, and in all our griefs He brings the comfort; He is all in all, +and each withdrawn gift is compensated, or will be compensated, to each +in Him. + +So, dear friends, let us learn God's purpose in emptying hearts and +chairs and homes. He empties them that He may fill them with Himself. He +takes us, if I might so say, into the darkness, as travellers to the +south are to-day passing through Alpine tunnels, in order that He may +bring us out into the land where 'God Himself is sun and moon,' and +where there are ampler ether and brighter constellations than in these +lands where we dwell. He means that, when Uzziah dies, our hearts shall +see the King. And for all mourners, for all tortured hearts, for all +from whom stays have been stricken and resources withdrawn, the old word +is true: 'Lord shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.' + +Let me recall to you what I have already insisted on more than once, +that the perfecting of this vision is in the historical fact of the +Incarnate Son. Jesus Christ shows us God. Jesus Christ is the King of +Glory. If we will go to Him, and fix our eyes and hearts on Him, then +losses may come, and we shall be none the poorer; death may unclasp our +hands from dear hands, but He will close a dearer one round the hand +that is groping for a stay; and nothing can betaken away but He will +more than fill the gap it leaves by His own sweet presence. If our eyes +behold the King, if we are like John the Seer in his rocky Patmos, and +see the Christ in His glory and royalty, then He will lay His hands on +us and say, 'Fear not! Weep not; I am the First and the Last,' and +forebodings, and fears, and sense of loss will all be changed into +trustfulness and patient submission. 'Seeing Him, who is invisible,' we +shall be able to endure and to toil, until the time when the vision of +earth is perfected by the beholding of heaven. Blessed are they who with +purged eyes see, and with yielding hearts obey, the heavenly vision, and +turn to the King and offer themselves for any service He may require, +saying, 'Here am I; send me.' + + + + +A SERAPH'S WINGS + +'With twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and +with twain he did fly.'--ISAIAH vi. 2. + + +This is the only mention in Scripture of the seraphim. I do not need to +enter upon the much-debated, and in some respects interesting, question +as to whether these are to be taken as identical with the cherubim, or +as to whether they are altogether imaginary and symbolical beings, nor +as to whether they are identical with the angels, or part of their +hierarchy. All that may be left on one side. I would only notice, before +I deal with the specific words of my text, the significance of the name. +It means 'the flaming' or 'burning ones,' and so the attendants of the +divine glory in the heavens, whether they be real or imaginary beings, +are represented as flashing with splendour, as full of swift energy, +like a flame of fire, as glowing with fervid love, as blazing with +enthusiasm. That is the type of the highest creatural being, which +stands closest to God. There is no ice in His presence, and the nearer +we get to Him in truth, the more we shall glow and burn. Cold religion +is a contradiction in terms, though, alas, it is a reality in +professors. + +And so with that explanation, and putting aside all these other +questions, let us gather up some, at least, of the lessons as to the +essentials of worship, and try to grasp the prophecy of the heavenly +state, given us in these words. + + +I. The Wings of Reverence. + +He covered his face, or _they_ covered _their_ faces, lest they should +see. As a man brought suddenly into the sunlight, especially if out of a +darkened chamber, by an instinctive action shades his eyes with his +hand, so these burning creatures, confronted with the still more fervid +and fiery light of the divine nature, fold one pair of their great white +pinions over their shining faces, even whilst they cry 'Holy! Holy! +Holy! is the Lord God Almighty!' + +And does not that teach us the incapacity of the highest creature, with +the purest vision, to gaze undazzled into the shining light of God? I, +for my part, do not believe that any conceivable extension of creatural +faculties, or any conceivable hallowing of creatural natures, can make +the creature able to gaze upon God. I know that it is often said that +the joy of the future life for men is what the theologians call 'the +beatific vision,' in which there shall be direct sight of God, using +that word in its highest sense, as applied to the perceptions of the +spirit, and not of the sense. But I do not think the Bible teaches us +that. It does teach us 'We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He +is.' But who is the 'Him'? Jesus Christ. And, in my belief, Jesus Christ +will, to all eternity, be the medium of manifesting God, and there will +remain, to all eternity, the incapacity which clogs creatures in time--' +No man hath seen God at any time, nor _can_ see Him.' + +But my text, whilst it thus suggests solemn thoughts of a Light that +cannot be looked at with undazzled eyes, does also suggest to us by +contrast the possibility of far feebler-sighted and more sinful +creatures than these symbolical seraphs coming into a Presence in which +God shall be manifest to them; and they will need no veil drawn by +themselves across their eyes. God has veiled Himself, that 'we, with +unveiled faces, beholding His glory, may be changed into the same +image.' So the seraph, with his white wings folded before his eyes, may +at once stand to us as a parallel and a contrast to what the Christian +may expect. We, _we_ can see Jesus, with no incapacity except such as +may be swept away by His grace and our will. And direct vision of the +whole Christ is the heaven of heaven, even as the partial vision of the +partially perceived Christ is the sweetest sweetness of a life on earth. + +There is no need for us to draw any screen between our happy eyes and +the Face in which we 'behold the glory as of the only Begotten of the +Father.' All the tempering that the divine lustre needed has been done +by Him who veils His glory with the veil of Christ's flesh, and therein +does away the need for any veil that we can draw. + +But, beyond that, there is another consideration that I should like to +suggest, as taught us by the use of this first pair of the six wings, +and that is the absolute need for the lowliest reverence in our worship +of God. It is strange, but true, I am afraid, that the Christian danger +is to weaken the sense of the majesty and splendour and separation of +God from His creatures. And all that is good in the Christian revelation +may be so abused as that there shall come, what I am sure does in effect +sometimes come, a terrible lack of due reverence in our so-called +worship. What does that lofty chorus of 'Holy! Holy! Holy!' that burst +from those immortal lips mean but the declaration that God is high +above, and separate from, all limitations and imperfections of +creatures? And we Christians, who hear it re-echoed in the very last +Book of Scripture by the four-and-twenty elders who represent redeemed +humanity, have need to take heed that we do not lose our reverence in +our confidence, and that we do not part with godly fear in our filial +love. If one looks at a congregation of professing Christians engaged in +their worship, does not one feel and see that there is often a +carelessness and shallowness, a want of realisation of the majesty and +sanctity and tremendousness of that Father to whom we draw near? +Brethren, if a seraph hides his face, surely it becomes us to see to it +that, since we worship a God who is a consuming fire,' we serve Him with +far deeper 'reverence and godly fear' than ordinarily mark our +devotions. + + +II. The Wings of Humility. + +'With twain he covered his feet.' The less comely and inferior parts of +that fiery corporeity were veiled lest they should be seen by the Eyes +that see all things. The wings made no screen that hid the seraph's feet +from the eye of God, but it was the instinctive lowly sense of +unworthiness that folded them across the feet, even though they, too, +burned as a furnace. The nearer we get to God, the more we shall be +aware of our limitations and unworthiness, and it is because that vision +of the Lord sitting on 'His throne, high and lifted up,' with the +thrilling sense of His glory filling the holy temple of the universe, +does not burn before us that we can conceit ourselves to have anything +worth pluming ourselves upon. Once lift the curtain, once let my eye be +flooded with the sight of God, and away goes all my self-conceit, and +all my fancied superiority above others. One little molehill is pretty +nearly the same height as another, if you measure them both against the +top of the Himalayas, that lie in the background, with their glittering +peaks of snow. 'Star differeth from star in glory' in a winter's night, +but when the great sun swims into the sky, they all vanish together. If +you and I saw God burning before us, as Isaiah saw Him, we should veil +ourselves, and lose all that which so often veils Him from us--the fancy +that we are anything when we are nothing. And the nearer we get to God, +and the purer we are, the more shall we be keenly conscious of our +imperfections and our sins. 'If I say I am perfect,' said Job in his +wise way, 'this also should prove me perverse.' Consciousness of sin is +the continual accompaniment of growth in holiness. 'The heavens are not +pure in His sight, and He chargeth His angels with folly.' Everything +looks black beside that sovereign whiteness. Get God into your lives, +and you will see that the feet need to be washed, and you will cry, +'Lord! not my feet only, but my hands and my head!' + + +III. Lastly-The Wings for Service. + +'With twain he did fly.' That is the emblem of joyous, buoyant, +unhindered motion. It is strongly, sadly contrary to the toilsome +limitations of us heavy creatures who have no wings, but can at best run +on His service, and often find it hard to 'walk with patience in the way +that is set before us.' But--service with wings, or service with lame +feet, it matters not. Whosoever, beholding God, has found need to hide +his face from that Light even whilst he comes into the Light, and to +veil his feet from the all-seeing Eye, will also feel impulses to go +forth in His service. For the perfection of worship is neither the +consciousness of my own insufficiency, nor the humble recognition of His +glory, nor the great voice of praise that thrilled from those immortal +lips, but it is the doing of His will in daily life. Some people say the +service of man is the service of God. Yes, when it is service of man, +done for God's sake, it is so, and only then. The old motto, 'Work is +worship,' may preach a great truth or a most dangerous error. But there +is no possibility of error or danger in maintaining this: that the +climax and crown of all worship, whether for us footsore servants upon +earth, or for these winged attendants on the throne of the King in the +heavens, is activity in obedience. And that is what is set before us +here. + +Now, dear brethren, we, as Christians, have a far higher motive for +service than the seraphs had. We have been redeemed, and the spirit of +the old Psalm should animate all our obedience: 'O Lord, truly I am Thy +servant.' Why? The next clause tells us: 'Thou hast loosed my bonds.' +The seraphs could not say that, and therefore our obedience, our +activity in doing the will of the Father in heaven, should be more +buoyant, more joyful, more swift, more unrestricted than even theirs. + +The seraphim were winged for service even while they stood above the +throne and pealed forth their thunderous praise which shook the Temple. +May we not discern in that a hint of the blessed blending of two modes +of worship which will be perfectly united in heaven, and which we should +aim at harmonising even on earth? 'His servants serve Him and see His +face.' There is possible, even on earth, some foretaste of the +perfection of that heavenly state in which no worship in service shall +interfere with the worship in contemplation. Mary, sitting at Christ's +feet, and Martha, busy in providing for His comfort, may be, to a large +extent, united in us even here, and will be perfectly so hereafter, when +the practical and the contemplative, the worship of noble aspiration, of +heart-filling gazing, and that of active service shall be indissolubly +blended. + +The seraphs sang 'Holy! Holy! Holy!' but they, and all the hosts of +heaven, learn a new song from the experience of earth, and redeemed men +are the chorus-leaders of the perfected and eternal worship of the +heavens. For we read that it is the four-and-twenty elders who begin the +song and sing to the Lamb that redeemed them by His blood, and that the +living creatures and all the hosts of the angels to that song can but +say 'Amen!' + + + + +THE MAKING OF A PROPHET + +'Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean +lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine +eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.'--ISAIAH vi. 5. + + +In previous pages we have seen how Isaiah's vision of Jehovah throned in +the Temple, 'high and lifted up,' derived significance from the time of +its occurrence. It was 'in the year that' the earthly King 'died' that +the heavenly King was revealed. The passing of the transient prepared +the way for the revelation of the Eternal, and the revelation of the +Eternal more than compensated for the passing of the transient. But +strengthening and calming as these thoughts are, they by no means +exhaust the purpose of the vision, nor do they describe all its effects +on the recipient. These were, first and immediately, the consciousness +of unworthiness and sin, expressed in the words that I have taken for my +text. Then came the touch of the 'live coal from the altar,' laid on the +unclean lips by the seraph; and on that followed willing surrender for a +perilous service. + +These three stages flowing from the vision of God, recognition of sin, +experience of purging, abandonment to obedience and service, must be +repeated in us all, if we are to live worthy lives. There may be much +that is beautiful and elevating and noble without these; but unless in +some measure we pass through the prophet's experience, we shall fail to +reach the highest possibilities of beauty and of service that open +before us. So I wish to consider, very simply, these three stages in my +remarks now. + +I. If we see _God_ we shall see our _sin_. + +There came on the prophet, as in a flash, the two convictions, one which +he learned from the song of the seraphs, ringing in music through the +Temple, and one which rose up, like an answering note from the voice of +conscience within. They sang 'Holy! holy! holy! Lord God Almighty.' And +what was the response to that, in the prophet's heart?--'I am unclean.' +Each major note has a corresponding minor, and the triumphant doxology +of the seraph wakes in the hearer's conscience the lowly confession of +personal unlikeness to the holiness of God. It was not joy that sprang +in Isaiah's heart when he saw the throned King, and heard the +proclamation of His name. It was not reverence merely that bowed his +head in the dust, but it was the awakened consciousness, 'Thou art holy; +and now that I understand, in some measure, what Thy holiness means, I +look on myself and I say, "unclean! unclean!"' + +The prophet's confession assumes a form which may strike us as somewhat +singular. Why is it that he speaks of 'unclean lips,' rather than of an +unclean heart? I suppose partly because, in a very deep sense, a man's +words are more accurately a cast, as it were, from a man's character +than even his actions, and partly because the immediate occasion of his +confession was the words of the seraphim, and he could not but contrast +what came burning from their pure lips with what had trickled from, and +soiled, his own. + +But, however expressed, the consciousness of personal unlikeness to the +holiness of God is the first result, and the instantaneous result, of +any real apprehension of that holiness, and of any true vision of Him. +Like some search-light flung from a ship over the darkling waters, +revealing the dark doings of the enemy away out yonder in the night, the +thought of God and His holiness streaming in upon a man's soul, if it +does so in any adequate measure, is sure to disclose the heaving waters +and the skulking foes that are busy in the dark. + +But it was not only the consciousness of sinfulness and antagonism that +woke up instantaneously in response to that vision of the holy God. It +was likewise a shrinking apprehension of personal evil from contact of +God's light with Isaiah's darkness. 'Who shall ascend into the hill of +the Lord? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart.' What is to become, +then, of the man that has neither the one nor the other? The experience +of all the world witnesses that whenever there comes, in reality, or in +a man's conceptions or fancy, the contact of the supernatural, as it is +called, with the natural, there is a shrinking, a sense of eerieness, an +apprehension of vague possibilities of evil. The sleeping snake that is +coiled in every soul stirs and begins to heave in its bulk, and wake, +when the thought of a holy God comes into the heart. Now, I do not +suppose that consciousness of sin is the whole explanation of that +universal human feeling, but I am very sure it is an element in it, and +I suspect that if there were no sin, there would be no shrinking. + +At all events, be that as it may, these are the two thoughts that, +involuntarily and spontaneously and immediately, sprang in this man's +heart when his purged eyes saw the King on His throne. He did not leap +up with gladness at the vision. Its consolatory and its strengthening +aspects were not the first that impinged upon his eye, or upon his +consciousness, but the first thing was an instinctive recoil, 'Woe is +me; I am undone.' Now, brethren, I venture to think that one main +difference between shallow religion and real is to be found here, that +the dim, far-off vision, if we may venture to call it so, which serves +the most of us for a sight of God, leaves us quite complacent, and with +very slight and superficial conceptions of our own evil, and that if +once we saw, in so far as it is possible for humanity to-day to see, God +as He is, and heard in the depths of our hearts that 'Holy! holy! holy!' +from the burning seraphim, the easy-going, self-satisfied judgment of +ourselves which too many of us cherish would be utterly impossible; and +would disappear, shrivelled up utterly in the light of God. 'I have +heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear,' said Job, 'but now mine eye +seeth Thee; therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.' A +hearsay God and a self-complacent beholder--a God really seen, and a man +down in the dust before Him! Has that vision ever blazed in on you? And +if it has, has not the light shown you the seaminess of much in which a +dimmer light detects no flaws or stains? Thank God if, having seen Him, +you see yourselves. If you have not felt, 'I am unclean and undone,' +depend upon it, your knowledge of God is faint and dim, and He is rather +One heard of from the lips of others than realised in your own +experience. + +II. Again, note the second stage here, in the education of a soul for +service--the sin, recognised and repented, is burned away. + +'Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, +which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar; and he laid it +upon my mouth, and said, Lo! this hath touched thy lips; and thine +iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.' + +Now, I would notice as to this stage of the process, first, that Isaiah +singularly passes beyond all the old ritual in which he had been brought +up, and recognises another kind of cleansing than that which it +embodied. He had got beyond the ritual to what the ritual meant. We have +passed beyond the ritual, too, by another process; and, though I would +by no means read full, plain, articulate Christian thought into the +vision of Isaiah--which would be an anachronism, and unfaithful to the +gradual historical development of the idea and means of redemption--yet +I cannot help pointing to the fact that, even although this vision is +located as seen in the Temple, there is not a single reference (except +that passing allusion to the altar) to the ritual of the Temple, but the +cleansing comes in another fashion altogether. + +But far more important than that thought is the human condition that is +required ere this cleansing can be realised. 'I am a man of unclean +lips.' 'I am undone!' It was because that conviction and confession +sprang in the prophet's consciousness that the seraph winged his way +with the purifying fire in his hands. Which being translated is just +this: faith alone will not bring cleansing. There must go with it what +we call, in our Christian phraseology, repentance, which is but the +recognition of my own antagonism to the holiness of God, and the resolve +to turn my back on my own past self. Now, it seems to me that a great +deal of what is called, and in a sense is, Evangelical teaching, fails +to represent the full counsel of God, in the matter of man's redemption, +because it puts a one-sided emphasis on faith, and slurs over the +accompanying idea of repentance. And I am here to say that a trust in +Jesus Christ, which is unaccompanied by a profound penitent +consciousness and abhorrence of one's own sins, and a resolve to turn +away from them for the time to come, is not a faith which will bring +either pardon or cleansing. We do not need to have less said about +trust; we need to have a great deal more said about repentance. You have +to learn what it is to say, 'I abhor myself'; you have to learn what it +is to say, 'I will turn right round, and leave all that past behind me; +and go in the opposite direction'; or the faith which you say you are +exercising will neither save nor cleanse your souls nor your lives. + +Again, note that we have here set forth most strikingly the other great +truth that, side by side, and as closely synchronous as the flash and +the peal, as soon as the consciousness of sin and the aversion from it +spring in a man's heart, the seraph's wings are set in motion. Remember +that beautiful old story in the historical books, of how the erring +king, brought to sanity and repentance by Nathan's apologue, put all his +acknowledgments in these words, 'I have sinned against the Lord'; and +how the confession was not out of his lips, nor had died in its +vibration in the atmosphere, before the prophet, with divine authority, +replied with equal brevity and completeness, and as if the two sayings +were parts of one sentence, '_And_ the Lord hath made to pass the +iniquity of thy sin.' That is all. Simultaneous are the two things. To +confess is to be forgiven, and the moment that the consciousness of sin +rises in the heart, that moment does the heavenly messenger come to +still and soothe. + +Still further, notice how the cleansing comes as a divine gift. It is +purifying, much more than pardon, that is set forth in the symbolical +incident before us. The seraph is the divine messenger, and he brings a +coal from the altar, and lays that upon the prophet's lips, which is but +the symbolical way of saying that the man who is conscious of his own +evil will find in himself a blessed despair of being his own healer, and +that he has to turn to the divine source, the vision of which has +kindled the consciousness, to find there that which will take away the +evil. The Lord is 'He that healeth us.' + +But, further, the cleansing is by fire. By which, as I suppose, in the +present context, and at Isaiah's stage of religious knowledge and +experience, we are to understand that great thought that God burns away +our sins, as you put a piece of foul clay into the fire, and the stain +melts from the surface like a dissipating cloud as the heat finds its +way into the substance. 'He will baptize with the Holy Ghost and with +fire'--a fire that quickens. A new impulse will be granted, which will +become the life of the sinful man's life, and will emancipate him from +the power of his own darkness and evil. + +Now, let us remember that _we_ have the fulness of all that was shadowed +to the prophet in this vision, and that the reality of every one of +these emblems is gathered together--if I may so say--not with confusion, +but with abundance and opulence in Jesus Christ Himself. Is He not the +seraph? Is He not Himself the burning coal? Is He not the altar from +which it is taken? All that is needed to make the foulest clean is given +in Christ's great work. Brethren, we shall never understand the deepest +secret of Christ and of Christianity until we learn and hold fast by the +conviction that the central work of Jesus is to deal with man's sin; and +that whatever else Christianity is, it is first and foremost God's way +of redeeming the world, and making it possible for the unholy to dwell +with His holy self. + +III. Lastly, and only a word, the third stage here is--the purged spirit +is ready for service. + +God did not bid the prophet go on His mission till the prophet had +voluntarily accepted the mission. He said, 'Who will go for us?' He +wants no pressed men in His army. He does not work with reluctant +servants. There is, first, the yielding of the will, and then there is +the enduement with the privilege of service. The prophet, having passed +through the preceding experiences, had thereby received a quick ear to +hear God's calling for volunteers. And we shall not hear Him asking 'Who +will go?' unless we have, in our measure, passed through similar +experiences. It will be a test of having done so, of our having been +purged from our evil, if, when other people think that it is only Eli +speaking, we know that it is the Lord that has called us, and say, 'Here +am I.' + +For such experiences as I have been describing do influence the will, +and mould the heart, and make it a delight to do God's commandments, and +to execute His purpose, and to be the ministers of His great Word. Some +of us are willing to say that we have learned God's holiness; that we +have seen and confessed our sins; that we have received pardon and +cleansing. Have these experiences made you ready for any service? Have +they made your will flexible--made you dethrone yourself, and enthrone +the King whom the prophet saw? If they have, they are genuine; if they +have not, they are not. Submission of will; glorying in being the +instrument of the divine purpose; ears sharpened to catch His lowest +whisper; eyes that, like those of a dog fixed on his master, watch for +the faintest indication from his guiding eye--these are the infallible +tests and signs of having had lips and heart touched with the live coal +that burns away our uncleanness. + +So, friends, would that I could flash upon every conscience that vision! +But you can do so for yourselves. Let me beseech you to bring yourselves +honestly into that solemn light of the character of God, and to ask +yourselves, 'How can two walk together except they be agreed?' Do not +put away such thoughts with any shallow, easy-going talk about how God +is good and will not be hard upon a poor fellow that has tried to do his +best. God is good; God is love. But divine goodness and love cannot find +a way by which the unclean shall dwell with the clean. What then? This +then--Jesus Christ has come. We may be made clean if we trust in Him, +and forsake our sins. He will touch the heart and lips with the fire of +His own Spirit, and then it will be possible to dwell with the +everlasting burnings of that flaming fire which is a holy God. Blessed +are they that have seen the vision; blessed they that have felt it +disclosing their own sins; blessed they whose hearts have been purged. +Blessed most of all they who, educated and trained through these +experiences, have taken this as the motto of their lives, 'Here am I; +send me.' + + + + +SHILOAH AND EUPHRATES + +Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly +... the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and +many.' ISAIAH viii. 6, 7. + + +The kingdom of Judah was threatened with a great danger in an alliance +between Israel and Damascus. The cowardly King Ahaz, instead of +listening to Isaiah's strong assurances and relying on the help of God, +made what he thought a master-stroke of policy in invoking the help of +the formidable Assyrian power. That ambitious military monarchy was +eager to find an excuse for meddling in the politics of Syria, and +nothing loath, marched an army down on the backs of the invaders, which +very soon compelled them to hasten to Judah in order to defend their own +land. But, as is always the case, the help invoked was his ruin. Like +all conquering powers, once having got its foot inside the door, Assyria +soon followed bodily. First Damascus and Israel were ravaged and +subdued, and then Judah. That kingdom only purchased the privilege of +being devoured last. Like the Spaniards in Mexico, the Saxons in +England, the English in a hundred Indian territories, the allies that +came to help remained to conquer, and Judah fell, as we all know. + +This is the simple original application of these words. They are a +declaration that in seeking for help from others Judah was forsaking +God, and that the helper would become ruler, and the ruler an oppressive +tyrant. + +The waters of Shiloah that go softly stand as an emblem of the Davidic +monarchy as God meant it to be, and, since that monarchy was itself a +prophecy, they therefore represent the kingdom of God or the Messianic +King. The 'waters strong and many' are those of the Euphrates, which +swells and overflows and carries havoc, and are taken as the emblem of +the wasting sweep of the Assyrian king, whose capital stood on its +banks. + +But while thus there is a plain piece of political history in the words, +they are also the statement of general principles which apply to every +individual soul and its relations to the kingdom, the gentle kingdom, of +our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. + + +I. The Gentle Kingdom. + +That little brooklet slipping quietly along; what a striking image of +the Kingdom of Jesus Christ! + +It suggests the character of the King, the 'meek and lowly in heart.' It +suggests the manner of His rule as wielded in gentleness and exercising +no compulsion but that of love. It suggests the blessed results of His +reign under the image of the fertility, freshness, and beauty which +spring up wherever 'the river cometh.' That kingdom we are all summoned +to enter. + + +II. The Rejection of the Kingdom. + +Strange and awful fact that men do turn away from it and Him. + +In what does rejection consist? + +In not trusting in His power to help and deliver. + +In seeking help from other sources. This rejection is often unconscious +on the part of men who are guilty of it. + + +III. The Allies who are preferred to the gentle King. + +The crowd of worldly things. + +What is to be noticed is that at first the preference seems to answer +and be all right. + + +IV. The Allies becoming Tyrants. + +The swift Euphrates in spate. That is what the rejecters have chosen for +themselves. Better to have lived by Shiloah than to have built their +houses by the side of such a raging stream. Mark how this is a divine +retribution indeed, but a natural process too. + +(a) If Christ does not rule us, a mob of tyrants will. + +Our own passions. Our own evil habits. The fascinating sins around us. + +(b) They soon cease to seem helpers, and become tyrants. + +How quickly the pleasure of sin disappears--like some bird that loses +its gay plumage as it grows old. + +How stern becomes the necessity to obey; how great the difficulty of +breaking off evil habits! So a man becomes the slave of his own lusts, +of his indulged tastes, which rise above all restraints and carry away +all before them, like the Euphrates in flood. Fertility is turned to +barrenness; a foul deposit of mud overlays the soil; houses on the sand +are washed away; corpses float on the tawny wave. The soul that rejects +Christ's gentle sway is harried and laid waste by a mob of base-born +tyrants. We have to make our choice--either Christ or these; either a +service which is freedom, or an apparent freedom which is slavery; +either a worship which exalts, or a worship which embrutes. 'If the Son +make you free, ye shall be free indeed.' + +'There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God.' It is +peaceful to pitch our tents beside its calm flow, whereon shall go no +hostile fleets, and whence we shall but pass to the city above, in the +midst of the street whereof the 'river of water of life, clear as +crystal, proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.' + + + + +THE KINGDOM AND THE KING + +'The people that walked in darkness hare seen a great light: they that +dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light +shined. 3. Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: +they joy before Thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice +when they divide the spoil. 4. For Thou hast broken the yoke of His +burden, and the staff of His shoulder, the rod of His oppressor, as in +the day of Midian. 5. For every battle of the warrior is with confused +noise, and garments rolled in blood: but this shall be with burning and +fuel of fire. 6. For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: +and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be +called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, +The Prince of Peace. 7. Of the increase of His government and peace +there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon His kingdom, +to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from +henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform +this.'--ISAIAH ix. 2-7. + + +The darker the cloud, the brighter is the rainbow. This prophecy has for +its historical background the calamitous reign of the weak and wicked +Ahaz, during which the heart of the nation was bowed, like a forest +before the blast, by the dread of foreign invasion and conquest. The +prophet predicts a day of gloom and anguish, and then, out of the midst +of his threatenings, bursts this glorious vision, sudden as sunrise. +With consummate poetic art, the consequences of Messiah's rule are set +forth before He Himself is brought into view. + +I. Image is heaped on image to tell the blessedness of that reign (vs. +2-5). Each trait of the glowing description is appropriate to the +condition of Israel under Ahaz; but each has a meaning far beyond that +limited application. Isaiah may, or may not, have been aware of 'what' +or 'what time' his words portrayed in their deepest, that is, their true +meaning, but if we believe in supernatural prediction which, though it +may have found its point of attachment in the circumstances of the +present, was none the less the voice of the Spirit of God, we shall not +make, as is often done now, the prophet's construction of his words the +rule for their interpretation. What the prophecy was discerned to point +to by its utterer or his contemporaries, is one thing; quite another is +what God meant by it. + +First we have the picture of the nation groping in a darkness that might +be felt, the emblem of ignorance, sin, and sorrow, and inhabiting a land +over which, like a pall, death cast its shadow. On that dismal gloom +shines all at once a 'great light,' the emblem of knowledge, purity, and +joy. The daily mercy of the dawn has a gospel in it to a heart that +believes in God; for it proclaims the divine will that all who sit in +darkness shall be enlightened, and that every night but prepares the way +for the freshness and stir of a new morning. The great prophecy of these +verses in its indefiniteness goes far beyond its immediate occasion in +the state of Judah under Ahaz. As surely as the dawn floods all lands, +so surely shall all who walk in darkness see the great light; and +wherever is a 'land of the shadow of death,' there shall the light +shine. It is 'the light of the world.' + +Verse 3 gives another phase of blessing. Israel is conceived of as +dwindled in number by deportation and war. But the process of +depopulation is arrested and reversed, and numerical increase, which is +always a prominent feature in Messianic predictions, is predicted. That +increase follows the dawning of the light, for men will flock to the +'brightness of its rising.' _We_ know that the increase comes from the +attractive power of the Cross, drawing men of many tongues to it; and we +have a right to bring the interpretation, which the world's history +gives, into our understanding of the prophecy. That enlarged nation is +to have abounding joy. + +Undoubtedly, the rendering 'To it thou hast increased the joy' is +correct, as that of the Authorized Version (based upon the Hebrew text) +is clearly one of several cases in which the partial similarity in +spelling and identity in sound of the Hebrew words for 'not' and 'to +it,' have led to a mistaken reading. The joy is described in words which +dance and sing, like the gladness of which they tell. The mirth of the +harvest-field, when labour is crowned with success, and the sterner joy +of the victors as they part the booty, with which mingles the +consciousness of foes overcome and dangers averted, are blended in this +gladness. We have the joy of reaping a harvest of which we have not +sowed the seed. Christ has done that; we have but to enjoy the results +of His toil. We have to divide the spoil of a victory which we have not +won. He has bound the strong man, and we share the benefits of His +overcoming the world. + +That last image of conquerors dividing the spoil leads naturally to the +picture in verse 4 of emancipation from bondage, as the result of a +victory like Gideon's with his handful. Who the Gideon of this new +triumph is, the prophet will not yet say. The 'yoke of his burden' and +'the rod of his oppressor' recall Egypt and the taskmasters. + +Verse 5 gives the reason for the deliverance of the slaves; namely, the +utter destruction of the armour and weapons of their enemy. The Revised +Version is right in its rendering, though it may be doubtful whether its +margin is not better than its text, since not only are 'boot' and +'booted' as probable renderings of the doubtful words as 'armour' and +'armed man,' but the picture of the warrior striding into battle with +his heavy boots is more graphic than the more generalised description in +the Revised Version's text. In any case, the whole accoutrements of the +oppressor are heaped into a pile and set on fire; and, as they blaze up, +the freed slaves exult in their liberty. The blood-drenched cloaks have +been stripped from the corpses and tossed on the heap, and, saturated as +they are, they burn. So complete is the victory that even the weapons of +the conquered are destroyed. Our conquering King has been manifested, +that He might annihilate the powers by which evil holds us bound. His +victory is not by halves. 'He taketh from him all his armour wherein he +trusted.' + +II. Now we are ready to ask, And who is to do all this? The guarantee +for its accomplishment is the person of the conquering Messiah. The +hopes of Israel did not, and those of the world do not, rest on +tendencies, principles, laws of progress, advance of civilisation, or +the like abstractions or impersonalities, but on a living Person, in +whom all principles which make for righteousness and blessedness for +individuals and communities are incarnated, and whose vital action works +perpetually in mankind. + +In this prophecy the prophet is plainly speaking greater things than he +knew. We do not get to the meaning if we only ask ourselves what did he +understand by his words, or what did his hearers gather from them? They +and he would gather the certainty of the coming of Messiah with wondrous +attributes of power and divine gifts, by whose reign light, gladness, +liberty would belong to the oppressed nation. But the depth of the +prophecy needed the history of the Incarnation for its disclosure. If +this is not a God-given prediction of the entrance into human form of +the divine, it is something very like miraculous that, somehow or other, +words should have been spoken, without any such reference, which fit so +closely to the supernatural fact of Christ's incarnation. + +The many attempts to translate verse 6 so as to get rid of the +application of 'Mighty God,' 'Everlasting Father,' to Messiah, cannot +here be enumerated or adequately discussed. I must be content with +pointing out the significance of the august fourfold name of the victor +King. It seems best to take the two first titles as a compound name, and +so to recognise four such compounds. + +There is a certain connection between the first and second of these +which respectively lay stress on wisdom of plan and victorious energy of +accomplishment, while the third and fourth are also connected, in that +the former gathers into one great and tender name what Messiah is to His +people, and the latter points to the character of His dominion +throughout the whole earth. 'A wonder of a counsellor,' as the words may +be rendered, not only suggests His giving wholesome direction to His +people, but, still more, the mystery of the wisdom which guides His +plans. Truly, Jesus purposes wonders in the depth of His redeeming +design. He intends to do great things, and to reach them by a road which +none would have imagined. The counsel to save a world, and that by dying +for it, is the miracle of miracles. 'Who hath been His counsellor in +that overwhelming wonder?' He needs no teacher; He is Himself the +teacher of all truth. All may have His direction, and they who follow it +will not walk in darkness. + +'The mighty God.' Chapter x. 21 absolutely forbids taking this as +anything lower than the divine name. The prophet conceives of Messiah as +the earthly representative of divinity, as having God with and in Him as +no other man has. We are not to force upon the prophet the full new +Testament doctrine of the oneness of the incarnate Word with the Father, +which would be an anachronism. But we are not to fall into the opposite +error, and refuse to see in these words, so startling from the lips of a +rigid monotheist, a real prophecy of a divine Messiah, dimly as the +utterer may have perceived the figure which he painted. Note, too, that +the word 'mighty' implies victorious energy in battle. It is often +applied to human heroes, and here carries warlike connotations, kindred +with the previous picture of conflict and victory. Thus strength as of +God, and, in some profound way, strength which is divine, will be the +hand obeying the brain that counsels wonder, and all His plans shall be +effected by it. + +But these are not all His qualities. He is 'the Father of Eternity'--a +name in which tender care and immortal life are marvellously blended. +This King will be in reality what, in old days, monarchs often called +themselves and seldom were,--the Father of His people, with all the +attributes of that sacred name, such as guidance, love, providing for +His children's wants. Nor can Christians forget that Jesus is the source +of life to them, and that the name has thus a deeper meaning. Further, +He is possessed of eternity. If He is so closely related to God as the +former name implies, that predicate is not wonderful. Dying men need and +have an undying Christ. He is 'the same yesterday, and to-day, and for +ever.' + +The whole series of names culminates in 'the Prince of Peace,' which He +is by virtue of the characteristics expressed in the foregoing names. +The name pierces to the heart of Christ's work. For the individual He +brings peace with God, peace in the else discordant inner nature, peace +amid storms of calamity--the peace of submission, of fellowship with +God, of self-control, of received forgiveness and sanctifying. For +nations and civic communities He brings peace which will one day hush +the tumult of war, and burn chariots and all warlike implements in the +fire. The vision tarries, because Christ's followers have not been true +to their Master's mission, but it comes, though its march is slow. We +can hasten its arrival. + +Verses 7 and 8 declare the perpetuity of Messiah's kingdom, His Davidic +descent, and those characteristics of His reign, which guarantee its +perpetuity. 'Judgment' which He exercises, and 'righteousness' which He +both exercises and bestows, are the pillars on which His throne stands; +and these are eternal, and it never will totter nor sink, as earthly +thrones must do. The very life-blood of prophecy, as of religion, is the +conviction that righteousness outlasts sin, and will survive 'the wreck +of matter and the crash of worlds.' + +The great guarantee for these glowing anticipations is that the 'zeal of +the Lord of hosts' will accomplish them. _Zeal_, or rather _jealousy_, +is love stirred to action by opposition. It tolerates no unfaithfulness +in the object of its love, and flames up against all antagonism to the +object. 'He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of Mine eye.' So the +subjects of that Messiah may be sure that a wall of fire is round about +them, which to foes without is terror and destruction, and to dwellers +within its circuit glows with lambent light, and rays out beneficent +warmth. + + + + +LIGHT OR FIRE? + +'And the Light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a +flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one +day.'--ISAIAH x. 17. + + +With grand poetry the prophet pictures the Assyrian power as a forest +consumed like thistles and briers by the fire of God. The text suggests +solemn truths about the divine Nature and its manifestations. + +I. The Essential Character of God. + +Light and Holiness are substantially parallel. Light symbolises purity, +but also knowledge and joy. Holiness is Separation from Creatures, but +chiefly from their Evils. + +II. The Different Attitudes which Men assume to that Character. + +'Light of _Israel_': '_His_ Holy One.' + +God becomes ours, and we have an interest in that radiant Personality if +we choose to claim it by faith, love, and obedience. We are free to +accept God as ours or to reject Him. + +III. The Opposite Aspects which that Character accordingly assumes. + +(a) The self-same divine Character has two effects according to the +character of the beholder. + +To those who respond to God's love it is--heaven. To those who are +indifferent or alienated it may be pain, and will harm them if they see +it and do not yield to it. + +God's holiness is not retributive justice but moral perfectness, which +to a good man will be joy, and to a bad man, intolerable. + +The light which is gladsome to a healthy eye is agony to a diseased one. + +(b) All the manifestations and operations of that divine Character have +a twofold aspect. Christ is either a stone of stumbling or a sure +foundation. Men are either the better or the worse for Him. The Gospel +is the savour of life unto life or of death unto death. The tremendous +'either--or.' The Cross rejected harms the moral nature, hardens +conscience, deepens condemnation. + +All divine operations are necessarily on the side of God's lovers and +against those who love Him not. They are contrary to Him, therefore He +is so to them. 'With the froward Thou wilt show Thyself froward.' + +The final Judgment will be either rapture or despair, like the coming of +a bridegroom, or the fiery rain that burnt up Sodom. + +The very dew of Heavenly Bliss would be corroding poison to a godless +spirit. + + + + +THE SUCKER FROM THE FELLED OAK + +'And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch +shall grow out of his roots: 2. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest +upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel +and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; 3. And +shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and he +shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the +hearing of his ears: 4. But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, +and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite +the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips +shall he slay the wicked. 5. And righteousness shall be the girdle of +his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. 6. The wolf also +shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; +and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little +child shall lead them. 7. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their +young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like +the ox. 8. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and +the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice's den. 9. They +shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall +be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. 10. +And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an +ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall +be glorious.'--ISAIAH xi. 1-10. + + +The hopeless fall of Assyria is magnificently pictured in the close of +chapter x., as the felling of the cedars of Lebanon by the axe swung by +Jehovah's own hand. A cedar once cut down puts out no new shoots; and so +the Assyrian power, when it falls, will fall for ever. The metaphor is +carried on with surpassing beauty in the first part of this prophecy, +which contrasts the indestructible vitality of the Davidic monarchy with +the irremediable destruction fated for its formidable antagonist. The +one is a cedar, the stump of which rots slowly, but never recovers. The +other is an oak, which, every woodman knows, will put out new growth +from the 'stool.' But instead of a crowd of little suckers, the prophet +sees but one shoot, and that rising to more than the original height and +fruitfulness of the tree. The prophecy is distinctly that of One Person, +in whom the Davidic monarchy is concentrated, and all its decadence more +than recovered. + +Isaiah does not bring the rise of the Messiah into chronological +connection with the fall of Assyria; for he contemplates a period of +decay for the Israelitish monarchy, and it was the very burden of his +message as to Assyria that it should pass away without harming that +monarchy. The contrast is not intended to suggest continuity in time. +The period of fulfilment is entirely undetermined. + +The first point in the prophecy is the descent of the Messiah from the +royal stock. That is more than Isaiah's previous Messianic prophecies +had told. He is to come at a time when the fortunes of David's house +were at their worst. There is to be nothing left but the stump of the +tree, and out of it is to come a 'shoot,' slender and insignificant, and +in strange contrast with the girth of the truncated bole, stately even +in its mutilation. We do not talk of a growth from the stump as being a +'branch'; and 'sprout' would better convey Isaiah's meaning. From the +top of the stump, a shoot; from the roots half buried in the ground, an +outgrowth,--these two images mean but one person, a descendant of David, +coming at a time of humiliation and obscurity. But this lowly shoot will +'bear fruit,' which presupposes its growth. + +The King-Messiah thus brought on the scene is then described in regard +to His character (v. 2), the nature of His rule (vs. 3-5), the universal +harmony and peace which He will diffuse through nature (vs. 6-9), and +the gathering of all mankind under His dominion. There is much in the +prophetic ideal of the Messiah which finds no place in this prophecy. +The gentler aspects of His reign are not here, nor the deeper +characteristics of His 'spirit,' nor the chiefest blessings in His gift. +The suffering Messiah is not yet the theme of the prophet. + +The main point as to the character of the Messiah which this prophecy +sets forth is that, whatever He was to be, He was to be by reason of the +resting on Him of the Spirit of Jehovah. The directness, fulness, and +continuousness of His inspiration are emphatically proclaimed in that +word 'shall rest,' which can scarcely fail to recall John's witness, 'I +have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven; and it abode +upon Him.' The humanity on which the Divine Spirit uninterruptedly +abides, ungrieved and unrestrained, must be free from the stains which +so often drive that heavenly visitant from our breasts. The +white-breasted Dove of God cannot brood over foulness. There has never +been but one manhood capable of receiving and retaining the whole +fulness of the Spirit of God. + +The gifts of that Spirit, which become qualities of the Messiah in whom +He dwells, are arranged (if we may use so cold a word) in three pairs; +so that, if we include the introductory designation, we have a sevenfold +characterisation of the Spirit, recalling the seven lamps before the +throne and the seven eyes of the Lamb in the Apocalypse, and symbolising +by the number the completeness and sacredness of that inspiration. The +resulting character of the Messiah is a fair picture of one who realises +the very ideal of a strong and righteous ruler of men. 'Wisdom and +understanding' refer mainly to the clearness of intellectual and moral +insight; 'counsel and might,' to the qualities which give sound +practical direction and vigour to follow, and carry through, the +decisions of practical wisdom; while 'the knowledge and fear of the +Lord' define religion by its two parts of acquaintance with God founded +on love, and reverential awe which prompts to obedience. The fulfilment, +and far more than fulfilment, of this ideal is in Jesus, in whom were +'hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,' to whom no +circumstances of difficulty ever brought the shadow of perplexity, who +always saw clearly before Him the path to tread, and had always 'might' +to tread it, however rough, who lived all His days in unbroken +fellowship with the Father and in lowly obedience. + +The prophet saw not all the wonders of perfect human character which +that indwelling Spirit would bring to realisation in Him; but what he +saw was indispensable to a perfect King, and was, at all events, an arc +of the mighty circle of perfection, which has now been revealed in the +life of Jesus. The possibilities of humanity under the influence of the +Divine Spirit are revealed here no less than the actuality of the +Messiah's character. What Jesus is, He gives it to His subjects to +become by the dwelling in them of the spirit of life which was in Him. + +The rule of the King is accordant with His character. It is described in +verses 3-5. The first characteristic named may be understood in +different ways. Accord-to some commentators, who deserve respectful +consideration, it means, 'He shall draw His breath in the fear of +Jehovah'; that is, that that fear has become, as it were, His very +life-breath. But the meaning of 'breathing' is doubtful; and the phrase +seems rather to express, as the Revised Version puts it, 'His delight +shall be in the fear of the Lord.' That might mean that those who fear +Jehovah shall be His delight, and this would free the expression from +any shade of tautology, when compared with the previous clause, and +would afford a natural transition to the description of His rule. It +might, on the other hand, continue the description of His personal +character, and describe the inward cheerfulness of His obedience, like +'I delight to do Thy will.' In any case, the 'fear of the Lord' is +represented as a sweet-smelling fragrance; and, if we adopt the former +explanation, then it is almost a divine characteristic which is here +attributed to the Messiah; for it is God to whom the fear of Him in +men's hearts is 'an odour of a sweet smell.' + +Then follow the features of His rule. His unerring judgment pierces +through the seen and heard. That is the quality of a monarch after the +antique pattern, when kings were judges. It does not appear that the +prophet rose to the height of perceiving the divine nature of the +Messiah; but we cannot but remember how far the reality transcends the +prophecy, since He whose 'eyes are as a flame of fire' knows what is in +man, and the earliest prayers of the Church were addressed to Jesus as +'Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men.' + +The relation of Messiah to two classes is next set forth. The oppressed +and the meek shall have Him for their defender and avenger,--a striking +contrast to the oppressive monarchs whom Isaiah had seen. We remember +who said 'Blessed are the poor in spirit,' 'Blessed are the meek.' The +King Himself has taught us to deepen the meaning of the words of the +prophet, and to find in them the expression of the law of His kingdom by +which its blessings belong to those who know their need and come with +humble hearts. But the same acts which are for the poor are against the +oppressors. The emendation which reads 'tyrant' (_arits_) for 'earth' +(_erets_) brings the two clauses descriptive of the punitive acts into +parallelism, and is probably to be preferred. The same pillar was light +to Israel and darkness to the Egyptians. Christ is the savour of life +unto life and of death unto death. But what is His instrument of +destruction? 'The rod of His mouth' or 'the breath of His lips.' And who +is He whose bare word thus has power to kill and make alive? Is not this +a divine prerogative? and does it not belong in the fullest sense to Him +whose voice rebuked fevers, storms, and demons, and pierced the dull, +cold ear of death? Further, righteousness, the absolute conformity of +character and act to the standard in the will of God, and faithfulness, +the inflexible constancy, which makes a character consistent with +itself, and so reliable, are represented by a striking figure as being +twined together to make the girdle, which holds the vestments in place, +and girds up the whole frame for effort. This righteous King 'shall not +fail nor be discouraged.' He is to be reckoned on to the uttermost, or, +as the New Testament puts it, He is 'the faithful and true witness.' +This is the strong Son of God, who gathered all His powers together to +run with patience the race set before Him, and to whom all may turn with +the confidence that He is faithful 'as a Son over His own house,' and +will inviolably keep the promise of His word and of His past acts. + +We pass from the picture of the character and rule of the King over men +to that fair vision of Paradise regained, which celebrates the universal +restoration of peace between man and the animals. The picture is not to +be taken as a mere allegory, as if 'lions' and 'wolves' and 'snakes' +meant bad men; but it falls into line with other hints in Scripture, +which trace the hostility between man and the lower creatures to sin, +and shadow a future when 'the beasts of the field shall be at peace with +thee.' The psalm which sings of man's dominion over the creatures is to +be one day fulfilled; and the Epistle to the Hebrews teaches that it is +already fulfilled in Christ, who will raise His brethren, for whom He +tasted death, to partake in His dominion. The present order of things is +transient; and if earth is to be, as some shadowy hints seem to suggest, +the scene of the future glories of redeemed humanity, it may be the +theatre of a fulfilment of such visions as this. But we cannot dogmatise +on a subject of which we know so little, nor be sure of the extent to +which symbolism enters into this sweet picture. Enough that there surely +comes a time when the King of men and Lord of nature shall bring back +peace between both, and restore 'the fair music that all creatures made +To their great Lord.' + +Verse 10 begins an entirely new section, which describes the relations +of Messiah's kingdom to the surrounding peoples. The picture preceding +closed with the vision of the earth filled with the knowledge of the +Lord, and this verse proclaims the universality of Messiah's kingdom. By +'the root of Jesse' is meant, not the root from which Jesse sprang, but, +in accordance with verse 1, the sprout from the house of Jesse. Just as +in that verse the sprout was prophesied of as growing up to be +fruitbearing, so here the lowly sucker shoots to a height which makes it +conspicuous from afar, and becomes, like some tall mast, a sign for the +nations. The contrast between the obscure beginning and the conspicuous +destiny of Messiah is the point of the prophecy. 'I, if I be lifted up +from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.' Strange elevation for a king +is a cross! But it is because He has died for men that He has the right +to reign over them, and that they 'shall seek' to Him. 'His +resting-place shall be glorious.' + +The seat of His dominion is also the seat of His repose. The beneficent +activity just described is wielded from a calm, central palace, and does +not break the King's tranquillity. That is a paradox, except to those +who know that Jesus Christ, sitting in undisturbed rest at the right +hand of God, thence works with and for His servants. His repose is full +of active energy; His active energy is full of repose. And that place of +calm abode is 'glorious' or, more emphatically and literally, 'glory. He +shall dwell in the blaze of the uncreated glory of God,--a prediction +which is only fulfilled in its true meaning by Christ's ascension and +session at the right hand of God, in the glory which He had with the +Father before the world was, and into which He has borne that lowly +manhood which He drew from the cut-down stem of Jesse. + + + + +THE WELL-SPRING OF SALVATION + +'Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. +ISAIAH xii. 3. + + +There are two events separated from each other by more than fifteen +hundred years which have a bearing upon this prophecy: the one supplied +the occasion for its utterance, the other claimed to be its +interpretation and its fulfilment. The first of these is that scene +familiar to us all, where the Israelites in the wilderness murmured for +want of water, and the law-giver, being at his wits' end what to do with +his troublesome charges, took his anxieties to God, and got for an +answer the command to take with him the elders of Israel and his +miracle-working rod, and to go to the rock, 'and the Lord shall stand +upon the rock before thee and them, and the water shall flow forth.' It +was not the rock, nor the rod, nor Moses and the elders, but the +presence of God that brought the refreshing draught. And that that +incident was in Isaiah's mind when he wrote our text is very clear to +anybody who will observe that it occurs in the middle of a song of +praise, which corresponds to the Israelites' song at the Red Sea after +the destruction of Pharaoh, and is part of a great prophecy in which he +describes God's future blessings and mercies under images constantly +drawn from the Egyptian bondage and the Exodus in the desert. Now, that +interpretation, or rather that application, of the words of my text, was +very familiar to the Jews long, long before the New Testament was +thought about. For, as many of you will know, there came in the course +of time a number of ceremonies to be added to a feast established by +Moses himself--the Feast of Tabernacles. That was a feast in which the +whole body of the Israelitish people dwelt for a week in leafy booths, +in order to remind them of the time when they were wanderers in the +wilderness; and as is usually the case, the ritual of the celebration +developed a number of additional symbolical observances which were +tacked on to it in the course of centuries. Amongst these there was this +very memorable one: that on each of the days of the Feast of +Tabernacles, at a given point in the ceremonial, the priests went from +the temple, winding down the rocky path on the temple mountain, to the +Pool of Siloam in the valley below, and there in their golden vases they +drew the cool sparkling water, which they bore up, and amidst the blare +of trumpets and the clash of cymbals poured it on the altar, whilst the +people chanted the words of my text, 'With joy shall ye draw water out +of the wells of salvation.' + +That ceremonial had been going on for eight hundred years from Isaiah's +time; and once more the period came round when it was to be performed; +and on the seven days of the feast, punctually at the appointed time, +the procession wound down the rocky slopes, drew the water in the golden +vases, bore it up to the temple, and poured it upon the altar; and on +the last great day of the feast, the same ceremonial went on up to a +given point; and just as the last rites of the chant of our text were +dying on the ears, there was a little stir amidst the crowd, which +parted to make way for him, and a youngish man, of mean appearance and +rustic dress, stepped forward, and there, before all the gathered +multitudes and the priests standing with their empty urns, symbol of the +impotence of their system, 'on the last day, that great day of the +feast, Jesus stood and cried, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me +and drink.' Brethren, such a commentary, at such a time, from such a +commentator, may well absolve me from the necessity of enforcing the +evangelistic bearing of the words of my text. And so, then, with that +understanding of the deepest meaning of these words that we have to look +at, I ask you to take them in the simplest possible way, and to consider +three points: the Well of Salvation, the Act of Drawing the Water, the +Gladness of those that draw. 'With _joy_ shall _ye_ draw water out of +the fountains of salvation.' + +Now, with regard to the first point, let me remind you to begin with, +that the idea of the word here is not that which we attach to a well, +but that which we attach to a spring. It does not describe the source of +salvation as being a mere reservoir, still less as being a created or +manufactured thing; but there lies in it the deep idea of a source from +which the water wells up by its own inward energy. Then, when we have +got that explanation, and the deep, full, pregnant meaning of the word +salvation as a thing past, a thing present, a thing future, a thing +which negatively delivers a man from all sin and sorrow, and a thing +which positively endows a man with beauty, happiness, and holiness--when +we have got that, then the question next cries aloud for answer--this +well-spring of salvation, is--what? Who? And the first answer and the +last answer is GOD--GOD HIMSELF. It is no mere bit of drapery of the +prophet's imagery, this well-spring of salvation; it is something much +more substantial, much deeper than that. You remember the old psalm, +'With Thee is the fountain of life: in Thy light shall we see light'; +and what David and John after him called life, Isaiah and Paul after him +calls salvation. And you remember too, no doubt, the indictment of +another of the prophets, laying hold of the same metaphor in order to +point to the folly and the suicide of all godless living: 'My people +have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living +waters, and they have hewn out for themselves broken cisterns.' They +were manufactured articles, and because they were made they could be +cracked, but the fountain, because it rises by its own inherent energy, +springing up into everlasting life, is all-sufficient. God Himself is +the well-spring of salvation. + +If I had time to enlarge upon this idea, I might remind you how nobly +and blessedly that principle is confirmed when we think of this great +salvation, past, present, and future, negative and positive, all- +sufficient and complete, as having its origin in His deep nature, as +having its process in His own finished work, and as being in its essence +the communication of Himself. That last thing I should like to say a +word or two about. If there is a man or a woman that thinks of salvation +as if it were merely a shutting up of some material hell, or the dodging +round a corner so as to escape some external consequence of +transgression, let him and her hear this: the possession of God is +salvation, that and nothing else. To have Him within me, that is to be +saved; to have His life in His dear Son made the foundation of my life, +to have my whole being penetrated and filled with God, that is the +essence of the salvation that is in Jesus Christ. And because it comes +unmotived, uncaused, self-originated, springing up from the depths of +His own heart; because it is all effected by His own mighty work who has +trodden the winepress alone, and, single-handed, has wrought the +salvation of the race; and because its essence and heart is the +communication of God Himself, and the bestowing upon us the +participation in a divine nature, therefore the depth of the thought, +_God Himself_ is the well-fountain of salvation. + +But there is still another step to take. If these things which I have +only just been able to glance at in the most superficial, and perhaps, +therefore, confused manner, in any measure commend themselves to your +judgments and your consciences, let me ask you to go with me one step +further, and to figure to yourselves the significance and the +strangeness of that moment to which I have already referred, when a man +stood up in the temple court, and, with distinct allusion to the whole +of the multitude of Old Testament sayings, in which God and the +communication of God's own energy were represented as being the fountain +of salvation and the salvation from the fountain, and said, 'If any man +thirst, let him come unto Me.' Why, what a thing--let us put it into +plain, vulgar English--what a thing for a man to say--'If any man +thirst.' Who art Thou that dost thus plant Thyself opposite the race, +sure that Thou hast no needs like them, but, contrariwise, canst refresh +and satiate the thirsty lips of them all? Who art Thou that dost +proclaim Thyself as sufficient for the fruition of the mind that yearns +for truth and thirsts for certitude, of the parched heart that wearies +and cracks for want of love, of the will that longs to be rightly and +lovingly commanded? Oh, dear brethren, not only the Titanic presumption +of proposing oneself as enough for a single soul, but the inconceivable +madness of proposing oneself as enough for all the race in all +generations to the end of time, except on one hypothesis, marks this +utterance of Him who has also said, 'I am meek and lowly of heart.' +Strange lowliness! singular meekness! Who was He? Who is this that steps +into the place that only a God can fill, and says, 'I can do it all. If +any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink'? + +Dear brethren, some of us can, thank God, answer that question as I pray +that every one of you may be able to answer it, 'Thou art the King of +Glory, O Christ; Thou art the everlasting son of the Father. With Thee +is the fountain of life; Thou Thyself art the living water.' + +But I think there is a still further step to be taken. It is not only +that our Lord Jesus Christ, in His nature, in His person, is the +communicator of the divine life to man, just as--if you will let me take +such a metaphor--just as up in the hills sometimes you will find some +little tarn or loch all shut in; but having trickling from it a thread +of limpid life, and, wherever it flows, the water of the loch goes; +only, the one is lake and the other is river, and the latter is the +medium of communication of the former to the thirsty pastures of the +wilderness. And not only so, but--if I might venture to build upon a +word of the context--there seems to be another consideration there. The +words which precede my text are a quotation from a song of the +Israelites in their former Exodus: 'The Lord Jehovah is my strength and +my song; He also is become my salvation.' Now, if our Bible has been +correct--and I do not enter upon that question--in emphasising the +difference between _is_ and _is become_, mark where it takes us. It +takes us to this, that there was some single, definite, historical act +wherein God _became_ in an eminent manner and in reality what He had +always been in purpose, intent, and idea. Then that to which my text +originally alludes, to which it looks back, is the great deliverance +wrought by the banks of the Red Sea. It was because Pharaoh and his +hosts were drowned in it that Miriam and her musical sisters, with their +timbrel and dance, not only said, 'The Lord is my strength,' but 'He +_has become_ my strength'--there where the corpses are floating yet. +What answers to that in the matter with which we are concerned? +Brethren, it is not enough to say that God is the fountain of salvation, +it is not enough to say that the Incarnate Christ is the medium of +salvation. Will you take the other step with us, and say that the Cross +of Christ is the realisation of the divine intention of salvation? Then +He, who from everlasting was the strength and song of all the strong and +the songful, _is become_ the salvation of all the lost, and the fountain +is 'opened for sin and for uncleanness.' A definite, historical act, the +manifestation of Jesus Christ, is the bringing to man of the salvation +of God. So much, then, for that first point to which I desired to ask +your attention. + +And now let me say a word or two as to the second. I wish to speak about +this process of drawing from the fountain. That metaphor, without any +further explanation, might very naturally suggest more idea of human +effort than in reality belongs to it. Men have said: 'Yes; no doubt God +is the fountain of salvation; no doubt Christ is the river of salvation; +no doubt His death is the opening of the fountain for sin and for +uncleanness; but how am I to bring myself into contact and connection +with it?' And there have been all sorts of answers. Every kind of pump +has been resorted to. Go up to the Agricultural Hall and you will see no +end of contrivances for bringing water to the surface. There are not so +many there as men have found out for themselves to bring the water of +salvation to their lips, and the effect has always been the same. There +has been something wrong with the valves; the pump has not worked +properly; there has been something wrong with the crank; the pipe has +not gone down to the water; and there has been nothing but a great +jingling of empty buckets, and aching and wearied elbows, and what the +woman said to Christ has been true all round, 'Sir, thou hast nothing to +draw with, and the well is deep.' Ay! thank God, it _is_ deep; and if we +let our Lord be His own interpreter, we have only to put together three +sayings of His in order to come to the true meaning of this metaphor. My +text says, 'With joy ye shall draw water'; and Christ, sitting at the +well of Samaria--what a strange combination of the weakness and the +weariness of manhood and the strength and self-consciousness of Divinity +was there!--wearied with His journey, said, 'If thou knewest the gift of +God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink, thou wouldest +have asked of Him and He would have given thee living water.' So, then, +drawing is asking. That is step number one. + +Take another word of the Master's that I have already quoted for other +purposes, 'If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.' So, then, +drawing, or asking, or coming are all equivalent. That is step number +two. + +And, then, take another word. 'He that cometh unto Me shall never +hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.' So, then, +drawing, asking, coming, all melt into the one simple word--believing. +Trust in Him, and thou hast come, thou hast asked, thou hast drawn, thou +dost possess. + +But whilst I would lay the foundation thus broad, thus simple, do not +forget, dear brethren, what I was saying about a definite historical +act. You will hear people say, 'Oh, I trust in Christ!' What do you +trust in Christ? You will hear people say, 'Oh, I look to the goodness +of God.' Be it so. God forbid I should say a word to prevent that; but +what I would insist upon is that a mere vague regard to a vague Christ +is not the faith that is equivalent to drawing from the fountain of +salvation. There must be a further object in a faith that saves. It must +lay hold of the definite historical act in which Christ has become the +salvation of the world. + +Do not take it upon my words, take it upon His own. He once said to His +fellow-countrymen in His lifetime, 'I am the living bread'; and many of +our modern teachers would go that length heartily. Was that where Christ +stopped? By no means. Was His Gospel a gospel of incarnation only? +Certainly not. 'I am the living bread that came down from heaven.' +Anything more? Yes; this more, 'and the bread which I will give is My +flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. He that eateth Me he +shall live by Me.' 'Well,' say some people, 'that means following His +example, accepting His teaching, being loyal to His Person, absorbing +His Spirit.' Yes, it means all that; but is that all it means? Take His +own commentary: 'He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood, hath +eternal life.' Yes, brethren, a Christ incarnate, blessed be God! A +Christ crucified, blessed be God! And not the one but _both_ must be the +basis of our faith and our hope. + +Now, will you let me say one thing about this matter of drawing the +water? It is an act of faith in a whole Jesus, and eminently in the +mighty act and sacrifice of His Cross. But to go back again to the +context: 'He also is become _my_ salvation. 'That is what I desire, God +helping me, to lay on the hearts of all my hearers--that a definite act +of faith in Christ crucified is not enough unless it is a personal act, +unless it is what our old Puritan forefathers used to call +'appropriating faith.' Never mind about the somewhat dry and technical +phraseology; the thing is what I insist upon--'_my_ salvation.' O +brother! what does it matter though all Niagara were roaring past your +door; you might die of thirst all the same unless you put your own lips +to it. Down on your knees like Gideon's men; it is safest there; that is +the only attitude in which a man can drink of this fountain. Down on +your knees and put your lips to it--your very own lips--and drink for +your own soul's salvation. Christ died for the world. Yes; but the world +for which Christ died is made up of individuals who were in His heart. +It is Paul's words that I would beseech you to make your own: 'The Son +of God, who loved _me_ and gave Himself for _me_.' Every one of you is +entitled to say that, if you will. You remember that verse filled with +adoring contemplation that we sometimes sing, one word in which seems to +me to be coloured by the too sombre doctrine of the epoch from which it +came:-- + + 'My soul looks back to see + The burden Thou didst bear, + When hanging on the accursed tree, + And _knows_ her guilt was there.' + +'He also is my strength and my song. He is become my salvation; +therefore, in joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.' + +Now, I have left myself no time to do more than say one word about that +last point, the gladness of the water-drawers. It is a pretty picture in +our text, full of the atmosphere and spirit of Eastern life: the cheery +talk and the ringing laughter round the village well, where the +shepherds with their flocks linger all day long, and the maidens from +their tents come--a kind of rude Exchange in the antique world; and, +says our prophet, 'As the dwellers in the land at their village springs, +so ye, the weary travellers at "the eye of the desert," will draw with +gladness.' So we have this joy. + +Dear brethren, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is meant for something better +than to make us glad, but it is meant to make us glad too, and he is but +a very poor Christian who has not found that it is the joy and rejoicing +of his heart. We need not put too much emphasis and stress upon that +side of the truth; but we need not either suppress it or disregard it in +our modern high-flown disinterestedness. There are joys worth calling so +which only come from possessing this fountain of salvation. How shall I +enumerate them? The best way, I think, will be to quote passages. + +There is the gladness of forgiven sin and a quieted conscience: 'Make me +to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which Thou hast broken may +rejoice.' There is the joy of a conscious possession of God: 'Blessed +are the people that know the joyful sound; they shall walk, O Lord, in +the light of Thy countenance. In Thy name shall they rejoice all the +day.' There is the joy of fellowship and communion with Jesus Christ and +His full presence: 'I will see you again; and your hearts shall rejoice, +and your joy no man taketh away from you.' There is the joy of willing +obedience: 'I delight to do Thy will.' 'It is joy to the just to do +judgment.' There is the joy of a bright hope of an inheritance +'incorruptible,' 'wherein ye greatly rejoice,' and there is a joy which, +like that Greek fire they talk about, burns brighter under water, and +glows as the darkness deepens--a joy which is independent of +circumstances, and can say, 'Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, +neither shall fruit be in the vines, yet I will rejoice in the Lord.' + +And all that, brother and friend, may be yours and mine; and then what +this same prophet says may also be true: 'The ransomed of the Lord shall +return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their +heads'--that is for the pilgrimage; 'They shall obtain joy and gladness, +and sorrow and sighing shall flee away'--that is for the home. There is +another prophecy in this same book of Isaiah: 'Ho, every one that +thirsteth, come ye to the waters'; that was the voice of the Christ in +prophecy. There is a saying spoken in the temple courts: 'If any man +thirst, let him come unto Me and drink'; that was the voice of the +Christ upon earth. There is a saying at the end of Scripture--almost the +last words that the Seer in Patmos heard: 'Whosoever will, let him take +of the water of life freely'; that was the voice of the Christ from the +throne. And the triple invitation comes to every soul of man in the +world, and to thee, and thee, and thee, my brother. Answer, answer as +the Samaritan woman did: 'Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, +neither come hither' any more to draw of the broken cisterns. + + + + +THE HARVEST OF A GODLESS LIFE + +'Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been +mindful of the Rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant +plants, and shalt set it with strange slips: In the day shalt thou make +thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to +flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of +desperate sorrow.'--ISAIAH xvii. 10, 11. + + +The original application of these words is to Judah's alliance with +Damascus, which Isaiah was dead against. He saw that it would only +precipitate the Assyrian invasion, as in fact it did. Judah had forsaken +God, and because they had done so, they had gone to seek for themselves +delights--alliance with Damascus. The image of planting a garden of +pleasures, and 'vine slips of a stranger' refers to sensuous idolatry as +well as to the entangling alliance. Then follows a contemptuous +description of the rapid growth of this alliance and of the care with +which Israel cultivated it. 'In a day thou makest thy plant to grow' (or +fencest it), and next morning it was in blossom, so sedulously had they +nursed and fostered it. Then comes the smiting contrast of what it was +all for--'A harvest heap in the day of sickness and incurable pain.' + +Now we may take this in a more general way as containing large truths +which affect the life of every one of us. + +I. The Sin of a Godless Life. + +(a) Notice the Sin charged. It is merely negative--_forgettest_. There +is no charge of positive hostility or of any overt act. This +forgetfulness is most natural and easy to be fallen into. The constant +pressure of the world. It indicates alienation of heart from God. + +It is most common among us, far more so than active infidelity, far more +so than gross sin, far more so than conscious hostility. + +(b) The implied Criminality of it. He is the 'Rock of thy strength' and +the 'God of thy salvation.' Rock is the grand Old Testament name of God, +expressing in a pregnant metaphor both what He is in Himself and what in +relation to those who trust Him. It speaks of stability, elevation, +massiveness, and of defence and security. The parallel title sets Him +forth as the Giver of salvation; and both names set in clear light the +sinful ingratitude of forgetting God, and force home the question: 'Do +ye thus requite the Lord, oh foolish people and unwise?' + +(c) The implied Absurdity of it. What a contrast between the safe +'munitions of rocks' and the unsheltered security of these Damascene +gardens! What fools to leave the heights and come down into the plain! +Think of the contrast between the sufficiency of God and the emptiness +of the substitutes. Forgetfulness of Him and preference of creatures +cannot be put into language which does not convict it of absurdity. + +II. The Busy Effort and Apparent Success of a Godless Life. + +(a) If a man loses his hold on God and has not Him to stay himself on, +he is driven to painful efforts to make up the loss. God is needed by +every soul. If the soul is not satisfied in Him, then there are hungry +desires. This is the explanation of the feverish activity of much of our +life. + +(b) Such work is far harder than the work of serving God. It takes a +great deal of toil to make that garden grow. The world is a hard +taskmaster. God's service is easy. He sets us in Eden to till and dress +it, but when we forget Him, the ground is cursed, and bears thorns and +thistles, and sweat drips from our brows. + +Men take more pains to damn themselves than to save themselves. There is +nothing more wearying than the pursuit of pleasure. 'Pleasant +plants'--that is a hopeless kind of gardening. There is nothing more +degrading. + +'Ye lust and desire to have,'--what a contrast is in, Ask and have! We +might live even as the lilies or the ravens, or with only this +difference, that we laboured, but were as uncaring and as peaceful as +they. + +God is _given_. The world has to be _bought_. Its terms are 'Nothing for +nothing.' + +(c) Such work has sometimes quick, present success. + +'In the day.' It is hard for men to labour towards far-off unseen good. +We like to have what will grow up in a night, like Jonah's gourd. So +these present satisfactions in a worldly life appeal to worldly, +sensuous natures. And it is hard to set over against these a plant which +grows slowly, and only bears fruit in the next world. + +III. The End of it all. + +'A harvest heap in the day of grief.' This clearly points on to a solemn +ending--the day of judgment. + +(a) How poor the fruit will he that a God-forgetting man will take out +of life! There is but _one heap_ from all the long struggle. He has +'sowed much and brought home little.' What shall we take with us out of +our busy years as their net result? A very small sack will be large +enough to hold the harvest that many of us have reaped. + +(b) All this God-forgetting life of pleasure-seeking and idolatry is +bringing on a terrible, inevitable consummation. + +'Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.' + +No doubt there is often a harvest of grief and desperate sorrow +springing, even in this life, from forgetting God. For it is only they +who set their hopes on Him that are never disappointed, and only they +who have chosen Him for their portion who can always say, 'I have a +goodly heritage.' But the real harvest is not reaped till death has +separated the time of sowing from that of ingathering. The sower shall +reap; i.e. every man shall inherit the consequences of his deeds. 'They +that have planted it shall eat it.' + +(c) That harvest home will be a day of sadness to some. These are +terrible words--'grief and desperate sorrow,' or 'pain and incurable +sickness.' We dare not dilate on this. But if we trust in Christ and sow +to the Spirit, we shall then 'rejoice before God as with the joy of +harvest,' and 'return with joy, bringing our sheaves with us.' + + + + +'IN THIS MOUNTAIN' + +'In this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast +of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of +marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. 7. And He will destroy in +this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the +veil that is spread over all nations. 8. He will swallow up death in +victory.'--ISAIAH xxv. 6-8. + + +A poet's imagination and a prophet's clear vision of the goal to which +God will lead humanity are both at their highest in this great song of +the future, whose winged words make music even in a translation. No +doubt it starts from the comparatively small fact of the restoration of +the exiled nation to its own land. But it soars far beyond that. It sees +all mankind associated with them in sharing their blessings. It is the +vision of God's ideal for humanity. That makes it the more remarkable +that the prophet, with this wide outlook, should insist with such +emphasis on the fact that it has a local centre. That phrase 'in this +mountain' is three times repeated in the hymn; two of the instances +occurring in the verses of my text have lying side by side with them the +expressions 'all people' and 'all nations,' as if to bring together the +local origin, and the universal extent, of the blessings promised. + +The sweet waters that are to pour through the world well up from a +spring opened 'in this mountain.' The beams that are to lighten every +land stream out from a light blazing there. The world's hopes for that +golden age which poets have sung, and towards which earnest social +reformers have worked, and of the coming of which this prophet was sure, +rest on a definite fact, done in a definite place, at a definite time. +Isaiah knew the place, but what was to be done, or when it was to be +done, he knew not. You and I ought to be wiser. History has taught us +that Jesus Christ fulfils the visioned good that inspired the prophet's +brilliant words. We might say, with allowable licence, that 'this +mountain,' in which the Lord does the great things that this song +magnifies, is not so much Zion as Calvary. + +Brethren, in these days, when so many voices are proclaiming so many +short cuts to the Millennium, this clear declaration of the source of +the world's hope is worth pondering. For us all, individually, this +localisation of the origin of the universal good of mankind is an offer +of blessings to us if we will go thither, where the provision for the +world's good is stored--'In this mountain'; therefore, to seek it +anywhere else is to seek it in vain. + +Now, I wish, under the impression of that conviction, to put before you +just these three thoughts: where the world's food comes from; where the +unveiling which gives light to the world comes from; and where the life +which destroys death for the world comes from--'In this mountain.' + +I. Where does the world's food come from? + +Physiologists can tell, by studying the dentition--the system of the +teeth--and the digestive apparatus of an animal, what it is meant to +live upon, whether vegetables or flesh, or a mingled diet of both. And +you can tell, if you will, by studying yourself, what, or whom, you are +meant to live upon. The poet said, 'We live by admiration, hope, and +love.' But he did not say on what these faculties, which truly nourish +man's spirit, are to fix and fasten. He tells of the appetites; he does +not tell of their food. My text does: 'In this mountain shall the Lord +make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the less +well refined.' Friends, look at these hearts of yours with their +yearnings, with their passionate desires, with their clamant needs. Will +any human love--the purest, the sweetest, the most unselfish, the most +utter in its surrender--satisfy the heart-hunger of the poorest of us? +No! Look at the capacities of grasping thought and truth in our spirits, +which are ever seek, seek, seeking for absolutely certain foundations on +which we may build the whole structure of our beliefs. You have to go +deeper down than the sand of man's thinkings and teachings before you +can reach what will bear without shifting the foundations of a life's +credence and confidence. Look at these tumultuous wills of ours that +fancy they crave to be independent, and really crave an absolute master +whom it is blessedness to obey. You will find none such beneath the +stars. The very elements of our being, our heart, will, mind, desires, +passions, longings, all with one voice proclaim that the only food for a +man is God. + +Jesus Christ brings the food that we need. Remember His own adaptation +of this great vision of my text in more than one parable; such as the +supper that was provided, and to which all men were invited, and, 'with +one consent,' declined the invitation. Remember His own utterance,' I am +the Bread of God which came down from heaven to give life to the world.' +Remembering such words, let me plead with you to listen to the voice of +warning as well as of invitation, which sounds from Cradle and Cross and +Throne. 'Why will ye spend your money for that which is not bread'--you +know it is not--'and your labour for that which satisfieth not?'--you +know it does not. Turn to Him, 'eat, and your souls shall live.' 'In +this mountain is prepared a feast... for all nations.' + +Notice that although it does not appear on the surface, and to English +readers, this world's festival, in which every want is met, and every +appetite satisfied, is a feast on a sacrifice. That touches the deepest +need, about which I shall have a word or two to say presently. But in +the meantime let me just press this upon you, that the Christ who died +on the Cross is to be lived on by us; and that it is His sacrifice that +is to be the nourishment of our spirits. + +Would that the earnest men, who are trying to cure the world's evils and +to still the world's wants, and are leaving Jesus Christ and His +religion out of their programme, would take thought and ask themselves +whether there is not something more in the hunger of humanity than their +ovens can ever bake bread for! They are spinning ropes of sand, if they +are trying to lift the world clear of its miseries and of its hunger, +and are not presenting Jesus Christ. I hope I am no bigot; I know that I +sympathise earnestly with all these other schemes for helping mankind, +but this I am bound to say here--all of them put together will not reach +the need of the case, unless they start from, and are subsidiary to, and +develop out of, the presenting of the primal supply for the universal +want, Christ, who alone is able to still the hunger of men's hearts. +Education will do much, but university degrees and the highest culture +will not satisfy a hungry heart. Fitting environment, as it is +fashionable to call it, will do a great deal, but nothing outside of a +man will staunch his evils or still the hunger that coils and grips in +his heart. Competent wealth is a good-there 1s no need to say that in +Manchester-but millionaires have been known to be miserable. A heart at +rest in the love of husband, wife, parent, child, is a blessing +earnestly to be sought and thankfully to be treasured by us all; but +there is more than that wanted. Put a man in the most favourable +circumstances; give him competent worldly means; do all that modern +philosophers who leave religion out of the question are trying to do; +put in practice your most advanced Socialistic schemes, and you will +still have a man with a hungry heart. He may not know what he wants; +very often he will entirely mistake what that is, but he will be +restless for want of an unknown good. Here is the only thing that will +still his heart: 'The bread which I give is My flesh, which I will give +for the life of the world.' + +Brother and sister, this is not a matter only for social reformers, and +to be dealt with as bearing upon wide movements that influence +multitudes. It comes home to you and me. Some of you do not in the least +degree know what I am talking about when I speak of the hunger of men's +hearts; for you have lost your appetites, as children that eat too many +sweets have no desire for their wholesome meals. You have lost your +appetite by feeding upon garbage, and you say you are quite content. +Yes, at present; but deep down there lies in your hearts a need which +will awake and speak out some day; and you will find that the husks +which the swine did eat are scarcely wholesome nutriment for a man. And +there are some of you that turn away with disgust, and I am glad of it, +from these low, gross, sensuous delights; and are trying to satisfy +yourselves with education, culture, refinement, art, science, domestic +love, wealth, gratified ambition, or the like. There are tribes of +degraded Indians that in times of famine eat clay. There is a little +nourishment in it, and it distends their stomachs, and gives them the +feeling of having had a meal. And that is like what some of you do. Dear +friends, will you listen to this?--'Why do ye spend your money for that +which is not bread?' Will you listen to this?--'I am the Bread of Life,' +Will you listen to this?--'In this mountain will the Lord make unto all +people a feast of fat things.' + +II. Where does the unveiling that gives light to the world come from? + +My text, as I have already remarked, emphatically repeats 'in this +mountain' in its next clause. 'He will destroy in this mountain the face +of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over +all nations.' + +Now, of course, the pathetic picture that is implied here, of a dark +pall that lies over the whole world, suggests the idea of mourning, but +still more emphatically, I think, that of obscuration and gloom. The +veil prevents vision and shuts out light, and that is the picture of +humanity as it presents itself before this prophet--a world of men +entangled in the folds of a dark pall that lay over their heads, and +swathed them round about, and prevented them from seeing; shut them up +in darkness and entangled their feet, so that they stumbled in the +gloom. It is a pathetic picture, but it does not go beyond the realities +of the case. For, with all our light on other matters, with all our +freedom of action, with all our frequent forgetfulness of the fact that +we are thus encompassed, it remains true that, apart from the +emancipation and illumination that are effected by Jesus Christ, this is +the picture of mankind as they are. And you are beneath that veil, and +swathed, obstructively as regards light and liberty, by its heavy folds, +unless Christ has freed you. + +But we must go a step further than that, I think; and although one does +not wish to force too much meaning on to a poetic metaphor, still I +cannot help supposing that that universal pall, as I called it, which is +cast over all nations, has a very definite and a very tragic meaning. +There is a universal fact of human experience which answers to the +figure, and that is sin. That is the black thing whose ebon folds hamper +us, and darken us, and shut out the visions of God and blessedness, and +all the glorious blue above us. The heavy, dark mist settles down on the +plains, though the sky above is undimmed by it, and the sun is blazing +in the zenith. Not one beam can penetrate through the wet, chill +obstruction, and men stumble about in the fog with lamps and torches, +and all the while a hundred feet up it is brightness and day. Or, if at +some points the obstruction is thinned and the sun does come through, it +is shorn of all its gracious beams and power to warm and cheer, and +looks but like a copper-coloured, livid, angry ball. So the 'veil that +is spread over all nations, 'that awful fact of universal sinfulness, +shuts out God--who is our light and our joy--from us, and no other +lights or joys are more than twinkling tapers in the mist. Or it makes +us see Him as men in a fog see the sun--shorn of His graciousness, +threatening, wrathful, unlovely. + +Brethren, the fact of universal sinfulness is the outstanding fact of +humanity. Jesus Christ deals with it by His death, which is God's +sacrifice and the world's atonement. That Lamb of God has borne away the +world's sins, and my sins and thy sins are there. By the fact of His +death He has rent the veil from the top to the bottom, and the light +comes in, unhindered by the terrible solemn fact that all of us have +sinned and come short of the glory of God. By His life He communicates +to each of us, if we will trust our poor sinful souls to Him, a new +power of living which is triumphant over temptation, and gives the +victory over sin if we will be true to Him. And so the last shreds of +the veil, like the torn clouds of a spent thunderstorm, are parted into +filmy rags and float away below the horizon, leaving the untarnished +heavens and the flaming sunshine; and 'we with unveiled faces' can lift +them up to be irradiated by the light. 'In this mountain will the Lord +destroy the covering that is spread over all nations.' + +The weak point of all these schemes and methods to which I have already +referred for helping humanity out of the slough, and making men happier, +is that they underestimate the fact of sin. If a man comes to them and +says, 'I have broken God's law. What am I to do? I have a power within +me that impels me now to evil. How am I to get rid of it?' they have no +adequate answer. There is only one remedy that deals radically with the +fact of human transgression; only one power that will deliver each of +us, if we will, from the penalty, the guilt, the power of sin; and that +is the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary, and its result, the inspiration +of the spirit of life that was in Jesus Christ, breathed into us from +the Throne itself. Thus, and thus only, is the veil done away in Christ. + +III. Lastly, where does the life that destroys death come from? + +'He will swallow up death in victory,' or, as probably the word more +correctly means, 'He will swallow up death _for ever_.' None of the +other panaceas for the world's evils that I have been speaking of even +attempt to deal with that 'Shadow feared of Man' that sits at the end of +all our paths. Jesus Christ has dealt with it. Like the warrior of Judah +who went down into a pit and slew a lion, He has gone down into the lair +of the dreadful thing, and has come up leaving Death dead on the +threshold. + +By His death Christ has so altered that grim fact, which awaits us all, +that to those who will trust their souls to Him it ceases to be death, +even though the physical fact remains unaltered. For what is death? Is +it simply the separation of soul from body, the cessation of corporeal +existence? Surely not. We have to add to that all the spiritual tremors, +all the dreads of passing into the unknown, and leaving this familiar +order of things, and all the other reluctances and half-conscious +feelings which make the difference between the death of a man and the +death of a dog. And all these are swept clean away, if we believe that +Jesus died, and died as our Redeemer and our Saviour. So, unconsciously +and instinctively, the New Testament writers will seldom condescend to +call the physical fact by the ugly old name. It has changed its +character; it is 'a sleep' now; it is 'an exodus,' a 'going out' from +the land of Egypt into a land of peace. It is a plucking up of the +tent-pegs, according to another of the words which the writers employ +for death, in preparation for entering, when the 'tabernacle is +dissolved,' into 'a house not made with hands,' a statelier edifice, +'eternal in the heavens.' To die in Christ is not to die, but becomes a +mere change of condition and of place, to be with Him, which is far +'better.' So an Apostle who was coming within measurable distance of his +own martyrdom, even whilst the headsman's block was all but in his +sight, said: 'He hath abolished death,' the physical fact remaining +still. + +By His resurrection Jesus Christ has established immortality as a +certainty for men. I can understand a man, who has persuaded himself +that when he dies he is done with, dressing his limbs to die without +dread if without hope. But that is a poor victory over death, which, +even in the act of getting rid of the fear of it, invests it with +supreme and ultimate power over humanity. Surely, surely, to believe +that the grave is a blind alley, with no exit at the other end,--to +believe that, however it may minister to a quiet departure, is no +victory over the grave. But to die believing, on the other hand, that it +is only a short tunnel through which we pass, and come out into fairer +lands on the other side of the mountains, is to conquer that last foe +even while it seems to conquer us. + +Jesus Christ, who died that we might never die, lives that we may always +live. For His immortal life will give to each of us, if we join +ourselves to Him by simple faith and lowly obedience, an immortal life +that shall persist through, and be increased by, the article of bodily +death. And when we pass into the higher realm of fulness of joy, then-- +as Paul quotes the words of my text--'shall be brought to pass the +saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.' + +Dear brethren, gather all these thoughts together. Do they not plead +with you to cast yourselves on Jesus Christ, and to turn to Him alone? +He will give you the food of your souls; if you will not sit at His +table you will starve. He will strip you of the covering that is cast +over you, as over us all; if you will not let Him unwind its folds from +your limbs, then like the clothes of a drowning man, they will sink you. +He will give you immortal life, which laughs at death, and you will be +able to take up the great song, 'O Death, where is thy sting; O grave, +where is thy victory?... Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory.' +'In this mountain' and in this mountain only, are the food, the +illumination, the life of the world. I beseech you, do not turn away +from them, lest you stumble on the dark mountains, where are starvation +and gloom and death, but rather join that happy company of pilgrims who +sing as they march, 'Come! let us go up to the mountain of the Lord. He +will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths.' + + + + +THE FEAST ON THE SACRIFICE + +And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a +feast.' ISAIAH xxv. 6. + + +There is here a reference to Sinai, where a feast followed the vision of +God. It was the sign of covenant, harmony, and relationship, and was +furnished by a sacrifice. + +I. The General Ideas contained in this Image of a Feast. + +We meet it all through Scripture; it culminates in Christ's parables and +in the 'Marriage Supper of the Lamb.' + +In the image are suggested:-- + +Free familiarity of access, fellowship, and communion with Him. + +Abundant Supply of all wants and desires. + +Festal Joy. + +Family Intercommunion. + +II. The Feast follows on Sacrifice. We find that usage of a feast +following a sacrifice existing in many races and religions. It seems to +witness to a widespread consciousness of sin as disturbing our relations +with God. These could be set right only by sacrifice, which therefore +must precede all joyful communion with Him. + +The New Testament accepts that truth and clears it from the admixture of +heathenism. + +God provides the Sacrifice. + +It is not brought by man. There is no need for our efforts--no atonement +to be found by us. The sacrifice is not meant to turn aside God's wrath. + +Communion is possible through Christ. + +In Him God is revealed. + +Objective hindrances are taken away. + +Subjective ones are removed. + +Dark fears--indifference--dislike of fellowship--Sin--these make +communion with God impossible. + +At Sinai the elders 'saw God, and did eat and drink' Here the end of the +preceding chapter shows the 'elders' gazing on the glory of Jehovah's +reign in Zion. + +III. The Feast consists of a Sacrifice. + +Christ is the food of our souls, He and His work are meant to nourish +our whole being. He is the object for all our nature. + +The Sacrifice must be incorporated with us. It is not enough that it be +offered, it must also be partaken of. + +Now the Sacrifice is eaten by faith, and by occupation with it of each +part of our being, according to its own proper action. Through love, +obedience, hope, desire, we may all feed on Jesus. + +The Lord's Supper presents the same thoughts, under similar symbols, as +Isaiah expressed in his prophecy. + +Symbolically we feast on the sacrifice when we eat the Bread which is +the Body broken for us. But the true eating of the true sacrifice is by +faith. _Crede et manducasti_--Believe, and thou hast eaten. + + + + +THE VEIL OVER ALL NATIONS + +'He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all +people, and the veil that is spread over all nations.'--ISAIAH xxv. 7. + + +The previous chapter closes with a prediction of the reign of Jehovah in +Mount Zion 'before His elders' in Glory. The allusion apparently is to +the elders being summoned up to the Mount and seeing the Glory, 'as the +body of heaven in its clearness.' The veil in this verse is probably a +similar allusion to that which covered Moses' face. It will then be an +emblem of that which obscures for 'all nations the face of God.' And +what is that but sin? + +I. Sin veils God from men's sight. + +It is not the necessary inadequacy of the finite mind to conceive of the +Infinite that most tragically hides God from us. That inadequacy is +compatible with true and sufficient knowledge of Him. Nor is it 'the +veils of flesh and sense,' as we often hear it said, that hide Him. But +it is our sinful moral nature that darkens His face and dulls our eyes. +'Knowledge' of God, being knowledge of a Person, is not merely an +intellectual process. It is much more truly acquaintance than +comprehension; and as such, requires, as all acquaintance does, some +foundation of sympathy and appreciation. + +Every sin darkens the witness to God in ourselves, In a pure nature, +conscience would perfectly reveal God; but we all know too sadly and +intimately how it is gradually silenced, and fails to discriminate +between what pleases and what displeases God. In a pure nature, the +obedient Will would perfectly reveal God and the man's dependence on +Him. We all know how sin weakens that. + +Every sin diminishes our power of seeing Him in His external Revelation. +Every sin ruffles the surface of the soul, which is a mirror reflecting +the light that streams from Creation, from Providence, from History. A +mass of black rock flung into a still lake shatters the images of the +girdling woods and the overarching sky. + +Every sin bribes us to forget God. It becomes our interest, as we fancy, +to shut Him out of our thoughts. Adam's impulse is to carry his guilty +secret with him into hiding among the trees of the garden. We cannot +shake off His presence, but we can--and when we have sinned, we have but +too good reason to exercise the power--we can dismiss the thought of +Him. 'They did not _like_ to retain God in their knowledge.' + +Individual sins may seem of small moment, but an opaque veil can be +woven out of very fine thread. + +II. To veil God from our sight is fatal. + +We imagine that to forget Him leaves us undisturbed in following aims +disapproved by Him, and we spend effort to secure that false peace by +fierce absorption in other pursuits, and impatient shaking off of all +that might wake our sleeping consciousness of Him. + +But what unconscious self-murder that is, which we take such pains to +achieve! To know God is life eternal; to lose Him from our sight is to +condemn all that is best in our nature, all that is most conducive to +blessedness, tranquillity, and strenuousness in our lives, to languish +and die. Every creature separated from God is cut off from the fountain +of life, and loses the life it drew from the fountain, of whatever kind +that life is. And that in man which is most of kin with God languishes +most when so cut off. And when we have blocked Him out from our field of +vision, all that remains for us to look at suffers degradation, and +becomes phantasmal, poor, unworthy to detain, and impotent to satisfy, +our hungry vision. + +III. The Veil is done away in Christ. + +He shows us God, instead of our own false conceptions of Him, which are +but distorted refractions of His true likeness. Only within the limits +of Christ's revelation is there knowledge of God, as distinguished from +guesses, doubtful inferences, partial glimpses. Elsewhere, the greatest +certitude as to Him is a 'peradventure'; Jesus alone says 'Verily, +verily.' + +Jesus makes us able to see God. + +Jesus makes us delight in seeing Him. + +All dread of the 'steady whole of the Judge's face' is changed to the +loving heart's joy in seeing its Beloved. + +IV. The Veil is wholly removed hereafter. + +The prophecy from which the text is taken is obviously not yet +fulfilled. It waits for the perfect condition of redeemed manhood in +another life. But even then, the chief reason why the Christian is +warranted in cherishing an unpresumptuous hope that he will know even as +he is known is not that then he will have dropped the veil of flesh and +sense, but that he will have dropped the thicker, more stifling covering +of sin, and, being perfectly like God, will be able perfectly to gaze on +Him, and, perfectly gazing on Him, will grow ever more perfectly like +Him. + +The choice for each of us is whether the veil will thicken till it +darkens the Face altogether, and that is death; or whether it will thin +away till the last filmy remnant is gone, and 'we shall be like Him, for +we shall see Him as He is.' + + + + +THE SONG OF TWO CITIES + +'In that day shall this song he sung in the land of Judah; We have a +strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. 2. Open +ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may +enter in. 3. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed +on Thee; because he trusteth in Thee. A. Trust ye in the Lord for ever: +for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength: 5. For He bringeth down +them that dwell on high; the lofty city, He layeth it low; He layeth it +low, even to the ground He bringeth it even to the dust. 6. The foot +shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the +needy. 7. The way of the just is uprightness: Thou, most upright, dost +weigh the path of the Just. 8. Yea, in the way of Thy judgments, O Lord, +have we waited for Thee; the desire of our soul is to Thy name, and to +the remembrance of Thee. 9. With my soul have I desired Thee in the +night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek Thee early: for when +Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn +righteousness. 10. Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not +learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, +and will not behold the majesty of the Lord.'--ISAIAH xxvi. 1-10.' + + +'This song' is to be interpreted as a song, not with the cold-blooded +accuracy proper to a scientific treatise. The logic of emotion is as +sound as that of cool intellect, but it has its own laws and links of +connection. First, the song sets in sharp contrast the two cities, +describing, in verses 1-4, the city of God, its strength defences, +conditions of citizenship, and the peace which reigns within its walls; +and in verses 5 and 6 the fall and utter ruin of the robber city, its +antagonist Jerusalem, on its rocky peninsula, supplies the form of +Isaiah's thought; but it is only a symbol of the true city of God, the +stable, invisible, but most real, polity and order of things to which +men, even while wandering lonely and pilgrims, do come, if they will. It +is possible even here and now to have our citizenship in the heavens, +and to feel that we belong to a great community beyond the sea of time, +though our feet have never trodden its golden pavements, nor our eyes +seen its happy glories. + +In one aspect, it is ideal, but in truth it is more real than the +intrusive and false things of this fleeting present, which call +themselves realities. 'The things which are' are the things above. The +things here are but shows and shadows. + +The city's walls are salvation. There is no need to name the architect +of these fortifications. One hand only can pile their strength. God +appoints salvation in lieu of all visible defences. Whom He purposes to +save are saved. Whom He wills to keep safe are kept safe. They who can +shelter behind that strong defence need no other. Weak, sense-governed +hearts may crave something more palpable, but they do not really need +it. A parapet on an Alpine road gives no real security, but only +satisfies imagination. The sky needs no pillars to hold it up. + +Then an unknown voice breaks in upon the song, calling on unnamed +attendants to fling wide the gates. The city is conceived of as empty; +its destined inhabitants must have certain qualifications. They must be +righteous, and must 'keep faithfulness' being true to the God who is +'faithful and true' in all His relations. None but the righteous can +dwell in conscious citizenship with the Unseen while here, and none but +the righteous can enter through the gates into the city. That +requirement is founded in the very nature of the case, and is as +emphatically proclaimed by the gospel as by the prophet. But the gospel +tells more articulately than he was enlightened to do, how righteousness +is to be won. The last vision of the Apocalypse, which is so like this +song in its central idea, tells us of the fall of Babylon, of the +descent to earth of the New Jerusalem, and leaves as its last message +the great saying, 'Blessed are they that wash their robes that they may +... enter in through the gate into the city.' + +Our song gives some hint of similar thoughts by passing from the +description of the qualifications for entrance to the celebration of the +security which comes from trust. The safety which is realised within the +walls of the strong city is akin to the 'perfect peace' in which he who +trusts is kept; and the juxtaposition of the two representations is +equivalent to the teaching that trust, which is precisely the same as +the New Testament faith, is the condition of entrance. We know that +faith makes righteous, because it opens the heart to receive God's gift +of righteousness; but that effect of faith is implied rather than stated +here, where security and peace are the main ideas. As some fugitives +from the storm of war sit in security behind the battlements of a +fortress, and scarcely hear the din of conflict in the open field below, +the heart, which has taken refuge by trust in God, is kept in peace so +deep that it passes description, and the singer is fain to give a notion +of its completeness by calling it 'peace, peace.' The mind which trusts +is steadied thereby, as light things lashed to a firm stay are kept +steadfast, however the ship toss. The only way to get and keep fixedness +of temper and spirit amid change and earthquake is to hold on to God, +and then we may be stable with stability derived from the foundations of +His throne to which we cling. + +Therefore the song breaks into triumphant fervour of summons to all who +hear it, to 'trust in Jab Jehovah for ever,' Such settled, perpetual +trust is the only attitude corresponding to His mighty name, and to the +realities found in His character. He is the 'Bock of Ages' the grand +figure which Moses learned beneath the cliffs of Sinai and wove into his +last song, and which tells us of the unchanging strength that makes a +sure hiding-place for all generations, and the ample space which will +hold all the souls of men, and be for a shadow from the heat, a covert +from the tempest, a shelter from the foe, and a home for the homeless, +with many a springing fountain in its clefts. + +The great act of judgment which the song celebrates is now (vs. 5, 6) +brought into contrast with the blessed picture of the city, and by the +introductory 'for' is stated as the reason for eternal trust. The +language, as it were, leaps and dances in jubilation, heaping together +brief emotional and synonymous clauses. So low is the once proud city +brought, that the feet of the poor tread it down. These 'poor' and +'needy' are the true Israel, the suffering saints, who had known how +cruel the sway of the fallen robber city was; and now they march across +its site; and its broken columns and ruined palaces strew the ground +below their feet. 'The righteous nation' of the one picture are 'the +poor and needy' of the other. No doubt the prophecy has had partial +accomplishments more than once or twice, when the oppressed church has +triumphed, and some hoary iniquity been levelled at a blow, or toppled +over by slow decay. But the complete accomplishment is yet future, and +not to be realised till that last act, when all antagonism shall be +ended, and the net result of the weary history of the world be found to +be just these two pictures of Isaiah's--the strong city of God with its +happy inhabitants, and the everlasting desolations of the fallen city of +confusion. + +The triumphant hurry of the song pauses for a moment to gaze upon the +crash, and in verse 7 gathers its lessons into a kind of proverbial +saying, which is perhaps best translated 'The path of the just is smooth +(or "plain"); Thou levellest smooth the path of the just.' To render +'upright' instead of 'smooth' seems to make the statement almost an +identical proposition, and is tame. What is meant is, that, in the light +of the end, the path which often seemed rough is vindicated. The +judgment has showed that the righteous man's course had no unnecessary +difficulties. The goal explains the road. The good man's path is smooth, +not because of its own nature, but because God makes it so. We are to +look for the clearing of our road, not to ourselves, nor to +circumstances, but to Him; and even when it is engineered through rocks +and roughnesses, to believe that He will make the rough places plain, or +give us shoes of iron and brass to encounter them. Trust that when the +journey is over the road will be explained, and that this reflection, +which breaks the current of the swift song of the prophet, will be the +abiding, happy conviction of heaven. + +Lastly, the song looks back and tells how the poor and needy, in whose +name the prophet speaks, had filled the dreary past, while the tyranny +of the fallen city lasted, with yearning for the judgment which has now +come at last. Verses 8 and 9 breathe the very spirit of patient longing +and meek hope. There is a certain tone of triumph in that 'Yea,' as if +the singer would point to the great judgment now accomplished, as +vindicating the long, weary hours of hope deferred. That for which 'the +poor and needy' wait is the coming 'in the path of Thy judgments.' The +attitude of expectance is as much the duty and support of Christians as +of Israel. We have a greater future clearer before us than they had. The +world needs God's coming in judgment more than ever; and it says little +for either the love to God or the benevolence towards man of average +Christians, that they should know so little of that yearning of soul +which breathes through so much of the Old Testament. For the glory of +God and the good of men, we should have the desire of our souls turned +to His manifestation of Himself in His righteous judgments. It was no +personal end which bred the prophet's yearning. True, the 'night' round +him was dreary enough, and sorrow lay black on his people and himself; +but it was God's 'name' and 'memorial' that was uppermost in his +desires. That is to say, the chief object of the devout soul's longings +should be the glory of God's revealed character. And the deepest reason +for wishing that He would flash forth from His hiding-place in +judgments, is because such an apocalypse is the only way by which +wilfully blind eyes can be made to see, and wilfully unrighteous hearts +can be made to practise righteousness. + +Isaiah believed in the wholesome effect of terror. His confidence in the +power of judgments to teach the obstinate corresponds to the Old +Testament point of view, and contains a truth for all points of view; +but it is not the whole truth. We know only too well that sorrows and +judgments do not work infallibly, and that men 'being often reproved, +harden their necks.' We know, too, more clearly than any prophet of old +could know, that the last arrow in God's quiver is not some unheard-of +awfulness of judgment, but an unspeakable gift of love, and that if that +'favour shown to the wicked' in the life and death of God's Son does not +lead him to 'learn righteousness,' nothing else will. + +But while this is true, the prophet's aspirations are founded on the +facts of human nature too, and judgments do sometimes startle those whom +kindness had failed to touch. It is an awful thought that human nature +may so steel itself against the whole armoury of divine weapons as that +favour and severity are equally blunted, and the heart remains unpierced +by either. It is an awful thought that there may be induced such +truculent obstinacy of love of evil that, even when in 'a land of +uprightness,' a man shall choose evil, and forcibly shut his eyes, that +he may not see the majesty of the Lord, which he does not wish to see +because it condemns his choice, and threatens to burn up him and his +work together. A blasted tree when all the woods are green, a fleece dry +when all around is rejoicing in the dew, a window dark when the whole +city is illuminated, one black sheep amid the white flock, or anything +else anomalous and alone in its evil, is less tragic than the sight, so +common, of a man so sold to sin that the presence of good only makes him +angry and restless. It is possible to dwell amidst the full light of +Christian truth, and in a society moulded by its precepts, and to be +unblessed, unsoftened thereby. If not softened, then hardened; and the +wicked who in the land of uprightness deals wrongfully is all the worse +for the light which he hated because it showed him the sinfulness of the +sin which he obstinately loved and would keep. + + + + +OUR STRONG CITY + +'In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a +strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open ye +the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter +in.'--ISAIAH xxvi 1-2. + + +What day is 'that day'? The answer carries us back a couple of chapters, +to the great picture drawn by the prophet of a world-wide judgment, +which is followed by a burst of song from the ransomed people of +Jehovah, like Miriam's chant by the shores of the Red Sea. The 'city of +confusion,' the centre of the power hostile to God and man, falls; and +its fall is welcomed by a chorus of praises. The words of my text are +the beginning of one of these songs. Whether or not there were any +historical event which floated before the prophet's mind is wholly +uncertain. If there were a smaller judgment upon some city of the enemy, +it passes in his view into a world-wide judgment; and my text is purely +ideal, imaginative, and apocalyptic. Its nearest ally is the similar +vision of the Book of the Revelation, where, when Babylon sank with a +splash like a millstone in the stream, the ransomed people raised their +praises. + +So, then, whatever may have been the immediate horizon of the prophet, +and though, there may have stood on it some historical event, the city +which he sees falling is other than any material Babylon, and the strong +city in which he rejoices is other than the material Jerusalem, though +it may have suggested the metaphor of my text. The song fits our lips +quite as closely as it did the lips from which it first sprang, +thrilling with triumph: 'We have a strong city; salvation will God +appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates, that the righteous +nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.' + +There are three things, then, here: the city, its defences, its +citizens. + +I. The City. + +Now, no doubt the prophet was thinking of the literal Jerusalem; but the +city is ideal, as is shown by the bulwarks which defend, and by the +qualifications which permit entrance. And so we must pass beyond the +literalities of Palestine, and, as I think, must not apply the symbol to +any visible institution or organisation if we are to come to the depth +and greatness of the meaning of these words. No church which is +organised amongst men can be the New Testament representation of this +strong city. And if the explanation is to be looked for in that +direction at all, it can only be the invisible aggregate of ransomed +souls which is regarded as being the Zion of the prophecy. + +But perhaps even that is too definite and hard. And we are rather to +think of the unseen but existent order of things or polity to which men +here on earth may belong, and which will one day, after shocks and +convulsions that shatter all which is merely institutional and human, be +manifested still more gloriously. + +The central thought that was moving in the prophet's mind is that of the +indestructible vitality of the true Israel, and the order which it +represented, of which Jerusalem on its rock was but to him a symbol. And +thus for us the lesson is that, apart altogether from the existing and +visible order of things in which we dwell, there is a polity to which we +may belong, for 'ye are come unto Mount Zion, the city of the living +God,' and that that order is indestructible. Convulsions come, every +Babylon falls, all human institutions change and pass. 'The kingdoms +old' are 'cast into another mould.' But persistent through them all, and +at the last, high above them all, will stand the stable polity of +Heaven, '_the_ city which hath _the_ foundations.' + +_There_ is a lesson for us, brethren, in times of fluctuation, of change +of opinion, of shaking of institutions, and of new social, economical, +and political questions, threatening day by day to reorganise society. +'We have a strong city'; and whatever may come--and much destructive +will come, and much that is venerable and antique, rooted in men's +prejudices, and having survived through and oppressed the centuries, +will have to go; but God's polity, His form of human society of which +the perfect ideal and antitype, so to speak, lies concealed in the +heavens, is everlasting. Therefore, whatsoever changes, whatsoever +ancient and venerable things come to be regarded as of no account, +howsoever the nations, like clay in the hands of the potter, may have to +assume new forms, as certainly they will, yet the foundation of God +standeth sure. And for Christian men in revolutionary epochs, whether +these revolutions affect the forms in which truth is grasped, or whether +they affect the moulds into which society is run, the only worthy temper +is the calm, triumphant expectation that through all the dust, +contradiction, and distraction, the fair city of God will be brought +nearer and made more manifest to man. Isaiah, or whoever was the writer +of these great words of my text, stayed his own and his people's hearts +in a time of confusion and distress, by the thought that it was only +Babylon that could fall, and that Jerusalem was the possessor of a +charmed, immortal life. + +This strong city, the order of human society which God has appointed, +and which exists, though it be hidden in the heavens, will be manifested +one day when, like the fair vision of the goddess rising from amidst the +ocean's foam, and shedding peace and beauty over the charmed waves, +there will emerge from all the wild confusion and tossing billows of the +sea of the peoples the fair form of the 'Bride, the Lamb's wife.' There +shall be an apocalypse of the city, and whether the old words which +catch up the spirit of my text, and speak of that Holy City as +'descending from heaven' upon earth, at the close of the history of the +world, are to be taken, as perhaps they are, as expressive of the truth +that a renewed earth is to be the dwelling of the ransomed or no, this +at least is clear, that the city shall be revealed, and when Babylon is +swept away, Zion shall stand. + +To this city--existent, immortal, and waiting to be revealed--you and I +may belong to-day. 'We _have_ a strong city.' You may lay hold of life +either by the side of it which is transient and trivial and +contemptible, or by the side of it which goes down through all the +mutable and is rooted in eternity. As in some seaweed, far out in the +depths of the ocean, the tiny frond that floats upon the billow goes +down and down and down, by filaments that bind it to the basal rock, so +the most insignificant act of our fleeting days has a hold upon +eternity, and life in all its moments may be knit to the permanent. We +may unite our lives with the surface of time or with the centre of +eternity. Though we dwell in tabernacles, we may still be 'come to Mount +Zion,' and all life be awful, noble, solemn, religions, because it is +all connected with the unseen city across the seas. It is for us to +determine to which of these orders--the perishable, noisy and intrusive +and persistent in its appeals, or the calm, silent, most real, eternal +order beyond the stars--our petty lives shall attach themselves. + +II. Now note, secondly, the defences. + +'Salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.' This 'evangelical +prophet,' as he has been called, is distinguished, not only by the +clearness of his anticipations of Jesus Christ and His work, but by the +fulness and depth which he attaches to that word 'salvation.' He all but +anticipates the New Testament completeness and fulness of meaning, and +lifts it from all merely material associations of earthly or transitory +deliverance, into the sphere in which we are accustomed to regard it as +especially moving. By 'salvation' he means and we mean, not only +negative but positive blessings. Negatively it includes the removal of +every conceivable or endurable evil, 'all the ills that flesh is heir +to,' whether they be evils of sin or evils of sorrow; and, positively, +the investiture with every possible good that humanity is capable of, +whether it be good of goodness, or good of happiness. This is what the +prophet tells us is the wall and bulwark of his ideal-real city. + +Mark the eloquent omission of the name of the builder of the wall. 'God' +is a supplement. Salvation 'will _He_ appoint for walls and bulwarks.' +No need to say who it is that flings such a fortification around the +city. There is only one hand that can trace the lines of such walls; +only one hand that can pile their stones; only one that can lay them, as +the walls of Jericho were laid, in the blood of His first-born Son. +'Salvation will He appoint for walls and bulwarks.' That is to say in a +highly imaginative and picturesque form, that the defense of the City is +God Himself; and it is substantially a parallel with other words which +speak about Him as being 'a wall of fire round about it and the glory in +the midst of it.' The fact of salvation is the wall and the bulwark. And +the consciousness of the fact and the sense of possessing it, is for our +poor hearts, one of our best defenses against both the evil of sin and +the evil of sorrow. For nothing so robs temptation of its power, so +lightens the pressure of calamities, and draws the poison from the fangs +of sin and sorrow, as the assurance that the loving purpose of God to +save grasps and keeps us. They who shelter behind that wall, feel that +between them and sin, and them and sorrow, there rises the inexpugnable +defense of an Almighty purpose and power to save, lie safe whatever +betides. There is no need of other defenses. Zion + + 'Needs no bulwarks, + No towers along the steep.' + +God Himself is the shield and none other is required. + +So, brethren, let us walk by the faith that is always confident, though +it depends on an unseen hand. It is a grand thing to be able to stand, +as it were, in the open, a mark for all 'the slings and arrows of +outrageous fortune' and yet to feel that around us there are walls most +real, though invisible, which permit no harm to come to us. Our feeble +sense-bound souls much prefer a visible wall. We, like a handrail on the +stair. Though it does not at all guard the descent, it keeps our heads +from getting dizzy. It is hard for us, as some travellers may have to +do, to walk with steady foot and unthrobbing heart along a narrow ledge +of rock with beetling precipice above us and black depths beneath, and +we would like a little bit of a wall of some sort, for imagination if +not for reality, between us and the sheer descent. But it is blessed to +learn that naked we are clothed, solitary we have a Companion, and +unarmed we have our defenceless heads covered with the shadow of the +great wing, which, though sense sees it not, faith knows is there. A +servant of God is never without a friend, and when most unsheltered + + 'From marge to blue marge + The whole sky grows his targe, + With sun's self for visible boss,' + +beneath which he lies safe. + +'Salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks,' and if we realise, +as we ought to do, His purpose to keep us safe, and His power to keep us +safe, and the actual operation of His hand keeping us safe at every +moment, we shall not ask that these defences shall be supplemented by +the poor feeble earthworks that sense can throw up. + +III. Lastly, note the citizens. + +Our text is part of a 'song,' and is not to be interpreted in the cold- +blooded fashion that might suit prose. A voice, coming from whom we know +not, breaks in upon the first strain with a command, addressed to whom +we know not--'Open ye the gates'--the city thus far being supposed to be +empty--'that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.' +The central idea there is just this, 'Thy people shall be all +righteous.' The one qualification for entrance into the city is absolute +purity. + +Now, brethren, that is true in regard to our present imperfect +denizenship within the city; and it is true in regard to men's passing +into it in its perfect and final form. As to the former, there is +nothing that you Christian people need more to have dinned into you than +this, that your continuance in the state of a redeemed man, with all the +security and blessing that attach thereto, depends upon your continuing +to be righteous. Every sin, every flaw, every dropping beneath our own +standard in conscience of what we ought to be, has for its inevitable +result that we are robbed for the time being of consciousness of the +walls of the city being about us and of our being citizens thereof. 'Who +shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in His holy +place?' The New Testament, as emphatically as the old psalm, answers,' +He that hath clean hands and a pure heart.' 'Let no man deceive you. He +that doeth righteousness is righteous.' There is no way by which +Christian men here on earth can pass into and keep within the city of +the living God, except they possess personal purity, righteousness of +life, and cleanness of heart. + +They used to say that Venice glass was so made that any poison poured +into it shivered the vessel. Any drop of sin poured into your cup of +communion with God, shatters the cup and spills the wine. Whosoever +thinks himself a citizen of that great city, if he falls into +transgression, and soils the cleanness of his hands, and ruffles the +calm of his pure heart by self-willed sinfulness, will wake to find +himself not within the battlements, but lying wounded, robbed, solitary, +in the pitiless desert. My brother, it is 'the righteous nation' that +'enters in,' even here on earth. + +I do not need to remind you how, admittedly by us all, that is the case +in regard to the final form of the city of our God, into which nothing +shall enter 'that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or +maketh a lie.' Heaven can only be entered into hereafter by, as here and +now it can only enter into, those who are pure of heart. All else there +would shrivel as foul things born In the darkness do in the light, and +be consumed in the fire. None but the pure can enter and see God. + +'The nation which keepeth the truth'--that does not mean adherence to +any revelation, or true creed, or the like. The word which is employed +means, not truth of thought, but truth of character; and might, perhaps, +be better represented by the more familiar word in such a connection, +'faithfulness.' A man who is true to God, keeping up a faithful relation +to Him who is faithful to us, he, and only he, will pass into, and abide +in, the city. + +Now, brethren, so far our text carries us, but no further; unless, +perhaps, there may be a hint of something yet deeper in the next clause +of this song. If any one asks, How does the nation become righteous? the +answer may lie in the immediately following exhortation--'Trust ye in +the Lord for ever.' But whether that be so or not, if we want an answer +to the questions, How can my stained feet be cleansed so as to be fit to +tread the crystal pavements? how can my foul garments be so purged as +not to be a blot and an eyesore, beside the white, lustrous robes that +sweep along them and gather no defilement there? the only answer that I +know of is to be found by turning to the final visions of the New +Testament, where the spirit of this whole section of our prophet is +reproduced. Again, Babylon falls amidst the songs of saints; and then, +down upon all the dust and confusion of the crash of ruin, the seer +beholds the Lamb's wife, the new Jerusalem, descending from above. To +his happy eyes its glories are unveiled, its golden streets, its open +gates, its walls of precious stones, its flashing river, its peaceful +inhabitants, its light streaming from the throne of God and of the Lamb. +And when that vision passes, his last message to us is, 'Blessed are +they that wash their robes that they may enter through the gates into +the city.' None but those who wash their garments, and make them white +in the blood of the Lamb, can, living, come unto the city of the living +God, the heavenly Jerusalem; or, dying, can pass through the iron gate +that opens to them of its own accord, and find themselves as day breaks +in the street of the Jerusalem which is above. + + + + +THE INHABITANT OF THE ROCK + +'Thou wilt keep him In perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: +because he trusteth in Thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the +Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.'--ISAIAH xxvi. 3-4. + + +There is an obvious parallel between these verses and the two preceding +ones. The safety which was there set forth as the result of dwelling in +the strong city is here presented as the consequence of trust. The +emblem of the fortified place passes into that of the Rock of Ages. +There is the further resemblance in form, that, just as in the two +preceding verses we had the triumphant declaration of security followed +by a summons to some unknown persons to 'open the gates,' so here we +have the triumphant declaration of perfect peace, followed by a summons +to all to 'trust in the Lord for ever.' If we may suppose the invocation +of the preceding verses to be addressed to the watchers at the gate of +the strong city, it is perhaps not too fanciful to suppose that the +invitation in my text is the watcher's answer, pointing the way by which +men may pass into the city. + +Whether that be so or no, at all events I take it as by no means +accidental that, immediately upon the statement of the Old Testament law +that righteousness alone admits to the presence of God, there follows so +clear and emphatic an anticipation of the great New Testament Gospel +that faith is the condition of righteousness, and that immediately after +hearing that only 'the righteous nation which keepeth the truth' can +enter there, we hear the merciful call, 'Trust ye in the Lord for ever.' +So, then, I think we have in the words before us, though not formally +yet really, very large teaching as to the nature, the object, the +blessed effects, and the universal duty of that trust in the Lord which +makes the very nexus between man and God, according to the teaching of +the New Testament. + +I. First, then, I desire to notice in a sentence the insight into the +true nature of trust or faith given by the word employed here. + +Now the literal meaning of the expression here rendered 'to trust' is to +lean upon anything. As we say, trust is reliance. As a weak man might +stay his faltering, tottering steps upon some strong staff, or might +lean upon the outstretched arm of a friend, so we, conscious of our +weakness, aware of our faltering feet, and realising the roughness of +the road, and the smallness of our strength, may lay the whole weight of +ourselves upon the loving strength of Jehovah. + +And that is the trust of the Old Testament, the faith of the New--the +simple act of reliance, going out of myself to find the basis of my +being, forsaking myself to touch and rest upon the ground of my +security, passing from my own weakness and laying my trembling hand into +the strong hand of God, like some weak-handed youth on a coach-box who +turns to a stronger beside him and says: 'Take thou the reins, for I am +feeble to direct or to restrain.' Trust is reliance, and reliance is +always blessedness. + +II. Notice, secondly, the steadfast peacefulness of trust. + +Now there are difficulties about the rendering and precise significance +of the first verse of my text with which I do not need to trouble you. +The Authorised Version, and still more perhaps the Revised Version, give +substantially, as I take it, the prophet's meaning; and the margin of +the Revised Version is still more literal and accurate than the text, 'A +steadfast mind Thou keepest in perfect peace, because it trusteth in +Thee.' If this, then, be the true meaning of the words, you observe that +it is the steadfast mind, steadfast because it trusts, which God keeps +In the deep peace that is expressed by the reduplication of the word. + +And if we break up that complex thought into its elements, it just comes +to this, first, that trust makes steadfastness. Most men's lives are +blown about by winds of circumstance, directed by gusts of passion, +shaped by accidents, and are fragmentary and jerky, like some ship at +sea with nobody at the helm, heading here and there, as the force of the +wind or the flow of the current may carry them. If my life is to be +steadied, there must not only be a strong hand at the tiller, but some +outward object which shall be for me the point of aim and the point of +rest. No man can steady his life except by clinging to a holdfast +without himself. Some of us look for that stay in the fluctuations and +fleetingnesses of creatures; and some of us are wiser and saner, and +look for it in the steadfastness of the unchanging God. The men who do +the former are the sport of circumstances, and the slaves of their own +natures, and there is no consistency in noble aim and effort throughout +their lives, corresponding to their circumstances, relations, and +nature. Only they who stay themselves upon God, and get down through all +the superficial shifting strata of drift and gravel, to the base-rock, +are steadfast and solid. + +My brother, if you desire to govern yourself, you must let God govern +you. If you desire to be firm, you must draw your firmness from the +unchangingness of that divine nature which you grasp. How can a willow +be stiffened into an iron pillar? Only--if I might use such a violent +metaphor--when it receives into its substance the iron particles that it +draws from the soil in which it is rooted. How can a bit of thistledown +be kept motionless amidst the tempest? Only by being glued to something +that is fixed. What do men do with light things on deck when the ship is +pitching? Lash them to a fixed point. Lash yourselves to God by simple +trust, and then you will partake of His serene immutability in such +fashion as it is possible for the creature to participate in the +attributes of the Creator. + +And then, still further, the steadfast mind--steadfast because it +trusts--is rewarded in that it is kept by God. It is no mere mistake in +the order of his thought which leads this prophet to allege that it is +the steadfast mind which God keeps. For, though it is true, on the one +hand, that the real fixity and solidity of a human character come more +surely and fully through trust in God than by any other means, on the +other hand it is true that, in order to receive the full blessed effects +of trust into our characters and lives, we must persistently and +doggedly keep on in the attitude of confidence. If a man holds out to +God a tremulous hand with a shaking cup in it, which Le sometimes +presents and sometimes twitches back, it is not to be expected that God +will pour the treasure of His grace into such a vessel, with the risk of +most of it being spilt upon the ground. There must be a steadfast +waiting if there is to be a continual flow. + +It is the mind that cleaves to God which God keeps. I suppose that there +was floating before Paul's thoughts some remembrance of this great +passage of the evangelical prophet when he uttered his words, which ring +so strikingly with so many echoes of them, when he said, 'The peace of +God which passeth understanding shall keep your hearts and minds in +Christ Jesus.' It is the steadfast mind that is kept in perfect peace. +If we 'keep ourselves,' by that divine help which is always waiting to +be given,' in the' faith and 'love of God,' He will keep us in the hour +of temptation, will keep us from falling, and will garrison our hearts +and minds in Christ Jesus. + +And then, still further, this faithful, steadfast heart and mind, kept +by God, is a mind filled with deepest peace. There is something very +beautiful in the prophet's abandoning the attempt to find any adjective +of quality which adequately characterises the peace of which he has been +speaking. He falls back upon the expedient which is the confession of +the impotence of human speech worthily to portray its subject when he +simply says, 'Thou shalt keep in peace, peace ... because he trusteth in +Thee.' The reduplication expresses the depth, the completeness of the +tranquillity which flows into the heart, Such continuity, wave after +wave, or rather ripple after ripple, is possible even for us. For, dear +brethren, the possession of this deep, unbroken peace does not depend on +the absence of conflict, on distraction, trouble, or sorrow, but on the +presence of God. If we are in touch with Him, then our troubled days may +be calm, and beneath all the surface tumult there may be a centre of +rest. The garrison in some high hill-fortress looks down upon the open +where the enemy's ranks are crawling like insects across the grass, and +scarcely hears the noise of the tumult, and no arrow can reach the lofty +hold. So, up in God we may dwell at rest whate'er betide. Strange that +we should prefer to live down amongst the unwalled villages, which every +spoiler can harry and burn, when we might climb, and by the might and +the magic of trust in the Lord bring round about ourselves a wall of +fire which shall consume the poison out of the evil, even whilst it +permits the sorrow to do its beneficent work upon us! + +III. Note again the worthiness of the divine Name to evoke, and the +power of the divine character to reward, the trust. + +We pass to the last words of _my_ text:--'In the Lord Jehovah is +everlasting strength.' + +Now I suppose we all know that the words feebly rendered in the +Authorised Version 'everlasting strength' are literally 'the Rock of +Ages'; and that this verse is the source of that hallowed figure which, +by one of the greatest of our English hymns, is made familiar and +immortal to all English-speaking people. + +But there is another peculiarity about the words on which I dwell for a +moment, and that is, that here we have, for one of the only two times in +which the expression occurs in Scripture, the great name of Jehovah +reduplicated. 'In Jab Jehovah is the Rock of Ages.' In the former verse +the prophet had given up in despair the attempt to characterise the +peace which God gave, and fallen back upon the expedient of naming it +twice over. In this verse, with similar eloquence of reticence, he +abandons the attempt to describe or characterise that great Name, and in +adoration, contents himself with twice taking it upon his lips, in order +to _impress_ what he cannot _express_, the majesty and the sufficiency +of that name. + +What, then, is the force of that name? We do not need, I suppose, to do +more than simply remind you that there are two great thoughts +communicated by that self-revelation of God which lies in it. _Jehovah_, +in its literal grammatical signification, puts emphasis upon the +absolute, underived, and therefore unlimited, unconditioned, +unchangeable, eternal being of God. 'I AM THAT I AM.' Men and creatures +are what they are made, are what they become, and some time or other +cease to be what they were. But God is what He is, and is because He is. +He is the Source, the Motive, the Law, the Sustenance of His own Being; +and changeless and eternal He is for ever. In that name is the Rock of +Ages. + +That mighty name, by its place in the history of Revelation, conveys to +us still further thoughts, for it is the name of the God who entered +into covenant with His ancient people, and remains bound by His covenant +to bless us. That Is to say, He hath not left us in darkness as to the +methods and purpose of His dealings with us, or as to the attitude of +His heart towards us. He has bound Himself by solemn words, and by deeds +as revealing as words. So we can reckon on God. To use a vulgarism which +is stripped of its vulgarity if employed reverently, as I would do +it--we know where to have Him. He has given us the elements to calculate +His orbit; and we are sure that the calculation will come right. So, +because the name flashes upon men the thought of an absolute Being, +eternal, and all-sufficient, and self-modified, and changeless, and +because it reveals to us the very inmost heart of the mystery, and makes +it possible for us to forecast the movements of this great Sun of our +heavens, therefore in the name '_Jab Jehovah_ is the Bock of Ages.' + +The metaphor needs no expansion. We understand that it conveys the idea +of unchangeable defence. As the cliffs tower above the river that swirls +at their base, and takes centuries to eat the faintest line upon their +shining surface, so the changeless God rises above the stream of time, +of which the brief breakers are human lives, 'sparkling, bursting, borne +away.' They who fasten themselves to that Rock are safe in its +unchangeable strength, God the Unchangeable is the amulet against any +change, that is not growth, in the lives of those who trust Him. Some of +us may recall some great precipice rising above the foliage, which +stands to-day as it did when we were boys, unwasted in its silent +strength, while generations of leaves have opened and withered at its +base, and we have passed from childhood to age. Thus, unaffected by the +transiency that changes all beneath, God rises, the Bock of Ages in whom +we may trust. 'The conies are a feeble folk, but they make their houses +in the rocks.' So our weakness may house itself there and be at rest. + +IV. Lastly, note the summons to trust. + +We know not whose voice it is that is heard in the last words of my +text, but we know to whose ears it is addressed. It is to all. 'Trust ye +in the Lord for ever.' + +Surely, surely the blessed effects of trust, of which we have been +speaking, have a voice of merciful invitation summoning us to exercise +it. The promise of peace appeals to the deepest, though often neglected +and misunderstood, longings of the human heart. Inly we sigh for that +repose.' O dear brethren, if it is true that into our agitated and +struggling lives there may steal, and in them there may abide, this +priceless blessing of a great tranquillity, surely nothing else should +be needed to woo us to accept the conditions and put forth the trust. It +is strange that we should turn away, as we are all tempted to do, from +that rest in God, and try to find repose in what was only meant for +stimulus, and is altogether incapable of imparting rest. Storms live in +the lower regions of the atmosphere; get up higher and there is peace. +Waves dash and break on the surface region of the ocean; get down +deeper, nearer the heart of things, and again there is peace. + +Surely the name of the Bock of Ages is an invitation to us to put our +trust in Him. If a man knew God as He is, he could not choose but trust +Him. It is because we have blackened His face with our own doubts, and +darkened His character with the mists that rise from our own sinful +hearts, that we have made that bright Sun in the heavens, which ought to +fall upon our hearts with healing in its beams, into a lurid ball of +fire that shines threatening through the dim obscurity of our misty +hearts. But if we knew Him we should love Him, and if we would only +listen to His own self-revelation, we should find that He draws us to +Himself by the manifestation of Himself, as the sun binds all the +planets to his mass and his flame by the eradiation of his own mystic +energies. + +The summons is a summons to a faith corresponding to that upon which it +is built. 'Trust ye in the Lora for ever, for in the Lord is the +strength that endures for ever.' Our continual faith is the only fit +response to His unchanging faithfulness. Build rock upon rock. + +The summons is a summons addressed to us all. 'Trust ye'--whoever ye +are--'in the Lord for ever.' You and I, dear friends, hear the summons +in a yet more beseeching and tender voice than was audible to the +prophet, for our faith has a nobler object, and may have a mightier +operation, seeing that its object is 'the Lamb of God that taketh away +the sin of the world'; and its operation, to bring to us peace with God +through our Lord Jesus Christ. When from the Cross there comes to all +our hearts the merciful invitation, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, +and thou shalt be saved,' why should not we each answer, + + 'Rock of Ages, cleft for me, + Let me hide myself in Thee'? + + + + +THE GRASP THAT BRINGS PEACE + +'Let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; yea, +let him make peace with Me.'--ISAIAH xxvii. 5. + + +Lyrical emotion makes the prophet's language obscure by reason of its +swift transitions from one mood of feeling to another. But the main +drift here is discernible. God is guarding Israel, His vineyard, and +before Him its foes are weak as 'thorns and briers,' whose end is to be +burned. With daring anthropomorphism, the prophet puts into God's mouth +a longing for the enemies to measure their strength against His, a +warrior's eagerness for the fight. But at once this martial tone gives +place to the tender invitation of the text, and the infinite divine +willingness to be reconciled to the enemy speaks wooingly and offers +conditions of peace. All this has universal application to our relations +to God. + +I. The Hostility. + +That our relations with God are 'strained,' and that men are 'enemies of +God,' is often repelled as exaggeration, if not as directly false. And, +no doubt, the Scripture representation has often been so handled as to +become caricature rather than portraiture. Scripture does not deny the +lingering presence in men of goodness, partial and defective, nor does +it assert that conscious antagonism to God is active in godless men. But +it does assert that 'God is not in all their thoughts,' and that their +wills are 'not subject to the law of God.' And in such a case as man's +relations to God, indifference and forgetfulness cannot but rest upon +divergence of will and contrast of character. Why do men 'not like to +retain God in their knowledge, 'but because they feel that the thought +of Him would spoil the feast, like the skeleton in the banqueting +chamber? Beneath the apparent indifference lie opposition of will, +meeting God's 'Thou shalt' with man's 'I will not'; opposition of moral +nature, impurity shrinking from perfect purity; opposition of affection, +the warmth of human love being diverted to other objects than God. + +II. The entreating Love that is not turned aside by hostility. + +The antagonism is wholly on man's part. + +True, man's opposition necessarily turns certain sides of the divine +character to present a hostile front to him. Not only God's physical +attributes, if we may so call them, but the moral attributes which guide +the energies of these, namely, His holiness and His righteousness, and +the acts of His sovereignty which flow from these, must be in opposition +to the man who has set himself in opposition to God. 'The face of the +Lord is against them that do evil.' If it were not, He would not be God. + +But still, God's love enfolds all men in its close and tender clasp. As +the context says, in close connection with the threat to burn the briers +and thorns, 'Fury is not in Me.' Man's hostility does not rouse God's. +He wars against the sin because He still loves the sinner. His love +'must come with a rod,' but, at the same time, it comes 'with the spirit +of meekness.' It gives its enemy all that it can; but it cannot give all +that it would. + +He stoops to sue for our amity. It is the creditor who exhausts +beseechings on His debtor, so much does He wish to 'agree with His +adversary quickly.' The tender pleading of the Apostle was but a faint +echo of the marvellous condescension of God, when he, 'in God's stead, +besought: 'Be ye reconciled to God.' + +III. The grasp which ends alienation. + +The word for 'strength' here means a stronghold or fortified place, +which serves as an asylum or refuge. There may be some mingling of an +allusion to the fugitive's taking hold of the horns of the altar, and so +being safe from the vengeance of his pursuers. If we may take this +double metaphor as implied in the text, it vividly illustrates the +essence of the faith which brings us into peace with God. That faith is +the flight of the soul to God, and, in another aspect, it is the +clinging of the soul to Him. How much more these two metaphors tell of +the real nature of faith than many a theological treatise! They speak of +the urgency of the peril from which it seeks deliverance. A fugitive +with the hot breath of the avenger of blood panting behind him, and +almost feeling the spear-point in his back, would not let the grass grow +under his feet. They speak of the energetic clutch of faith, as that of +the man gripping the horns of the altar. They suggest that faith is +something much more vital than intellectual assent or credence, namely, +an act of the whole man realising his need and casting himself on God. + +And they set in clear light what is the connection between faith and +salvation. It is not the hand that grasps the altar that secures safety, +but the altar itself. It is not the flight to the fortress, but the +massive walls themselves, which keeps those who hunt after the fugitive +at bay. It is not my faith, but the God on whom my faith fastens, that +brings peace to my conscience. + +IV. The peace that this grasp brings. + +In Christ God has 'put away all His wrath, and turned Himself from the +fierceness of His anger.' And He was in Christ, reconciling the world to +Himself. It is a one-sided warfare that men wage with Him, and when we +abandon our opposition to Him, the war is ended. We might say that God, +clasped by faith and trusted in and loved, is the asylum from God +opposed and feared. His moral nature must be against evil, but faith +unites us to Jesus, and, by union with Him, we receive the germ of a +nature which has no affinity with evil, and which God wholly delights in +and loves. To those who live by the life, and growingly bear the image +of His Son, the divine Nature turns a face all bright and favouring, and +His moral and physical attributes are all enlisted on their side. The +fortress looks grim to outsiders gazing up at its strong walls and +frowning battlements, but to dwellers within, these give security, and +in its inmost centre is a garden, with flowers and a springing fountain, +whither the noise of fighting never penetrates. We have but to cease to +be against Him, and to grasp the facts of His love as revealed in the +Cross of Christ, the sacrifice who taketh away the sin of the world, and +we are at peace with God. Being at peace with Him, the discords of our +natures warring against themselves are attuned into harmony, and we are +at peace within. And when God and we are at one, and we are at one with +ourselves, then all things will be on our side, and will work together +for good. To such a man the ancient promise will be fulfilled: 'Thou +shalt be in league with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the +field shall be at peace with thee.' + + + + +THE JUDGMENT OF DRUNKARDS AND MOCKERS + +'Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious +beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of +them that are overcome with wine! 2. Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and +strong one, which, as a tempest of hail, and a destroying storm, as a +flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with +the hand. 3. The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be +trodden under feet: 4. And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of +the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before +the summer; which when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in +his hand he eateth it up. 5. In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for +a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of His +people. 6. And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, +and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate. 7. But they +also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the +way: the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they +are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; +they err in vision, they stumble in judgment. 8. For all tables are full +of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean. 9. Whom shall +He teach knowledge? and whom shall He make to understand doctrine? them +that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. 10. For +precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line +upon line; here a little, and there a little: 11. For with stammering +lips, and another tongue, will He speak to this people. 12. To whom He +said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and +this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear. 13. But the word of the +Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon +line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might +go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.'--ISAIAH +xxviii. 1-13. + + +This prophecy probably falls in the first years of Hezekiah, when +Samaria still stood, and the storm of war was gathering black in the +north. The portion included in the text predicts the fall of Samaria +(verses 1-6) and then turns to Judah, which is guilty of the same sins +as the northern capital, and adds to them mockery of the prophet's +message. Isaiah speaks with fiery indignation and sharp sarcasm. His +words are aflame with loathing of the moral corruption of both kingdoms, +and he fastens on the one common vice of drunkenness--not as if it were +the only sin, but because it shows in the grossest form the rottenness +underlying the apparent beauty. + +I. The woe on Samaria (verses 1-6). Travellers are unanimous in their +raptures over the fertility and beauty of the valley in which Samaria +stood, perched on its sunny, fruitful hill, amid its vineyards. The +situation of the city naturally suggests the figure which regards it as +a sparkling coronet or flowery wreath, twined round the brows of the +hill; and that poetical metaphor is the more natural, since revellers +were wont to twist garlands in their hair, when they reclined at their +orgies. The city is 'the crown of pride'--that is, the object of +boasting and foolish confidence--and is also 'the fading flower of his +sparkling ornament'; that is, the flower which is the ornament of +Ephraim, but is destined to fade. + +The picture of the city passes into that of the drunken debauch, where +the chief men of Samaria sprawl, 'smitten down' by wine, and with the +innocent flowers on their hot temples drooping in the fumes of the +feast. But bright and sunny as the valley is, glittering in the light as +the city sits on her hill, careless and confident as the revellers are, +a black cloud lies on the horizon, and one of the terrible sudden storms +which such lands know comes driving up the valley. 'The Lord hath a +mighty and strong one'--the conqueror from the north, who is God's +instrument, though he knows it not. + +The swift, sudden, irresistible onslaught of the Assyrian is described, +in harmony with the figure of the flowery coronal, as a tempest which +beats down the flowers and flings the sodden crown to the ground. The +word rendered 'tempest' is graphic, meaning literally a 'downpour.' +First comes hail, which batters the flowers to shreds; then the effect +of the storm is described as 'destruction,' and then the hurrying words +turn back to paint the downpour of rain, 'mighty' from its force in +falling, and 'overflowing' from its abundance, which soon sets all the +fields swimming with flood water. What chance has a poor twist of +flowers in such a storm? Its beauty will be marred, and all the petals +beaten off, and nothing remains but that it should be trampled into mud. +The rush of the prophet's denunciation is swift and irresistible as the +assault it describes, and it flashes from one metaphor to another +without pause. The fertility of the valley of Samaria shapes the +figures. As the picture of the flowery chaplet, so that which follows of +the early fig, is full of local colour. A fig in June is a delicacy, +which is sure to be plucked and eaten as soon as seen. Such a dainty, +desirable morsel will Samaria be, as sweet and as little satisfying to +the all-devouring hunger of the Assyrian. + +But storms sweep the air clear, and everything will not go down before +this one. The flower fadeth, but there is a chaplet of beauty which men +may wreathe round their heads, which shall bloom for ever. All sensuous +enjoyment has its limits in time, as well as in nobleness and +exquisiteness; but when it is all done with, the beauty and festal +ornament which truly crowns humanity shall smell sweet and blossom. The +prophecy had regard simply to the issue of the historical disaster to +which it pointed, and it meant that, after the storm of Assyrian +conquest, there would still be, for the servants of God, the residue of +the people, both in Israel and in Judah, a fuller possession of the +blessings which descend on the men who make God their portion. But the +principle involved is for ever true. The sweeping away of the perishable +does draw true hearts nearer to God. + +So the two halves of this prophecy give us eternal truths as to the +certain destruction awaiting the joys of sense, and the permanence of +the beauty and strength which belong to those who take God for their +portion. + +Drunkenness seems to have been a national sin in Israel; for Micah +rebukes it as vehemently as Isaiah, and it is a clear bit of Christian +duty in England to-day to 'set the trumpet to thy mouth and show the +people' this sin. But the lessons of the prophecy are wider than the +specific form of evil denounced. All setting of affection and seeking of +satisfaction in that which, in all the pride of its beauty, is 'a fading +flower,' is madness and sin. Into every life thus turned to the +perishable will come the crash of the destroying storm, the mutterings +of which might reach the ears of the feasters, if they were not drunk +with the fumes of their deceiving delights. Only one kind of life has +its roots in that which abides, and is safe from tempest and change. +Amaranthine flowers bloom only in heaven, and must be brought thence, if +they are to garland earthly foreheads. If we take God for ours, then +whatever tempests may howl, and whatever fragile though fragrant joys +may be swept away, we shall find in Him all that the world 'fails to +give to its votaries. He is 'a crown of glory' and 'a diadem of beauty.' +Our humanity is never so fair as when it is made beautiful by the +possession of Him. All that sense vainly seeks in earth, faith finds in +God. Not only beauty, but 'a spirit of judgment,' in its narrower sense +and in its widest, is breathed into those to whom God is 'the master +light of all their seeing'; and, yet more, He is strength to all who +have to fight. Thus the close union of trustful souls with God, the +actual inspiration of these, and the perfecting of their nature from +communion with God, are taught us in the great words, which tell how +beauty, justice, and strength are all given in the gift of Jehovah +Himself to His people. + +II. The prophet turns to Judah (vs. 7-13), and charges them with the +same disgusting debauchery. His language is vehement in its loathing, +and describes the filthy orgies of those who should have been the guides +of the people with almost painful realism. Note how the words 'reel' and +'stagger' are repeated, and also the words 'wine' and 'strong drink.' We +see the priests' and prophets' unsteady gait, and then they 'stumble' or +fall. There they lie amid the filth, like hogs in a sty. It is very +coarse language, but fine words are the Devil's veils for coarse sins; +and it is needful sometimes to call spades spades, and not to be ashamed +to tell men plainly how ugly are the vices which they are not ashamed to +commit. No doubt some of the drunken priests and false prophets in +Jerusalem thought Isaiah extremely vulgar and indelicate, in talking +about staggering teachers and tables swimming in 'vomit.' But he had to +speak out. So deep was the corruption that the officials were tipsy even +when engaged in their official duties, the prophets reeled while they +were seeing visions; the judges could not sit upright even when +pronouncing judgment. + +Verses 9 and 10 are generally taken as a sarcastic quotation of the +drunkards' scoffs at the prophet. They might be put in inverted commas. +Their meaning is, 'Does he take us grave and reverend seigniors, priests +and prophets, to be babies just weaned, that he pesters us with these +monotonous petty preachings, fit only for the nursery, which he calls +his "message"?' In verse 10, the original for 'precept upon precept,' +etc., is a series of short words, which may be taken as reproducing the +'babbling tones of the drunken mockers.' + +The loose livers of all generations talk in the same fashion about the +stern morality which rebukes their vice. They call it weak, commonplace, +fit for children, and they pretend that they despise it. They are much +too enlightened for such antiquated teaching. Old women and children may +take it in, but men of the world, who have seen life, and know what is +what, are not to be fooled so. 'What will this babbler say?' was asked +by the wise men of Athens, who were but repeating the scoffs of the +prophets and priests of Jerusalem, and the same jeers are bitter in the +mouth of many a profligate man to-day. It is the fate of all strict +morality to be accounted childish by the people whom it inconveniently +condemns. + +In verse 11 and onwards the prophet speaks. He catches up the mockers' +words, and retorts them. They have scoffed at his message as if it were +stammering speech. They shall hear another kind of stammerers when the +fierce invaders' harsh and unintelligible language commands them. The +reason why these foreign voices would have authority, was the national +disregard of God's voice. 'Ye would not hear' Him when, by His prophet, +He spoke gracious invitations to rest, and to give the nation rest, in +obedience and trust. Therefore they shall hear the battle-cry of the +conqueror, and have to obey orders spoken in a barbarous tongue. + +Of course, the language meant is the Assyrian, which, though cognate +with Hebrew, is so unlike as to be unintelligible to the people. But is +not the threat the statement of a great truth always being fulfilled +towards the disobedient? If we will not listen to that loving Voice +which calls us to rest, we shall be forced to listen to the harsh and +strident tones of conquering enemies who command us to slavish toil. If +we will not be guided by His eye and voice, we shall be governed by whip +and bridle. Our choice is either to hearken to the divine call, which is +loving and gentle, and invites to deep repose springing from faith, or +to have to hear the voice of the taskmasters. The monotony of despised +moral and religious teaching shall give place to a more terrible +monotony, even that of continuous judgments. + +'The mills of God grind slowly.' Bit by bit, with gradual steps, with +dismal persistence, like the slow drops on the rock, the judgments of +God trickle out on the mocking heart. It takes a long time for a child +to learn a pageful when he gets his lesson a sentence at a time. So +slowly do His chastisements fall on men who have despised the continuous +messages of His love. The word of the Lord, which was laughed at when it +clothed itself in a prophet's speech, will be heard in more formidable +shape, when it is wrapped in the long-drawn-out miseries of years of +bondage. The warning is as needful for us as for these drunken priests +and scornful rulers. The principle embodied is true in this day as it +was then, and we too have to choose between serving God in gladness, +hearkening to the voice of His word, and so finding rest to our souls, +and serving the world, the flesh, and the devil, and so experiencing the +perpetual dropping of the fiery rain of His judgments. + + + + +A CROWN OP PRIDE OR A CROWN OF GLORY + +'The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under +feet; 4. And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat +valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the +summer; which when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his +hand he eateth it up. 5. In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a +crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his +people.'--ISAIAH xxviii. 3-5. + + +The reference is probably to Samaria as a chief city of Israel. The +image is suggested by the situation of Samaria, high on a hill-side, +crowning the valley, and by the rich vegetation and bright flowers which +makes it even now one of the few lovely scenes in Palestine; and by the +luxurious riot and sensual excess that were always characteristic of the +northern kingdom. + +The destruction of Samaria and of the kingdom, then, is here +prophesied--the garland will fade, the hail will batter all its drooping +flowerets, and it shall be trodden under foot. Look at that withered +wreath that gleamed yesterday on some fair head, to-day flung into the +ashpit or kicked about the street. That is a modern rendering of the +prophet's imagery. But the reference goes further than merely to the +city: the whole state of the nation is expressed by the symbol, as +doomed to quick decay, fading in itself, and further smitten down by +divine judgments. + +There is a contrasted picture, that of 'the residue of the people' to +whom there is an amaranthine crown, a festal diadem glorious and +beautiful, which can never fade, even God Himself. To them who love Him +He is an ornament, and His presence is the consecration of the true +joyful feast. They who are crowned by Him are crowned, not for idle +revelry, but for strenuous toil ('sit in judgment') and for brave +purpose ('turn the battle to the gate,') and their coronation day is +ever the day when earthly garlands are withered, whether it be the +crises and convulsions of nations and institutions, or times of personal +trial, or 'in the hour of death or in the day of judgment.' + +Expanding then these thoughts, we have-- + +I. All godless joys are but fading chaplets. + +Of course the first application of such words is to purely sensuous +delights. + +Men who seek to make life a mere revel and banquet. + +Nothing is so short-lived as gratification of appetite. It is not merely +that each act lasts but for a moment, but also that past gratifications +leave no sort of solace to the appetite behind them; whereas past +acquirements or deeds of goodness are a perpetual joy as well as the +foundation of the present. There is something essentially isolated in +each act of sensuous delight. No man can by so willing recall the taste +of eaten food, nor slake his thirst by remembrance of former draughts, +or cool himself by thinking of 'frosty Caucasus.' But each such +gratification is done when it is done, and there is an end of its power +to gratify. + +Further, the power of enjoyment wanes, though the lust for it waxes. +Hence each act has less and less power of satisfying. + +One sees _blase_ young men of twenty-five. It was a man of under +thirty-five who wrote, 'Man delights not me, no, nor woman neither.' It +was a used-up _roue_ that was represented as saying, 'Vanity of +vanities, all is vanity.' It was of sensuous 'pleasures' that poor Burns +wrote,-- + + 'Like the snowfall in the river, + A moment white,--then melts for ever.' + +When a people is given over to such excess, late or soon the fate of +Samaria comes upon them. Think of the French Revolution or of the fall +of Rome, and learn that the prophet was announcing a law for all +nations, in his fiery denunciation, and one which holds good to-day as +ever. + +But we may generalise more widely. Every godless life is essentially +transitory; of course, all life is so in one view. But suppose two men, +working side by side at the same occupation, passing through the same +circumstances. So far as physical changes go, these men are the same. +Both lose much. Both leave behind much. Both cease to be interested in +much that was dear to them. Both die at last, and leave it all. Is there +any difference? The transitoriness is the same, and the eternal +consequences are eternal alike in both; and yet there is a very solemn +sense in which the one man's life has utterly perished, and the other's +abides. Suppose a man, educated to be a first-rate man of business, +dies. Which of his trained faculties will he have scope for in that new +order of things? Or a student, or a lawyer, or a statesman? + +Oh, it is not our natural mortality that makes these thoughts so awful; +but it is the thought that the man who is doing these things is +immortal. The head which wears the fading wreath will live for ever. +'What will ye do in the end?' + +II. Godly life brings unfading joys. + +Communion with God yields abiding joys. The law of change remains the +same. The law of death remains the same. But the motives which direct +and impel the godly man are beyond the reach of change. + +The habits which he contracts are for heaven as well as for earth. The +treasures which he amasses will always be his. + +His life in its essence and his work are one in all worlds. What a grand +continuity, then, knits into one a godly life whether it is lived on +earth or in heaven! + +Communion with God gives beauty and ornament to the whole character. It +brings the true refining and perfecting of the soul. No doubt many +Christian men, as we see them, are but poor specimens of this effect of +godliness; still, it is an effect produced in proportion to the depth +and continuity of their communion. We might dwell on the effect on Will, +Affections, Understanding, produced by dwelling in God. It is simple +fact that the highest conceivable type of beauty is only reached through +communion with God. + +Communion with God gives power as well as gladness. The life of abiding +with God is also one of strenuous effort and real warfare. In the +context it is promised that God will be for strength to them that turn +the battle to the gate. + +The luxurious life of self-indulgence ends, as all selfish life must do, +in the vanishing of delights. The life of joy in God issues, as all true +joy does, in power for work and in power for conflict. + +'God doth anoint thee with His odorous oil, to wrestle, not to reign.' + +III. There will be a coronation day. + +'In that day,' the day when 'the crown of pride shall be trodden under +foot,' the people of God are crowned with the diadem of beauty which is +God Himself. That twofold work of that one day suggests-- + +The double aspect of trials and sorrows. + +The double aspect of death. + +The double aspect of final Judgment. + +'Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the +Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day.' + +To be crowned or discrowned 'in that day' is the alternative set before +each of us. Which of the two do we choose? + + + + +MAN'S CROWN AND GOD'S + +'In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a +diadem of beauty.'--ISAIAH xxviii. 5. + +'Thou shall also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord.'--ISAIAH +lxii 3. + + +Connection of first prophecy--destruction of Samaria. Its situation, +crowning the hill with its walls and towers, its fertile 'fat valley,' +the flagrant immorality and drunkenness of its inhabitants, and its +final ruin, are all presented in the highly imaginative picture of its +fall as being like the trampling under foot of a garland on a reveller's +head, the roses of which fade and droop amid the fumes of the banqueting +hall, and are then flung out on the highway. The contrast presented is +very striking and beautiful. When all that gross and tumultuous beauty +has faded and died, then God Himself will be a crown of beauty to His +people. + +The second text comes into remarkable line with this. The verbal +resemblance is not quite so strong in the original. The words for +_diadem_ and _crown_ are not the same; the word rendered _glory_ in the +second text is rendered _beauty_ in the first, but the two texts are +entirely one in meaning. The same metaphor, then, is used with reference +to what God is to the Church and what the Church is to God. He is its +crown, it is His. + +I. The Possession of God is the Coronation of Man. + +(a) Crowns were worn by guests at feasts. They who possess God sit at a +table perpetually spread with all which the soul can wish or want. +Contrast the perishable delights of sense and godless life with the calm +and immortal joys of communion with God; 'a crown that fadeth not away' +beside withered garlands. + +(b) Crowns were worn by kings. They who serve God are thereby invested +with rule over selves, over circumstances, over all externals. He alone +gives completeness to self-control. + +(c) Crowns were worn by priests. The highest honour and dignity of man's +nature is thereby reached. To have God is like a beam of sunshine on a +garden, which brings out the colours of all the flowers; contrast with +the same garden in the grey monotony of a cloudy twilight. + +II. The Coronation of Man in God is the Coronation of God in Man. + +That includes the following thoughts. + +The true glory of God is in the communication of Himself. What a +wonderful light that throws on divine character! It is equivalent to +'God is Love.' + +He who is glorified by God glorifies God, as showing the most wonderful +working of His power in making such a man out of such material, by an +alchemy that can convert base metal into fine gold; as showing the most +wonderful condescension of His love in taking to His heart man, into +whose flesh the rotting leprosy of sin has eaten. + +Such a man will glorify God by becoming a conscious herald of His +praise. He who has God in his heart will magnify Him by lip and life. +Redeemed men are 'secretaries of His praise' to men, and 'to +principalities and powers in heavenly places is made known by the Church +the manifold wisdom of God.' + +He who thus glorifies God is held in God's hand. + +'None shall pluck them out of My Father's hand.' + +All this will be perfected in heaven. Redeemed men lead the universal +chorus that thunders forth 'glory to Him that sitteth on the throne.' + +'He shall come to be glorified in His saints.' + +'Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee.' + + + + +THE FOUNDATION OF GOD + +'Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a +foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure +foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.'--ISAIAH xxviii. 16. + + +'Therefore thus saith the Lord.' Then these great words are God's answer +to something. And that something is the scornful defiance by the rulers +of Israel of the prophet's threatenings. By their deeds, whether by +their words or no, they said that they had made friends of their +enemies, and that so they were sure that, whatsoever came, they were +safe. To this contemptuous and false reliance God answers, not as we +might expect, first of all, by a repetition of the threatenings, but by +a majestic disclosure of the sure refuge which He has provided, set in +contrast to the flimsy and false ones, on which these men built their +truculent confidence; 'I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone.' And +then, after the exhibition of the great mercy which has been evoked by +the very blasphemy of the rulers, and not till then, does He reiterate +the threatenings of judgment, against which this foundation is laid, +that men may escape; God first declares the refuge, and then warns of +the tempest. + +Without entering at all upon the question, which for all believing and +simple souls is settled by the New Testament, of the Messianic +application of the words before us, I take it for granted. There may no +doubt be an allusion here to the great solid blocks which travellers +tell us may still be seen at the base of the encircling walls of the +Temple hill. A stone so gigantic and so firm God has laid for man to +build upon. + +I. Note, then, first, the foundation, which is Christ. + +There are many aspects of the great thought on which I cannot touch even +for a moment. For instance, let me remind you how, in a very deep sense, +Jesus Christ is the foundation of the whole of the divine dealings with +us; and how, in another aspect, historically, since the day on which He +appeared on earth, He has more and more manifestly and completely been +the foundation of the whole history of the world. But passing these +aspects, let us rather fix upon those which are more immediately in the +prophet's mind. + +Jesus Christ is the foundation laid for all men's security against every +tempest or assault. The context has portrayed the coming of a tremendous +storm and inundation, in view of which this foundation is laid. The +building reared on it then is, therefore, to be a refuge and an asylum. +Have not we all of us, like these scornful men in Jerusalem, built our +refuges on vain hopes, on creatural affections, on earthly possessions, +on this, that, and the other false thing, all of which are to be swept +away when the storm comes? And does there not come upon us all the blast +of the ordinary calamities to which flesh is heir, and have we not all +more or less consciousness of our own evil and sinfulness; and does +there not lie before every one of us at the end of life that solemn last +struggle, and beyond that, as we most of us believe, a judgment for all +that we have done in the body? 'I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone.' +Build upon that, and neither the tempest of earthly calamities, changes, +disappointments, sorrows, losses, nor the scourge that is wielded +because of our sins, nor the last wild tempest that sweeps a man on the +wings of its strong blast from out of life into the dark region, nor the +solemn final retribution and judgment, shall ever touch us. And when the +hail sweeps away the refuge of lies, and the waters overflow the +hiding-place, this foundation stands sure-- + + And lo! from sin and grief and shame + I hide me, Jesus, in Thy name. + +Brethren, the one foundation on which building, we can build secure, and +safe as well as secure, is that foundation which is laid in the +incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension of the Son of God. The +foundation of all our security is Jesus Christ. + +We may look at the same thought under somewhat different aspects. He is +the foundation for all our thinking and opinions, for all our belief and +our knowledge. 'In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and +knowledge,' and whatsoever of solid fact men can grasp in their +thinkings in regard to all the most important facts and truths with +which they come into relation, is to be found in the life and death of +Jesus Christ, and in the truths which these reveal. He is the foundation +of all our knowledge of God, and of all our true knowledge of ourselves, +of all our true knowledge of duty, and all our true knowledge of the +relations between the present and the future, between man and God. + +And in His life, in the history of His death and resurrection, is the +only foundation for any real knowledge of the awful mysteries that lie +beyond the grave. He is the Alpha from whom all truth must be deduced, +the Omega to which it all leads up. Certitude is in Him. Apart from Him +we are but groping amid peradventures. If we _know_ anything about God +it is due to Jesus Christ. If we _know_ anything about ourselves it is +due to Him. If we _know_ anything about what men ought to do, it is +because He has done all human duty. And if, into the mist and darkness +that wraps the future, there has ever travelled one clear beam of +insight, it is because He has died and risen again. If we have Him, and +ponder upon the principles that are involved in, and flow from, the +facts of His life and death, then we know; and 'the truth as it is in +Jesus' is the truth indeed. To possess Him is to hold the key to all +mysteries, and knowledge without Him is but knowledge of the husk, the +kernel being all unreached. That Stone is the foundation on which the +whole stately fabric of man's knowledge of the highest things must ever +be reared. + +He is the foundation of all restful love. A Czar of Russia, in the old +days, was mad enough to build a great palace upon the ice-blocks of the +Neva. And when the spring came, and the foundations melted, the house, +full of delights and luxury, sank beneath the river. We build upon +frozen water, and when the thaw comes, what we build sinks and is lost +to sight. Instead of love that twines round the creature and trails, +bleeding and bruised, along the ground when the prop is taken away, let +us turn our hearts to the warm, close, pure, perfect changeless love of +the undying Christ, and we shall build above the fear of change. The +dove's nest in the pine-tree falls in ruin when the axe is laid to the +root. Let us build our nests in the clefts of the rock and no hand will +ever reach them. Christ is the foundation on which we may build an +immortal love. + +He is the foundation for all noble and pure living. He is the fixed +pattern to which it may be conformed. Otherwise man's notions of what is +virtuous and good are much at the mercy of conventional variations of +opinion. This class, that community, this generation, that school, all +differ in their notions of what is true nobleness and goodness of life. +And we are left at the mercy of fluctuating standards unless we take +Christ in His recorded life as the one realised ideal of manhood, the +pattern of what we ought to be. We cannot find a fixed and available +model for conduct anywhere so useful, so complete, so capable of +application to all varieties of human life and disposition as we find in +Him, who was not this man or that man, in whom the manly and the +feminine, the gentle and the strong, the public and the private graces +were equally developed. In Christ there is no limitation or taint. In +Christ there is nothing narrow or belonging to a school. This water has +no taste of any of the rocks through which it flowed. You cannot say of +Jesus Christ that He is a Jew or a Gentile, that He is man or woman, +that He is of the ancient age or the modern type, that He is cut after +this pattern or that. All beauty and all grace are in Him, and every man +finds there the example that he needs. So, as the perfect pattern, He is +the foundation for all noble character. + +As the one sufficient motive for holy and beauteous living, He is the +foundation. 'If ye love Me, keep My commandments.' That is a new thing +in the world's morality, and that one motive, and that motive alone, has +power, as the spring sunshine has, to draw beauty from out the little +sheaths of green, and to tempt the radiance of the flowers to unfold +their lustre. They that find the reason and the motive for goodness and +purity in Christ's love to them, and their answering love to Christ, +will build a far fairer fabric of a life than any others, let them toil +at the building as they may. So, dear brethren, on this foundation God +has built His mercy to all generations, and on this foundation you and I +may build our safety, our love, our thinkings, our obedience, and rest +secure. + +II. Note next the tried preciousness of the foundation. + +The language of the text, 'a stone of proof,' as it reads in the +original, probably means a stone which has been tested and stood the +trial. And because it is thus a tested stone, it therefore is a precious +stone. There are two kinds of testing--the testing from the assaults of +enemies, and the testing by the building upon it of friends. And both +these methods of proof have been applied, and it has stood the test. + +Think of all the assaults that have been made from this side and the +other against Christ and His gospel, and what has become of them all? +Travellers tell us how they often see some wandering tribes of savage +Arabs trying to move the great stones, for instance, of Baalbec--those +wonders of unfinished architecture. But what can a crowd of such people, +with all their crowbars and levers, do to the great stone bedded there, +where it has been for centuries? They cannot stir it one hair's-breadth. +And so, against Jesus Christ and His gospel there has stormed for +eighteen hundred years an assaulting crowd, varying in its individuals +and in its methods of attack, but the same in its purpose, and the same +in the fruitlessness of its effort. Century after century they have +said, as they are saying to-day, '_Now_ the final assault is going to be +delivered; it can never stand _this_.' And when the smoke has cleared +away there may be a little blackening upon the edge, but there is not a +chip off its bulk, and it stands in its bed where it did; and of all the +grand preparations for a shattering explosion, nothing is left but a +sulphurous smell, and a wreath of smoke, and both are floating away down +into the distance. Generation after generation has attacked the gospel; +generation after generation has been foiled; and I do not need to be a +prophet, or the son of a prophet, to be quite sure of this, that all who +to-day are trying to destroy men's faith in the Incarnate Son of God, +who died for them and rose again, will meet the same fate. I can see the +ancient and discredited systems of unbelief, that have gone down into +oblivion, rising from their seats, as the prophet in his great vision +saw the kings of the earth, to greet the last comer who had fought +against God and failed, with 'Art thou also become weak as we? Art thou +become like unto us?' The stone will stand, whosoever tries to blow it +up with his dynamite, or to pound it with his hammers. + +But there is the other kind of testing. One proves the foundation by +building upon it. If the stone be soft, if it be slender, if it be +imperfectly bedded, it will crumble, it will shift, it will sink. But +this stone has borne all the weight that the world has laid upon it, and +borne it up. Did any man ever come to Jesus Christ with a sorrow that He +could not comfort, with a sin that He could not forgive, with a soul +that He could not save? And we may trust Him to the end. He is a 'tried +stone.' 'This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out +of all his troubles,' has been the experience of nineteen centuries. + +So, being tried, it is precious,--precious to God who laid it there at a +great and real cost to Himself--having given up 'His only begotten Son'; +precious, inasmuch as building upon it is the one safety from the raging +tempest and flood that would else engulf and destroy us. + +III. Note, next, the process of building. + +The metaphor seems to be abandoned in the last words of our text, but it +is only apparently so. 'He that believeth shall not make haste.' So, +then, we build by believing. The act of building is simple faith in +Jesus Christ. We _come_ to Him, as the Apostle Peter has it in his +quotation of this text--come to Him as unto a living stone, and the +coming and the building are both of them metaphors for the one simple +thing, trust in the Lord. The bond that unites men on earth with Christ +in Heaven, is the exercise of simple faith in Him. By it they come into +contact with Him, and receive from Him the security and the blessing +that He can bestow. Nothing else brings a man into living fellowship +with Him. When we trust in the Lord we, as it were, are bedded into Him; +and resting upon Him with all our weight, then we are safe. That +confidence involves the abandonment of all the 'refuges of lies.' There +must be utter self-distrust and forsaking and turning away from every +dependence upon anything else, if we are to trust ourselves to Jesus +Christ. But the figure of a foundation which gives security and +stability to the stones laid upon it, does not exhaust all the +blessedness of this building upon Christ. For when we really rest upon +Him, there comes from the foundation up through all the courses a vital +power. Thus Peter puts it: 'To whom, coming as unto a living stone, ye +also as living stones are built up.' We might illustrate this by the +supposition of some fortress perched upon a rock, and in the heart of +the rock a clear fountain, which is guided by some pipe or other into +the innermost rooms of the citadel. Thus, builded upon Christ, 'our +defence shall be the munitions of rocks, and our waters shall be sure.' +From Him, the foundation, there will rise into all the stones, built +upon Him, the power of His own endless life, and they, too, become +living stones. + +IV. So note, lastly, the quiet confidence of the builders. + +'He that believeth shall not _make haste._' The word is somewhat +obscure, and the LXX., which is followed by the New Testament, readers +it, 'Shall not be confounded or put to shame.' But the rendering of our +text seems to be accurate enough. 'He shall not make haste.' Remember +the picture of the context--a suddenly descending storm, a swiftly +rising and turbid flood, the lashing of the rain, the howling of the +wind. The men in the clay-built hovels on the flat have to take to +flight to some higher ground above the reach of the innundation, on some +sheltered rock out of the flashing of the rain and the force of the +tempest. He who is built upon the true foundation knows that his house +is above the water-level, and he does not need to be in a hurry. He can +remain quietly there till the flood subsides, knowing that it will not +rise high enough to drown or even disturb him. When all the other +buildings are gone, his stands. And he that thus dwells on high may look +out over the wild flood, washing and weltering to the horizon, and feel +that he is safe. So shall he not have to make haste, but may wait calm +and quiet, knowing that all is well. + +Dear friends, there is only one refuge for any of us--only one from the +little annoyances and from the great ones; from to-day's petty troubles, +and from the day of judgment; from the slight stings, if I may so say, +of little sorrows, cares, burdens, and from the poisoned dart of the +great serpent. There is only one refuge for any of us, to build upon +Jesus Christ, as we can do by simple faith. + +And oh! remember, He must either be the foundation on which we build, or +the stone of stumbling against which we stumble, and which one day will +fall upon us and grind us to powder. Do you make your choice; and when +God says, as He says to each of us: 'Behold! I lay in Zion a +foundation,' do you say, 'And, Lord, I build upon the foundation which +Thou hast laid.' + + + + +GOD'S STRANGE WORK + +'That He may do His work, His strange work; and bring to pass His act, +His strange act.'--ISAIAH xxviii. 21. + + +How the great events of one generation fall dead to another! There is +something very pathetic in the oblivion that swallows up world- +resounding deeds. Here the prophet selects two instances which to him +are solemn and singular examples of divine judgment, and we have +difficulty in finding out to what he refers. To him they seemed the most +luminous illustrations he could find of the principle which he is +proclaiming, and to us all the light is burned out of them. They are the +darkest portion of the verse. Several different events have been +suggested. But most probably the historical references here are to +David's slaughter of the Philistines (2 Sam. v., and I Chron. xiv.). +This is probable, but by no means certain. If so, the words are made +still more threatening by asserting that He will treat the Israelites as +if they were Philistines. But the point on which we should concentrate +attention is this remarkable expression, according to which judgment is +God's strange work. And that is made more emphatic by the use of a word +translated 'act,' which means service, and is almost always used for +work that is hard and heavy--a toil or a task. + +I. The work in which God delights. + +It is here implied that the opposite kind of activity is congenial to +Him. The text declares judgment to be an anomaly, out of His ordinary +course of action and foreign to His nature. + +We may pause for a moment on that great thought that God has a usual +course of action, which is usual because it is the spontaneous +expression and true mirror of His character. What He thus does shows +that character to His creatures, who cannot see Him but in the glass of +His works, and have to infer His nature, as they best may, from His +works. The Bible begins with His nature and thence interprets His work. + +The work in which God delights is the utterance of His love in blessing. + +The very essence of love is self-manifestation. + +The very being of God is love, and all being delights in its own self- +manifestation, in its own activity. + +How great the thought is that He is glad when we let Him satisfy His +nature by making us glad! + +The ordinary course of His government in the world is blessing. + +II. The Task in which He does not delight, or His Strange Work. + +The consequences of sin are God's work. The miseries consequent on sin +are self-inflicted, but they are also God's judgments on sin. We may say +that sin automatically works out its results, but its results follow by +the will of God on account of sin. + +That work is a necessity arising from the nature of God. It is foreign +to His heart but not to His nature. God is both 'the light of Israel' +for blessing, and 'a consuming fire.' The two opposite effects are +equally the result of the contact of God and man. Light pains a diseased +eye and gladdens a sound one. The sun seen through a mist becomes like a +ball of red-hot iron. The whole revelation of God becomes a pain to an +unloving soul. + +But God's very love compels Him to punish. + +Some modern notions of the love of God seem to strike out righteousness +from His nature altogether, and substitute for it a mere good nature +which is weakness, not love, and is cruelty, not kindness. + +There is nothing in the facts of the world or in the teachings of the +gospel which countenances the notion of a God whose fondness prevents +Him from scourging. + +What do you call it when a father spares the rod and spoils the child? + +Even this world is a very serious place for a man who sets himself +against its laws. Its punishments come down surely and not always +slowly. There is nothing in it to encourage the idea of impunity. + +That work is to Him an Unwelcome Necessity. Bold words. 'I have no +pleasure in the death of a sinner.' 'He doth not willingly inflict.' The +awful power of sin to divert the current of blessing. Christ's tears +over Jerusalem. How unwelcome that work is to them is shown by the +slowness of His judgments, by multiplied warnings. 'Rising up early,' He +tells men that He will smite, in order that He may never need to smite. + +That work is a certainty. However reluctantly He smites, the blow _will_ +fall. + +III. The Strange Work of Redemption. + +The mightiest miracle. The revelation of God's deepest nature. The +wonder of the universe. + + + + +THE HUSBANDMAN AND HIS OPERATIONS + +'Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech. 24. Doth +the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his +ground! 25. When lie hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast +abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal +wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their place? 26. For his +God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him. 27. For the +fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart +wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with +a staff, and the cummin with a rod. 28. Bread corn is bruised; because +he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his +cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen. 29. This also cometh forth from +the Lord of Hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in +working.'--ISAIAH xxviii. 23-29. + + +The prophet has been foretelling a destruction which he calls God's +_strange_ act. The Jews were incredulous, 'scornful men.' They did not +believe him; and the main reason for their incredulity was that a divine +destruction of the nation was so opposite to the divine conservation of +it as to amount to an impossibility. God had raised up and watched over +the people. He had planted it in the mountain of His inheritance, and +now was it going to be thrown down by the same hand which had built it +up? Impossible. + +The prophet's answer to that question is this parable of the husbandman, +who has to perform a great variety of operations. He ploughs, but that +is not all. He lays aside the plough when it has done its work, and +takes up the seed-basket, and, in different ways, sows different seeds, +scattering some broadcast, and dropping others carefully, grain by +grain, into their place--'dibbling' it in, as we should say. But +seedtime too, passes, and then he cuts down what he had so carefully +sown, and pulls up what he had so sedulously planted, and, in different +ways, breaks and bruises the grain. Is he inconsistent because he +ploughs in winter and reaps in harvest? Does his carrying the +seed-basket at one time make it impossible that he shall come with flail +and threshing-oxen at another? Are not all the various operations +co-operant to one end? Does not the end need them all? Is not one +purpose going steadily forward through ploughing, sowing, reaping, +threshing? Is not that like the work of the great Husbandman, who +changes His methods and preserves His plan through them all, who has His +'time to sow' and His 'time to reap,' and who orders the affairs of men +and kingdoms, for the one purpose that He may gather His wheat into His +garner, and purge from it its chaff? + +This parable sets forth a philosophy of the divine operations very +beautiful and true, and none the less impressive for the simple garb in +which it is clothed. + +I. All things come from one steady, divine purpose. + +We may notice in passing how reverentially the prophet believes that +agriculture is taught by God. He would have said the same of cotton- +spinning or coal-mining. Think how striking a figure that is, of all the +world as God's farm, where He practises His husbandry to grow the crops +which He desires. + +What a picture the parable gives of sedulous and patient labour for a +far-off result! + +It insists on the thought of one steady divine purpose ever directing +the movements of the divine hand. + +That is the negation of the godless theory that the affairs of men are +merely the work of men, or are merely the result of impersonal causes. +The world is not a jungle where any or every plant springs of itself, +but it is cultivated ground which has an Owner who looks after it. + +It is the affirmation that God's action is regulated by a purpose which +is intelligent, unchanging, all-embracing to us because revealed. + +II. That steady purpose is man's highest good. + +The end of all the farmer's care is the ripening of the seed. God's +purpose is our moral, intellectual, and spiritual perfecting. + +Neither His own 'glory' nor man's 'happiness,' which are taken by +different schools of thought to be the divine aim in creation and +providence, is an object worthy of Him or adequate to explain the facts +of every man's experience, unless both are regarded as needing man's +perfecting, for their attainment. God's glory is to make men godlike. +Man's happiness cannot be secured without His holiness. + +God has larger and nobler designs for us than merely to make us happy. + +'This is the will of God concerning you, even your sanctification.' + +Nothing short of that end would be worthy of God, or would explain His +methods. + +III. That purpose needs great variety of processes. + +This is true about nations and about individuals. + +Different stages of growth need different treatment. + +The parable names three operations:-- + +Ploughing, which is preparation; + +Sowing, or casting in germinating principles; + +Threshing, which is effected by tribulation, a word which means driving +a 'tribulum' or threshing-sedge over ears of grain. + +So sorrow is indispensable for our perfecting. + +By it earthly affections are winnowed away, and our dependence on God +increased. A certain refinement of spirit results, like the pallor on +the face of a chronic invalid, which has a delicate beauty unattainted +by ruddy health. A capacity for sympathy, too, is often the result of +one's own trials. Rightly borne, they tend to bend or break the will, +and they teach how great it is to suffer and be strong. + +But sorrow is not enough; joy is indispensable too. The crop is threshed +in tribulation, but is grown mostly in sunshine. Calm, uneventful hours, +continuous possession of blessings, have a ministry not less than +afflictions have. The corn in the furrow, waving in the western wind, +and with golden sunlight among its golden stems, is preparing for the +loaf no less than when bound in bundles and lying on the +threshing-floor, or cut and bruised by sharp teeth of dray or heavy +hoofs of oxen, or blows of swinging flails. + +So do not suppose that sorrow is the only instrument for perfecting +character, and see that you do not miss the sanctifying and ripening +effect of your joyous hours. + +Again, different types of character require different modes of +treatment. In the parable, 'the fitches' are sown in one fashion, and +'the cummin' in another the 'wheat' and 'barley' in still another; and +similar variety marks the methods of separating the grain from the husk, +one kind of crop being threshed another having a wheel turned upon it. +Thus each of us gets the kind of joys and pains that will have most +effect on us. God knows where is the tenderest spot, and makes no +mistakes in His dealing. He sends us 'afflictions sorted, sorrows of all +sizes.' + +Let us see that we trust to His loving and wise adaptation of our trials +to our temperaments and needs. Let us see that we never let clouds +obscure the clearness of our perception, or, failing perception, the +serenity of our trust, that all things work together, and all work for +our highest good--our being made like our Lord. We should less often +complain of the mysteries of Providence if we had learned the meaning of +Isaiah's parable. + +IV. All the processes end in garnering the grain. + +There is a barn or storehouse for the ripened and threshed crops. The +farmer's toil and careful processes would be absurd and unintelligible +if, after them all, the crop, so sedulously ripened and cultivated and +cleansed, was left to rot where it fell. And no less certainly does the +discipline of this life cry aloud for heaven and a conscious personal +future life, if it is not to be all set down as grim irony or utterly +absurd. There must be a heaven if we are not to be put to intellectual +bewilderment. + +What was needed for growth here drops away there, as blossoms fall when +their work is done. Sunshine and rain are no more necessary when the +fields are cleared and the barn-yard is filled. Much in our nature, in +our earthly condition, in God's varying processes, will drop away. When +school-time is done the rod is burned. But nothing will perish that can +contribute to our perfecting. + +So let us ask Him to purge us with His fan in His hand now, lest we +should be found at last fruitless cumberers of the ground or chaff which +is rootless, and fit only to be swept out of the threshing-floor. + + + + +'QUIETNESS AND CONFIDENCE' + +'In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and confidence +shall be your strength.'--ISAIAH xxx. 15. + + +ISRAEL always felt the difficulty of sustaining itself on the height of +dependence on the unseen, spiritual power of God, and was ever +oscillating between alliances with the Northern and Southern powers, +linking itself with Assyria against Egypt, or with Egypt against +Assyria. The effect was that whichever was victorious it suffered; it +was the battleground for both, it was the prize of each in turn. The +prophet's warnings were political wisdom as truly as religious. + +Here Judah is exhorted to forsake the entangling dependence on Egypt, +and to trust wholly to God. They had gone away from Him in their fears. +They must come back by their faith. To them the great lesson was trust +in God. Through them to us the same lesson is read. The principle is far +wider than this one case. It is the one rule of life for us all. + +The two clauses of the text convey substantially the same idea. They are +in inverted parallelism. 'Returning and rest' correspond to 'quietness +and confidence,' so as that 'rest' answers to 'quietness' and +'returning' to 'confidence.' In the former clause we have the action +towards God and then its consequence. In the latter we have the +consequence and then the action. + +I. The returning. + +Men depart from God by speculative thought or by anxious care, or by +sin. + +To 'return' is just to trust. + +The parallel helps us here--'returning' is parallel with 'confidence.' +This confidence is to be exercised especially in relation to one's own +path in life and the outward trials and difficulties which we meet, but +its sphere extends far beyond these. It is a disposition of mind which +covers all things. The attitude of trust, the sense of dependence, the +assurance of God's help and love are in all life the secrets of peace +and power. + +Am I sinful? then trust. Am I bewildered and ignorant? then trust. Am I +anxious and harassed? then trust. + +Note the thought, that we come back to God by simple confidence, not by +preparing ourselves, not by our expiation, but only by trusting in Him. + +Of course the temptations to the opposite attitude are many and great. + +Note, too, that every want of confidence is a departure from God. We go +away from Him not only by open sin, not only by denial of Him, but by +forget-fulness, by want of faith. + +The _ground_ of this confidence is laid in our knowledge of Him, +especially in our knowledge of Jesus Christ. + +The _exercise_ of this confidence is treated as voluntary. Every man is +responsible for his faith. + +The _elements_ of this confidence are, as regards ourselves, our sense +of want in all its various aspects; and, as regards Him, our assurance +of His love, of His nearness to help. + +II. Confiding nearness to God brings quiet rest. + +'Rest' and 'being quiet' are treated here partly as consequences of +faith, partly as duties which we are bound to strive to achieve. + +1. See how confidence in God stills and quiets the soul. + +The very exercise of communion with Him brings peace and rest, inasmuch +as all things are then possessed which we can desire. There is a still +fruition which nothing can equal and nothing destroy. + +Trust in God brings rest from our own evil consciences. + +It brings rest from our own plans and purposes. + +Trust gives insight into the meaning of all this else unintelligible +world. + +It brings the calming and subduing of desires, which in their eagerness +torture, in their fruition trouble, and in their disappointment madden. + +It brings the gathering in of ourselves from all the disturbing +diffusion of ourselves through earthly trifles. + +2. Notice what this rest is not. + +It does not mean the absence of causes of disturbance. + +It does not mean the abnegation of forethought. + +It does not mean an indolent passiveness. + +3. Notice the duty of being thus quiet and resting. + +How much we fail in this respect. + +We have faith, but there seems some obstruction which stops it from +flowing refreshingly through our lives. + +We are bound to seek for its increased continuity and power in our +hearts and lives. + +III. Confidence and rest in God bring safety and strength. + +That is true in the lowest sense of 'saved,' and not less true in the +highest. The condition of all our salvation from temporal as well as +spiritual evils lies thus in the same thing--that we trust God. + +No harm comes to us when we trust, because then God is with us, and +works for us, and cares for us. So all departments of life are bound +together by the one law. Trust is the condition of being 'saved.' + +And not only so, but also trust is strength. God works _for_ us; yes, +but better than that, God works _in_ us and fits _us_ to work. + +What powers we might be in the world! Trust should make us strong. To +have confidence in God should bring us power to which all other power is +as nothing. He who can feel that his foot is on the rock, how firm he +should stand! + +Best gives strength. The rest of faith doubles our forces. To be freed +from anxious care makes a man much more likely to act vigorously and to +judge wisely. + +Stillness of soul, born of communion with God, makes us strong. + +Stillness of soul, born of deliverance from our fears, makes us strong. + +Here then is a golden chain--or shall we rather say a live wire?-- +whereof one end is bound to the Throne and the other encircles our poor +hearts. Trust, so shall we be at rest and safe. Being at rest and safe, +we shall be strong. If we link ourselves with God by faith, God will +flash into us His mysterious energy, and His strength will be made +perfect in our weakness. + + + + +GOD'S WAITING AND MAN'S + +'And therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you, and +therefore will He be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you: for the +Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are they that wait for Him.'--ISAIAH +xxx. 18. + + +God's waiting and man's--bold and beautiful, that He and we should be +represented as sharing the same attitude. + +I. God's waiting, + +1. The first thought is--why should He wait--why does He not act at +once? Because something in us hinders. We cannot enter into spiritual +blessings till we are made capable of them by faith. It would not be for +our good to receive some temporal blessings till sorrow has done its +work on us. The great thought here is that God has a right time for +help. He is 'a God of judgment,' _i.e._. discerns our moral condition +and shapes His dealings thereby. He never gives the wrong medicine. + +2. His waiting is full of work to fit us to receive His grace. It is not +a mere passive standing by, till the fit conditions are seen in us; but +He 'is exalted' while He waits, _i.e._. lifted up in the manifestation +of His might, and by His energy in preparing us for the gifts that He +has prepared for us. 'He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is +God.' He who prepares a place for us is preparing us for the place. He +who has grace which He is ready to give us here, is making us ready for +His grace. The meaning of all God's work on us is to form a character +fit to possess His highest gifts. + +3. His waiting is very patient. The divine husbandman 'waiteth for the +precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it.' How wonderful that +in a very real sense He attends on our pleasure, as it were, and lets us +determine His time to work. + +4. That waiting is full of divine desire to help. It is not the waiting +of indifference, which says: 'If you will have it--well and good. If +not, it does not matter to Me.' But 'more than they that watch for the +morning,' God waits 'that He may be gracious unto you.' + +II. Man's waiting. + +Our attitude is to be in some real sense analogous to His. + +Its main elements are firm anticipation, patient expectation, steadfast +desire, self-discipline to fit us for the influx of God's grace. + +We are not to prescribe 'times and seasons which the Father hath put in +His own power.' The clock of Eternity ticks more slowly than our short- +pendulumed timepieces. 'If the vision tarry, wait for it.' We may well +wait for God when we know that He waits for us, and that, for the most +part, when He sees that we are waiting, He knows that His time is come. + +But it is to be noted that the waiting desire to which He responds is +directed to something better and greater than any gifts from Him, even +to Himself, for it is they who 'wait for _Him_,' not only for His +benefits apart from Himself, however precious these may be, who are +blessed. + +The blessedness of such waiting, how it calms the heart, brings into +constant touch with God, detaches from the fever and the fret which +kill, opens our eyes to mark the meanings of our life's history, and +makes the divine gifts infinitely more precious when they do come. + +After all, the time of waiting is at the longest very short. And when +the perfect fruition is come, and we enter into the great spaces of +Eternity, it will seem as an handbreadth. + + 'Take it on trust a little while, + Thou soon shalt read the mystery right + In the full sunshine of His smile.' + + + + +THREE PICTURES OF ONE REALITY + +'As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending +also He will deliver it; and passing over He will preserve it'--ISAIAH +xxxi. 5. + + +The immediate occasion of this very remarkable promise is, of course, +the peril in which Jerusalem was placed by Sennacherib's invasion; and +the fulfilment of the promise was the destruction of his army before its +gates. But the promise here, like all God's promises, is eternal in +substance, and applies to a community only because it applies to each +member of that community. Jerusalem was saved, and that meant that every +house in Jerusalem was saved, and every man in it the separate object of +the divine protection So that all the histories of Scripture, and all +the histories of men in the world, are but transitory illustrations of +perennial principles, and every atom of the consolation and triumph of +this verse comes to each of us, as truly as it did to the men that with +tremulous heart began to take cheer, as they listened to Isaiah. There +is a wonderful saying in one of the other prophets which carries that +lesson, where, bringing down the story of Jacob's struggle with the +angel of Peniel to the encouragement of the existing generation, he +says,' He spake to _us_.' They were hundreds of years after the +patriarch, and yet had fallen heirs to all that God had ever said to him +So, from that point of view, I am not spiritualising, or forcing the +meaning of these words, when I bring them direct into the lives of each +one of ourselves. + +I. And, first, I would note the very striking and beautiful pictures +that are given in these verses. + +There are three of them, on each of which I must touch briefly. 'As +birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem.' The form of +the words in the original shows that it is the mother-bird that is +thought about. And the picture rises at once of her fluttering over the +nest, where the callow chickens are, unable to fly and to help +themselves. It is a kind of echo of the grand metaphor in the song that +is attributed to Moses, which speaks of the eagle fluttering over her +nest, and taking care of her young. Jerusalem was as a nest on which, +for long centuries, that infinite divine love had brooded. It was but a +poor brood that had been hatched out, but yet 'as birds flying' He had +watched over the city. Can you not almost see the mother-bird, made bold +by maternal love, swooping down upon the intruder that sought to rob the +nest, and spreading her broad pinion over the callow fledglings that lie +below? That is what God does with us. As I said, it is a poor brood that +is hatched out. That does not matter; still the Love bends down and +helps. Nobody but a prophet could have ventured on such a metaphor as +that, and nobody but Jesus Christ would have ventured to mend it and +say, 'As a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings,' when there are +hawks in the sky. So He, in all the past ages, was the One that 'as +birds flying ... defended' His people, and would have gathered them +under His wings, only they would not. + +Now, beautiful as this metaphor is, as it stands, it seems to me, like +some brilliant piece of colouring, to derive additional beauty from its +connection with the background upon which it stands out. For just a +verse before the prophet has given another emblem of what God is and +does, and if you will carry with you all those thoughts of tenderness +and maternal care and solicitude, and then connect them with that verse, +I think the thought of His tenderness will start up into new beauty. For +here is what precedes the text: 'Like as a lion, and the young lion +roaring on his prey when a multitude of shepherds is called forth +against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor bow himself for +the noise of them. So shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight for +Mount Zion.' Look at these two pictures side by side, on the one hand +the lion, with his paw on his prey, and the angry growl that answers +when the shepherds vainly try to drag it away from him. That is God. Ay! +but that is only an aspect of God. 'As birds flying, so the Lord will +defend Jerusalem.' We have to take that into account too. This +generation is very fond of talking about God's love; does it believe in +God's wrath? It is very fond of speaking about the gentleness of Jesus; +has it pondered that tremendous phrase, 'the wrath of the Lamb'? The +lion that growls, and the mother-bird that hovers--God is like them +both. That is the first picture that is here. + +The second one is not so obvious to English readers, but it is equally +striking, though I do not mean to dwell upon it. The word that is +translated in our text twice, 'defend' and 'defending'--'So will the +Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem, and defending will deliver'--means, +literally, 'shielding.' Thus we have the same general idea as that in +the previous metaphor of the mother-bird hovering above the nest: God is +like a shield held over us, and so flinging off front the broad and +burnished surface of the Almighty buckler, all the darts that any foe +can launch against as. 'Our God is a Sun and Shield.' I need not enlarge +on this familiar metaphor. + +But the third picture I wish to point to in more detail: 'Passing over, +He will deliver.' Now, the word that is there rendered 'passing over,' +is almost a technical word in the Old Testament, because it is that +employed in reference to the Passover. And so you see the swiftness of +genius with which the prophet changes his whole scene. We had the nest +and the mother-bird, we had the battlefield and the shield; now we are +swept away back to that night when the Destroying Angel stalked through +the land, and 'passed over' the doors on which the blood had been +sprinkled. And thus this God, who in one aspect may be likened to the +mother-bird hovering with her little breast full of tenderness, and made +brave by maternal love conquering natural timidity, and in another +aspect may be likened to the broad shield behind which a man stands +safe, may also be likened to that Destroying Angel that went through +Egypt, and smote wherever there were not the tokens of the blood on the +lintels, and 'passed over' wherever there were. Of course, the original +fulfilment of this third picture is the historical case of the army of +Sennacherib; outside the walls, widespread desolation; inside the walls, +an untroubled night of peace. That night in Egypt is paralleled, in the +old Jewish hymn that is still sung at the Passover, with the other night +when Sennacherib's men were slain; and the parallel is based on our +text. So, then, here is another illustration of what I started with +saying, that the past events of Scripture are transient expressions of +perennial principles and tendencies. For the Passover night was not to +be to the contemporaries of the prophet an event receding ever further +into the dim distance, but it was a present event, and to be reproduced +in that catastrophe when 'in the morning when they arose, they were all +dead corpses.' And the event is being repeated to-day, and will be for +each of us, if we will. + +So, then, there are these three pictures--the Nest and the Mother-bird, +the Battlefield and the Shield, Egypt and the Destroying Angel. + +II. We note the reality meant by these pictures. + +They mean the absolute promise from God of protection for His people +from _every_ evil. We are not to cut it down, not to say that it applies +absolutely in regard to the spiritual world, but that it does not apply +in regard to temporal things. Yes, it does entirely, only you have to +rise to the height of God's conception of what is good and what is evil +in regard to outward things, before you understand how completely, and +without qualification or deduction, this promise is fulfilled to every +man that puts his trust in Him. Of course, I do not need to remind you, +for your own lives will do so sufficiently, that this hovering +protector, this strong Shield, this Destroying Angel that passes by our +houses if the blood is on the threshold, does not guarantee us any +exemption from the common 'ills that flesh is heir to.' We all know that +well enough. But what does it guarantee? That all the poison shall be +wiped off the arrow, that all the evil shall be taken out of the evil, +that it will change its character, that if we observe the conditions, +the sharpest sorrow will come to us with this written on it by the +Father's hand, 'With My love to My child'; that pain will be discipline, +and discipline will be blessed. Ah! dear friends! I am sure there are +many of us that can set to our seals that God is true in this matter, +and that we have found that His rod does blossom, and that our sorest +sorrows have been our greatest mercies, drawing us nearer to Him; +'Defending He will deliver, and passing over He will preserve.' + +III. And now let me remind you of the way by which we can make the +reality of these pictures ours. + +You know that all the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament are +conditional, and that there are many of them that were never fulfilled, +and were spoken in order that they might not be fulfilled, if only the +people took warning. I wish folk would carry a little more consciously +in their minds that principle in interpreting them all, and in asking +about their fulfilment. Not only in regard to these ancient events, but +in regard to our individual experience, God's promises and threatenings +are conditional. + +Take that first metaphor of the hovering mother-bird. Listen to this +expansion of it in one of the psalms: 'He shall cover thee with His +feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust.' The word for _trust_ +here means to 'fly into a refuge.' Can you not see the picture? A little +brood round the parent bird, frightened by some beast of prey, or +hovering hawk in the sky, and fluttering under its wings, and all safe +and huddled together there close against the warm breast, and in amongst +the downy feathers. 'Under His wings shalt thou trust.' Put thou thy +trust in God, and God is to thee the hovering bird, the broad shield, +the Angel that 'passes over.' + +Take the other picture of the Passover night. Only by our individual +faith in Jesus Christ as our individual Saviour can we put the blood on +our door-posts so that the Destroying Angel shall pass by. So, if we +would have the sweetness of such words as these fulfilled in our daily +lives, however disturbed and troubled and sorrowful and solitary they +may be, the first condition is that under His wings shall we flee for +refuge, and we do so by trust in Him. + +But having thus fled thither, we must continue there, if we would +continue under His protection. Such continuance of safety because of +continuous faith is possible only by continued communion. Remember our +Lord's expansion of the metaphor in His lament: 'How often would I have +gathered thy children together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her +wings, and ye would not.' We can resist the drawing. We can get away +from the shelter of the wing. We can lift up our wills against Him. And +what becomes of the chicken that does _not_ run to the mother's pinions +when the hawk is hovering? That is what becomes of the man that stops +outside the refuge in Christ, or that by failure of his faith departs +from that refuge. 'Ye would not; therefore your house is left unto you +desolate.' That house, in the Jerusalem which God 'defends,' is _not_ +defended. + +Another condition of divine protection is obedience. We need not expect +that God will take care of us, and preserve us, when we did not ask His +leave to get into the dangerous place that we find ourselves in. Many of +us do the converse of what the Apostle condemns, we begin 'in the +flesh,' and think we shall end 'in the Spirit'; which being translated +is, we do not ask God's leave to do certain things, to enter into +certain engagements or arrangements with other people, and the like, and +then we expect God to come and help us in or out of them. That is by no +means an uncommon form of delusion. You remember what Jesus Christ said +when the Devil tried to entice Him to do a thing of that sort, by +quoting Scripture to Him--'He shall give His angels charge concerning +Thee, to keep Thee in all Thy ways. Cast Thyself down. Trust to the +promise as a kind of parachute to keep Thee from falling bruised on the +stones of the Temple-court.' Christ's answer was: 'Thou shalt not tempt +the Lord thy God.' You will not get God's protection in ways of your own +choosing. + +And so, brethren, 'all things work together for good to them that love,' +to them that trust, to them that keep close, to them that obey. And for +such the old faithful promise will be faithful and new once more, +'Because He hath set His love upon Me, therefore will I deliver +Him'--that will be the summing up of our lives; 'and I will set Him on +high because He hath known My Name,' that will be the meaning of our +deaths. + + + + +THE LORD'S FURNACE + +'The Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem.'-- +ISAIAH xxxi. 9. + + +This very remarkable characterisation of God stands here as a kind of +seal, set upon the preceding prophecy. It is the reason why that will +certainly be fulfilled. And what precedes is mainly a promise of a +deliverance for Israel, which was to be a destruction for Israel's +enemies. It is put in very graphic and remarkable metaphors: 'Like as a +lion roareth on his prey when a multitude of shepherds is called forth +against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for +the noise of them: so shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight for +Mount Zion.' The enemies of Israel are picturesquely and poetically +represented as a crowd of shepherds vainly trying to scare a lion by +their shouts. He stands undaunted, with his strong paw on his prey, and +the boldest of them durst not venture to drag it from beneath his claws. +So, says Isaiah, with singularly daring imagery, God will put all His +strength into keeping fast hold of Israel, and no one can pluck His +people from His hands. + +Then, with a sudden and striking change of metaphor, the prophet passes +from a picture of the extreme of fierceness to one of the extreme of +tenderness. 'As birds flying'--mother birds fluttering over their +nests--'so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem,' hovering over it +and going from side to side to defend with His broad pinions, 'passing +over, He will preserve it.' These figures are next translated into the +plain promise of utter discomfiture and destruction, panic and flight as +the portion of the enemies of Israel, and the whole has this broad seal +set to it, that He who promises is 'the Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and +His furnace in Jerusalem.' + +We shall not understand these great words if we regard them as only a +revelation of destructive and terrible power. They are that indeed, but +they are far more than that. It is the very beauty and completeness of +this emblem that has a double aspect, and is no less rich in joy and +blessing than pregnant with warning and terror. As Isaiah says in +another place, Jerusalem is 'Ariel,' which probably means 'the hearth of +God.' His presence in the city is as a fire for the comfort and defence +of the happy inhabitants, and at the same time for the destruction of +all evil and enemies. Far more truly than He dwelt in the city of David +does God dwell in the Church, and His presence is its security. What, +then, of instruction and hope may we gather from this wonderful emblem? + +I. In the Church, God is present as a great reservoir of fervid love. + +Every language has taken fire as the symbol of love and emotion. We +speak so naturally of warm love, fervent feeling, glowing earnestness, +ardent enthusiasm and the like, that we are scarcely aware of using +figurative language. We do not usually ascribe emotion to God, but +surely the deepest and most sacred of the senses in which it is true +that fire is His emblem, is that He is love. His fire is in Zion. He +dwells in His Church, a storehouse of blazing love, heated seventy times +seven hotter than any creatural love, and pouring out its ardours for +the quickening and gladdening of all who walk in the light of that fire, +and thaw their coldness at its blaze. + +Then, if so, how comes it that so many Christian Churches are ice- +houses instead of furnaces? How comes it that they who profess to live +in the Zion where this fire flames are themselves so cold? If God's +blazing furnace is in Jerusalem, it should send the thermometer up in +all the houses of the city. But what a strange contradiction it is for +men to be in God's Church, the very focus and centre of His burning +love, and themselves to be almost down below zero in their temperature! +The Christian Church ought to be all aflame in all its members, with the +fire of love kindled and alight from God Himself. Every community of +Christian people ought to radiate warmth and light which it has absorbed +from its present God. Our love ought to answer His, and, being caught +and kindled from that mighty fire, should throw back to its source some +of the heat received, in fervours of reflected love, and should pour the +rest beneficently on all around. Love to God and love to man are +regarded in Christian morals as beams of the same fire, only travelling +in different directions. But what a miserable contrast to such an ideal +the reality in so many of our churches is! A fiery furnace with its +doors hung with icicles is no greater a contradiction and anomaly than a +Christian Church or a single soul, which professes to have been touched +by the infinite loving kindness of God, and yet lives as cold and +unmoved as we do. The 'Lord's fire is in Zion.' Are there any tokens of +that fire amongst us, in our own hearts and in our collective +temperature as Christian Churches? + +There is no religion worth calling so which has not warmth in it. We +hear a great deal from people against whom I do not wish to say a word, +about the danger of an 'emotional Christianity.' Agreed, if by that they +mean a Christianity which has no foundation for its emotion in principle +and intelligence; but not agreed if they mean to recommend a +Christianity which professes to accept truths that might kindle a soul +beneath the ribs of death and make the dumb sing, and yet is never moved +one hair's-breadth from its quiet phlegmaticism. There is no religion +without emotion. Of course it must be intelligent emotion, built upon +the acceptance of divine truth, and regulated and guided by that, and so +consolidated into principle, and it must be emotion which works for its +living, and impels to Christian conduct. These two provisoes being +attended to, then we can safely say that warmth is the test of life, and +the readings of the thermometer, which measure the fervour, measure also +the reality of our religion. A cold Christian is a contradiction in +terms. If the adjective is certainly applicable, I am afraid the +applicability of the noun is extremely doubtful. If there is no fire, +what is there? Cold is death. + +We want no flimsy, transitory, noisy, ignorant, hysterical agitation. +Smoke is not fire. If the temperature were higher, and the fire more +wisely fed, there would not be any. But we do want a more obvious and +powerful effect of their solemn, glorious, and heart-melting beliefs on +the affections and emotions of professing Christians, and that they may +be more mightily moved by love, to all heroisms and service and +enthusiasms and to consecration which shall in some measure answer to +the glowing heart of that fire of God which flames in Zion. + +II. God's revelation of Himself, and presence in His Church, are an +instrument of cleansing. + +Fire purifies. In our great cities now there are 'disinfecting ovens,' +where infected articles are taken, and exposed to a high temperature +which kills the germs of disease, so that tainted things come out sweet +and clean. That is what God's furnace in Zion is meant to do for us. The +true way of purifying is by fire. To purify by water, as John the +Baptist saw and said, is but a poor, cold way of getting outward +cleanliness. Water cleanses the surface, and becomes dirty in the +process. Fire cleanses within and throughout, and is not tainted +thereby. You plunge some foul thing into the flame, and, as you look, +the specks and spots melt out of it. Raise the temperature, and you kill +the poison germs. That is the way that God cleanses His people; not by +external application, but by getting up the heat. The fire of His love, +the fire of His spirit, is, as St. Bernard says, a blessed fire, which +'consumes indeed, but does not hurt; which sweetly burns and blessedly +lays waste, and so puts forth the force and fire against our vices, as +to display the operation of the anointing oil upon our souls.' The +Hebrew captives were flung into the fiery furnace. What did it burn? +Only their bonds. They themselves lived and rejoiced in the intense +heat. So, if we have any real possession of the divine flame, it will +burn off our wrists the bands and chains of our old vices, and we shall +stand pure and clean, emancipated by the fire which will consume only +our sins, and be for our true selves as our native home, where we walk +at liberty and expatiate in the genial warmth. That is the blessed and +effectual way of purifying, which slays only the death that we carry +about with us in our sin, and makes us the more truly living for its +death. Cleansing is only possible if we are immersed in the Holy Ghost +and in fire, as some piece of foul clay, plunged into the furnace, has +all the stains melted out of it. For all sinful souls seeking after +cleansing, and finding that the 'damned spot' will not 'out' for all +their washing, it is surely good news and tidings of great joy that the +Lord has His fire in Zion, and that its purifying power will burn out +all their sin. + +III. Further, there is suggested another thought: that God, in His great +revelation of Himself, by which He dwells in His Church, is a power of +transformation. + +Fire turns all which it seizes into fire. 'Behold how much wood is +kindled by how small a fire' (R.V.). The heap of green wood with the sap +in it needs but a tiny light pushed into the middle, and soon it is all +ablaze, transformed into ruddy brightness, and leaping heavenwards. +However heavy, wet, and obstinate may be the fuel, the fire can change +it into aspiring and brilliant flame. + +And so God, coming to us in His 'Spirit of burning,' turns us into His +own likeness, and makes us possessors of some spark of Himself. +Therefore it is a great promise, 'He shall baptize you in the Holy +Ghost, and in fire.' He shall plunge you into the life-giving furnace, +and so 'make His ministers like a flame of fire,' like the Lord whom +they serve. The seraphim who stand round the throne are 'burning' +spirits, and the purity which shines, the love which glows, the swift +life which flames in them, are all derived from that unkindled and all- +animating Fire who is their and our God. The transformation of all the +dwellers in Zion into miniature likenesses of this fire is the very +highest hope that springs from the solemn and blessed truth that the +Lord has His fire in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem. + +IV. But, further, this figure teaches that the same divine fire may +become destructive. + +The emblem of fire suggests a double operation, and the very felicity of +it as an emblem is that it has these two sides, and with equal +naturalness may stand for a power which quickens, and for one which +destroys. The difference in the effects springs not from differences in +the cause, but in the objects with which the fire plays. The same God is +the fire of life, the fire of love, of purifying and transformation and +glad energy to whosoever will put his trust in Him, and a fire of +destruction and anger unto whosoever resists Him. The alternative stands +before every soul of man, to be quickened by fire or consumed by it. We +may make the furnace of God our blessedness and the reservoir of a far +more joyful and noble life than ever we could have lived in our +coldness; or we may make it terror and destruction. There lie the two +possibilities before every one of us. We cannot stand apart from Him; we +have relations with Him, whether we will or no; He is something to us. +He is, and must be for all, a flaming fire. We can settle whether it +shall be a fire which is life-giving unto life, or a fire which is +death-giving unto death. + +Here are two buildings: the one the life of the man that lives apart +from God, and therefore has built only with wood, hay, and stubble; the +other the life of the man that lives with God and for Him, and so has +built with gold, silver, and precious stones. The day and the fire come; +and the fates of these two are opposite effects of the same cause. The +licking tongues surround the wretched hut, built of combustibles, and up +go wood and hay and stubble, in a smoking flare, and disappear. The +flames play round the gold and silver and precious stones, and every +leap of their light is answered by some facet of the gems that flash in +their brilliancy, and give back the radiance. + +You can settle which of these two is to be your fate. 'The Lord's fire +is in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem.' To those who, by faith in +that dear Lord who came to cast fire on earth,' have opened their +hearts, to the entrance of that searching, cleansing flame, and who +therefore burn with kindred and answering fervours, it is joy to know +that their 'God is a consuming fire,' for therein lies their hope of +daily purifying and ultimate assimilation. To those, on the other hand, +who have closed their hearts to the warmth of His redeeming love in +Christ, and the quickening of His baptism by fire, what can the +knowledge be but terror, what can contact with God in judgment be but +destruction? 'The day cometh, it burneth as a furnace; and all the +proud, and all that work wickedness, shall be as stubble, and the day +that cometh shall burn them up.' What will that day do for you? + + + + +THE HIDING-PLACE + +'And a man shall be as an 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.'--ISAIAH xxxii. 2. + + +We may well say, Of whom speaketh the prophet this? Here are distinctly +attributed to one of ourselves, if we take the words in their simplicity +and fulness, functions and powers which universal experience has taught +us not to look for in humanity. And there have been a great many +attempts--as it seems to me, altogether futile and baseless ones--to +break the force of these words as a distinct prophecy of Jesus Christ. +Surely the language is far too wide to have application to any real or +ideal Jewish monarch, except one whose kingdom is an everlasting +kingdom? Surely the experience of a hundred centuries might teach men +that there is _one_ man, and one alone, who is the refuge from all +dangers, the fruition of all desires, the rest and refreshment in all +toils. + +And I, for my part, have no hesitation in saying that the only reference +of these words which gives full value to their wealth of blessing, is to +regard them as a prophecy of _the_ man--Christ Jesus; hiding in whom we +are safe, 'coming' to whom we 'never thirst,' guarded and blest by whom +no weariness can befall us, and dwelling in whom this weary world shall +be full of refreshment and peace! + +I do not need to point out the exquisite beauty of the imagery or the +pathos and peace that breathe in the majestic rhythm of the words. There +is something more than poetical beauty or rhetorical amplification of a +single thought in those three clauses. The 'hiding-place' and 'covert' +refer to one class of wants; the 'rivers of water in a dry place' to yet +another; and 'the shadow of a great rock in a weary land' to yet a +third. And, though they are tinged and dyed in Eastern imagery, the +realities of life in Western lands, and in all ages, give them a deeper +beauty than that of lovely imagery, and are the true keys to +understanding their meaning. We shall, perhaps, best grasp the whole +depth of that meaning according to the Messianic reference which we give +to the text, if we consider the sad and solemn conception of man's life +that underlies it; the enigmatical and obstinate hope which it holds out +in the teeth of all experience--'A _man_ shall be a refuge'; and the +solution of the riddle in the man Christ Jesus. + +I. First, there underlies this prophecy a very sad but a very true +conception of human life. + +The three classes of promises have correlative with them three phases of +man's condition, three diverse aspects of his need and misery. The +'covert' and the 'hiding-place' imply tempest, storm, and danger; the +'river of water' implies drought and thirst; 'the shadow of a great +rock' implies lassitude and languor, fatigue and weariness. The view of +life that arises from the combination of these three bears upon its +front the signature of truth in the very fact that it is a sad view. + +For, I suppose, notwithstanding all that we may say concerning the +beauty and the blessedness scattered broadcast round about us; +notwithstanding that we believe, and hold as for our lives the happy +'faith that all which we behold is full of blessing,' it needs but a +very short experience of this life, and but a superficial examination of +our own histories and our own hearts, in order to come to the conclusion +that the world is full of strange and terrible sadness, that every life +has dark tracts and long stretches of sombre tint, and that no +representation is true to fact which dips its pencil only in light and +flings no shadows on the canvas. There is no depth in a Chinese picture, +because there is no shade. It is the wrinkles and marks of tear and wear +that make the expression in a _man's_ portrait. 'Life's sternest painter +"is" its best.' The gloomy thoughts which are charged against Scripture +are the true thoughts about man and the world as man has made it. Not, +indeed, that life needs to be so, but that by reason of our own evil and +departure from God there have come in as a disturbing element the +retributive consequences of our own godlessness, and these have made +danger where else were safety, thirst where else were rivers of water, +and weariness and lassitude where else were strength and bounding hope. + +So then, look for a moment at these three points that come out of my +text, in order to lay the foundation for subsequent considerations. + +We live a life defenceless and exposed to many a storm and tempest. I +need but remind you of the adverse circumstances--the wild winds that go +sweeping across the flat level, the biting blasts that come down from +the snow-clad mountains of destiny that lie round the low plain upon +which we live. I need but remind you of the dangers that are lodged for +our spiritual life in the temptations to evil that are round us. I need +but remind you of that creeping and clinging consciousness of being +exposed to a divinely commissioned retribution and punishment, which +perverts the Name that ought to be the basis of all our blessedness into +a Name unwelcome and terrible, because threatening judgment. I need but +remind you how men's sins have made it needful that when the mighty God, +even the Lord, appears before them, 'it shall be very tempestuous round +about him.' Men fear and ought to fear 'the blast of the breath of His +nostrils,' which must burn up all that is evil. And I need but remind +you of that last wild wind of Death that whirls the sin-faded leaves +into dark corners where they lie and rot. + +My brother, you have not lived thus long without learning how +defenceless you are against the storm of adverse circumstances. You have +not lived thus long without learning that though, blessed be God! there +do come in all our lives long periods of halcyon rest, when 'birds of +calm sit brooding on the charmed wave,' and the heavens above are clear +as sapphire, and the sea around is transparent as opal--yet the little +cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, may rise on the horizon, and may +thicken and blacken and grow greater and nearer till all the sky is +dark, and burst in lightning and rain and fierceness of wind, till +'through the torn sail the wild tempest is streaming,' and the white +crests of the waves are like the mane of Death's pale horse leaping upon +the broken ship. We have all learnt in how profound a sense, by reason +of outward adverse circumstances and inward temptations, by reason of +the fears of a Justice which we know is throned at the centre of the +creation, by reason of a death which to us is a terror, and by reason of +that universal fear of 'after death the judgment,' storm and tempest +swoop upon our paths. God made the sunshine, and we have made it a +storm. God made life blessed and full of safety and peace, and we have +wrenched ourselves from Him and stand defenceless amidst its dangers. + +Then, there is another aspect and conception of life which underlies +these words of my text. The image of the desert was before the prophet's +rapt vision. He saw the sand whirled into mad dancing columns before the +blast which swept across the unsheltered flat, with nothing, for a day's +march, to check its force. But the wilderness is not only shelterless, +it is waterless too--a place in which wild and ravening thirst finds no +refreshing draughts, and the tongue cleaves to the blackening gums. + +'Rivers of water in a dry place'; and what is the prose fact of that? +That you and I live in the midst of a world which has no correspondence +with, nor power of satisfying, our truest and deepest selves--that we +bear about with us a whole set of longings and needs and weaknesses and +strengths and capacities, all of which, like the climbing tendrils of +some creeping plant, go feeling and putting out their green fingers to +lay hold of some prop and stay--that man is so made that for his rest +and blessedness he must have an external object round which his spirit +may cling, on which his desires may fasten and rest, by which his heart +may be blessed, which shall be authority for his will, peace for his +fears, sprinkling and cleansing for his conscience, light for his +understanding, shall be in complete correspondence with his inward +nature--be water for his thirst, and bread for his hunger. + +And as thus, on the very nature which each of us carries, there is +stamped the signature of dependence, and the necessity of finding an +external object on which to rest; and as, further, men will not be +tutored even by their own miseries or by the voice of their own wants, +and ever confound their wishes with their wants and their whims with +their needs, therefore it comes to pass that the appetite which was only +meant to direct us to God, and to be as a wholesome hunger in order to +secure our partaking with relish and delight of the divine food that is +provided for it, becomes unsatisfied, a torture, and unslaked, a +ravening madness; and men's needs become men's misery; and men's hunger +becomes men's famine; and men's thirst becomes men's death. We do dwell +in a dry land where no water is. + +All about us there are these creatures of God, bright and blessed and +beautiful, fit for their functions and meant to minister to our +gladness. They are meant to be held in subordination. It is not meant +that we should find in them the food for our souls. Wealth and honour +and wisdom and love and gratified ambition and successful purpose, and +whatsoever other good things a man may gather about him and achieve--he +may have them all, and yet in spite of them all there will be a great +aching, longing vacuity in his soul. His true and inmost being will be +groping through the darkness, like a plant growing in a cellar, for the +light which alone can tinge its pale petals and swell its shrivelling +blossoms to ripeness and fruit. + +A dry place, as well as a dangerous place--have not you found it so? I +believe that every soul of man has, if he will be honest with himself, +and that there is not one among us who would not, if he were to look +into the deepest facts and real governing experience of his life, +confess--I thirst: 'my soul thirsteth.' And oh, brethren, why not go on +with the quotation, and make that which is else a pain, a condition of +blessedness? Why not recognise the meaning of all this restless +disquiet, and say 'My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God'? + +And then there is the other idea also underlying these words, yet +another phase of this sad life of ours--not only danger and drought, but +also weariness and languor. The desert stretches before us again, where +there is no shelter from the blast and no trickling stream amid the +yellowing sand; where the fierce ball above beats down cruelly, and its +hot rays are flung up cruelly into our faces, and the glare blinds us, +and the stifling heat wearies us, and work is a torture and motion is +misery, and we long for nothing so much as to be quiet and to hide our +heads in some shade. + +I was reading recently one of our last books of travel 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 weary 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. + +Oh! the weariness felt by us all, of plod, plod, plodding across the +sand! That fatal monotony into which every man's life stiffens, as far +as outward circumstances, outward joys and pleasures go! the depressing +influence of custom which takes the edge off all gladness and adds a +burden to every duty! the weariness of all that tugging up the hill, of +all that collar-work which we have to do! Who is there that has not his +mood, and that by no means the least worthy and man-like of his moods, +wherein he feels not, perhaps, that all is vanity, but--'how infinitely +wearisome it all is.' + +And so every race of man that ever has lived has managed out of two +miseries to make a kind of shadowy gladness; and, knowing the weariness +of life and the blackness of death, has somewhat lightened the latter by +throwing upon it the thought of the former, and has said, 'Well, at any +rate, if the grave be narrow and dark, and if outside "the warm +precincts of the cheerful day" there be that ambiguous night, at least +it is the place for sleep; and, if we cannot be sure of anything more, +we shall rest then, at any rate.' So the hope of 'long disquiet merged +in rest' becomes almost bright, and man's weariness finds most pathetic +expression in his thinking of the grave as a bed where he can stretch +himself and be still. Life is hard, life is dry, life is dangerous. + +II. But another thought suggested by these words is--The Mysterious Hope +which shines through them. + +One of ourselves shall deliver us from all this evil in life. '_A man_ +shall be a refuge, rivers of water, the shadow of a great rock.' Such an +expectation seems to be right in the teeth of all experience and far too +high-pitched ever 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. + +It is worth while to realise to ourselves these two points which seem to +make such words as these of our text a blank impossibility. Experience +contradicts them, and common-sense demands for their fulfilment an +apparently impossible human character. + +All experience seems to teach--does it not?--that no human arm or heart +can be to another soul what these words promise, and what we need. And +yet the men who have been disappointed and disenchanted a thousand times +do still look among their fellows for what their fellows, too, are +looking for, and none have ever found. Have _we_ found what we seek +among men? Have we ever known amongst the dearest that we have clung to, +one arm that was strong enough to keep us in all danger? Has there ever +been a human love to which we can run with the security that _there_ is +a strong tower where no evil can touch us? There have been many delights +in all our lives mediated and ministered to us by those that we loved. +They have taught us, and helped us, and strengthened us in a thousand +ways. We have received from them draughts of wisdom, of love, of joy, of +guidance, of impulse, of comfort, which have been, as water in the +desert is, more precious than gold. Our fellow-travellers have shared +their store with us, 'letting down their pitchers upon their hand,' and +giving us drink; but has the draught ever slaked the thirst? They carry +but a pitcher, and a pitcher is not a fountain. Have there been any in +all the round of those that we have loved and trusted, to whom we have +trusted absolutely, without having been disappointed? They, like us, are +hemmed in by human limitations. They each bear a burdened and thirsty +spirit, itself needing such supplies. And to the truest, happiest, most +soul-sufficing companionship, there comes at last that dread hour which +ends all sweet commerce of giving and receiving, and makes the rest of +life, for some of us, one monotonous ashen-grey wilderness where no +water is. These things make it impossible for us to find anywhere +amongst men our refuge and our fruition. + +And yet how strange, how pathetic, is the fact that after all +disappointments, men still obstinately continue to look among their +fellows for guidance and for light, for consolation, for defence, and +for strength! After a thousand failures they still hope. Does not the +search at once confess that hitherto they have not found, else why be +seeking still?--and that they yet believe they will yet find, else why +not cease the vain quest? And surely He who made us, made us not in +vain, nor cursed us with immortal hopes which are only persistent lies. +Surely there is some living Person who will vindicate these unquenchable +hopes of humanity, and receive and requite our love and trust, and +satisfy our longings, and explain the riddle of our lives. If there be +not, nor ever has been, nor ever can be a man who shall satisfy us with +his love, and defend us with his power, and be our all-sufficient +satisfaction and our rest in weariness, then much of man's noblest +nature is a mistake, and many of his purest and profoundest hopes are an +illusion, a mockery, and a snare. The obstinate hope that, within the +limits of humanity, we shall find what we need is a mystery, except on +one hypothesis, that it, too, belongs to 'the unconscious prophecies' +that God has lodged in all men's hearts. + +Nor need I remind you, I suppose, how such functions as those of which +my text speaks not only seem to be contradicted by all experience, but +manifestly and obviously to transcend the possibilities of human nature. +_A man_ to defend me; and he himself--does _he_ need no defence? A man +to supply my wants; and is his spirit, then, other than mine, that it +can become the all-sufficient fulness for my emptiness? He that can do +this for one spirit must be greater than the spirit for which he doeth +it. He that can do it for the whole race of man, through all ages, in +all circumstances, down to the end of time, in every latitude, under +every condition of civilisation--who must _he_ be who, for the whole +world, evermore and always, is their defence, their gladness, their +shelter, and their rest? + +The function requires a divine power, and the application of the power +requires a human hand. It is not enough that I should be pointed to a +far-off heaven, where there dwells an infinite loving God--I believe +that we need more than that. We need both of the truths: 'God is my +refuge and my strength,' and 'A man shall be a hiding-place from the +wind, and a covert from the tempest.' + +III. That brings me to the last point to be noticed, namely:--The +solution of the mystery in the person of Jesus Christ. + +That which seemed impossible is real. The forebodings of humanity 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 single souls the +adequate object of their perfect trust, the abiding home of their +deepest love, the unfailing supply for their profoundest wants. There +_is_ one man to whom it is wise and blessed to look as the exclusive +source of all our peace, the absolute ruler of all our lives. There _is_ +a man in whom we find all that we have vainly sought in men. There _is_ +a man, who can be to all ages and to the whole race their refuge, their +satisfaction, their rest. 'It behoved Him to be made in all points like +unto His brethren,' that His succour might be ever near, and His +sympathy sure. The man Christ Jesus who, being man, is God manifest in +the flesh, exercises in one and the same act the offices of divine pity +and human compassion, of divine and human guardianship, of divine and +human love. + + 'And so the Word had breath, and wrought + With human hands the creed of creeds + In loveliness of perfect deeds, + More strong than all poetic thought.' + +The dreams of weary hearts that have longed for an impossible perfection +are all below the reality. The fact surpasses all expectation. It is +more than all prophecies, it is more than all hopes, it is more than all +praise. It is God's unspeakable gift. Well might an angel voice proclaim +the mystery of love, 'Unto you is _born_ a Saviour, which is Christ the +Lord.' The ancient promise of our text is history now. A man has been +and is all these things for us. + +A refuge and a hiding-place from every storm--adverse circumstances +sweep upon us, and His mighty hand is put down there as a buckler, +behind which we may hide and be safe. Temptations to evil storm upon us, +but if we are enclosed within Him they never touch us. The fears of our +own hearts swirl like a river in flood against the walls of our fortress +home, and we can laugh at them, for it is founded upon a rock! The day +of judgment rises before us solemn and certain, and we can await it +without fear, and approach it with calm joy. I call upon no mountains +and hills to cover me. + +'Rock of ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee.' + +'Rivers of water in a dry place,'--hungry and thirsty, my soul fainted +within me. I longed for light, and behold darkness. I longed for help, +and there was none that could come close to my spirit to succour and to +give me drink in the desert. My conscience cried in all its wounds for +cleansing and stanching, and no comforter nor any balm was there. My +heart, weary of limited loves and mortal affections, howsoever sweet and +precious, yearned and bled for one to rest upon all-sufficient and +eternal. I thirsted with a thirst that was more than desire, that was +pain, and was coming to be death, and I heard a voice which said, 'If +any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.' + +'The shadow of a great rock in a weary land,'--and my heart was weary by +reason of the greatness of the way, and duties and tasks seemed toils +and burdens, and I was ready to say, 'Wherefore has Thou made me and all +men in vain? Surely all this is vanity and vexation of spirit,' and I +heard One that laid His hand upon me and said, 'Come unto Me, and I will +give thee rest.' I come to Thee, O Christ, faint and perishing, +defenceless and needy, with many a sin and many a fear; to Thee I turn +for Thou hast died for me, and for me thou dost live. Be Thou my shelter +and strong tower. Give me to drink of living water. Let me rest in Thee +while in this weary land, and let Thy sweet love, my Brother and my +Lord, be mine all on earth and the heaven of my heaven! + + + + +HOW TO DWELL IN THE FIRE OF GOD + +'Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall +dwell with everlasting burnings? 15. He that walketh righteously, and +speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that +shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from +hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil.'--ISAIAH +xxxiii. 14, 15. + +'He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God'--1 JOHN iv. 16. + + +I have put these two verses together because, striking as is at first +sight the contrast in their tone, they refer to the same subject, and +they substantially preach the same truth. A hasty reader, who is more +influenced by sound than by sense, is apt to suppose that the solemn +expressions in my first text, 'the devouring fire' and' everlasting +burnings,' mean _hell_. They mean _God_, as is quite obvious from the +context. The man who is to 'dwell in the devouring fire' is the _good_ +man. He that is able to abide 'the everlasting burnings' is 'the man +that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly,' that 'despiseth the +gain of oppression, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that +stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from +seeing evil.' The prophet has been calling all men, far and near, to +behold a great act of divine judgment in which God has been manifested +in flaming glory, consuming evil; now he represents the 'sinners in +Zion,' the unworthy members of the nation, as seized with sudden terror, +and anxiously asking this question, which in effect means: 'Who among us +can abide peacefully, joyfully, fed and brightened, not consumed and +annihilated, by that flashing brightness and purity?' The prophet's +answer is the answer of common-sense--like draws to like. A holy God +must have holy companions. + +But that is not all. The fire of God is the fire of love as well as the +fire of purity; a fire that blesses and quickens, as well as a fire that +destroys and consumes. So the Apostle John comes with his answer, not +contradicting the other one, but deepening it, expanding it, letting us +see the foundations of it, and proclaiming that as a holy God must be +surrounded by holy hearts, which will open themselves to the flame as +flowers to the sunshine, so a loving God must be clustered about by +loving hearts, who alone can enter into deep and true friendship with +Him. + +The two answers, then, of these texts are one at bottom; and when Isaiah +asks, 'Who shall dwell with the everlasting fire?'--the perpetual fire, +burning and unconsumed, of that divine righteousness--the deepest +answer, which is no stern requirement but a merciful promise, is John's +answer, 'He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God.' + +The simplest way, I think, of bringing out the force of the words before +us will be just to take these three points which I have already +suggested: the world's question, the partial answer of the prophet, the +complete answer of the Apostle. + +I. The World's Question. + +I need only remind you how frequently in the Old Testament the emblem of +fire is employed to express the divine nature. In many places, though by +no means in all, the prominent idea in the emblem is that of the purity +of the divine nature, which flashes and flames as against all which is +evil and sinful. So we read in one grand passage in this book of Isaiah, +'the Light of Israel shall become a fire'; as if the lambent beauty of +the highest manifestation of God gathered itself together, intensified +itself, was forced back upon itself, and from merciful, illuminating +light turned itself into destructive and consuming fire. And we read, +you may remember, too, in the description of the symbolical +manifestation of the divine nature which accompanied the giving of the +Law on Sinai, that 'the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the +top of the mountain,' and yet into that blaze and brightness the +Lawgiver went, and lived and moved in it. + +There is, then, in the divine nature a side of antagonism and opposition +to evil, which flames against it, and labours to consume it. I would +speak with all respect for the motives of many men in this day who dread +to entertain the idea of the divine wrath against evil, lest they should +in any manner trench upon the purity and perfectness of the divine love. +I respect and sympathise with the motive altogether; and I neither +respect nor sympathise with the many ferocious pictures of that which is +called the wrath of God against sin, which much so-called orthodox +teaching has indulged in. But if you will only remove from that word +'anger' the mere human associations which cleave to it, of passion on +the one hand, and of a wish to hurt its object on the other, then you +cannot, I think, deny to the divine nature the possession of such +passionless and unmalignant wrath, without striking a fatal blow at the +perfect purity of God. A God that does not hate evil, that does not +flame out against it, using all the energies of His being to destroy it, +is a God to whose character there cleaves a fatal suspicion of +indifference to good, of moral apathy. If I have not a God to trust in +that hates evil because He loveth righteousness, then 'the pillared +firmament itself were rottenness, and earth's base built on stubble'; +nor were there any hope that this damnable thing that is killing and +sucking the life-blood out of our spirits should ever be destroyed and +cast aside. Oh! it is short-sighted wisdom, and it is cruel kindness, to +tamper with the thought of the wrath of God, the 'everlasting burnings' +of that eternally pure nature wherewith it wages war against all sin. + +But then, let us remember that, on the other side, the fire which is the +destructive fire of perfect purity is also the fire that quickens and +blesses. God is love, says John, and love is fire, too. We speak of 'the +flame of love,' of 'warm affections,' and the like. The symbol of fire +does not mean destructive energy only. And these two are one. God's +wrath is a form of God's love; God hates because He loves. + +And the 'wrath' and the 'love' differ much more in the difference of the +eyes that look, than they do in themselves. Here are two bits of glass; +one of them sifts out and shows all the fiery-red rays, the other all +the yellow. It is the one same pure, white beam that passes through them +both, but one is only capable of receiving the fiery-red beams of the +wrath, and the other is capable of receiving the golden light of the +love. Let us take heed lest, by destroying the wrath, we maim the love; +and let us take heed lest, by exaggerating the wrath, we empty the love +of its sweetness and its preciousness; and let us accept the teaching +that these are one, and that the deepest of all the things that the +world can know about God lies in that double saying, which does not +contradict its second half by its first, but completes its first by its +second--God is Righteousness, God is Love. + +Well, then, that being so, the question rises to every mind of ordinary +thoughtfulness: 'Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who +among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?' A God fighting against +evil; can you and I hope to hold familiar fellowship with Him? A God +fighting against evil; if He rises up to exercise His judging and His +punishing energies, can we meet Him? 'Can thy heart endure and thy hands +be strong, in the day that I shall deal with thee?' is the question that +comes to each of us if we are reasonable people. I do not dwell upon it; +but I ask you to take it, and answer it for yourselves. + +To 'dwell with everlasting burnings' means two things. First, it means +to hold familiar intercourse and communion with God. The question which +presents itself to thoughtful minds is--What sort of man must I be if I +am to dwell near God? The lowliest bush may be lit by the divine fire +and not be consumed by it; and the poorest heart may be all aflame with +an indwelling God, if only it yield itself to Him, and long for His +likeness. Electricity only flames into consuming fire when its swift +passage is resisted. The question for us all is--How can I receive this +holy fire into my bosom, and not be burned? Is any communion possible, +and if it is, on what conditions? These are the questions which the +heart of man is really asking, though it knows not the meaning of its +own unrest. + +'To dwell with everlasting burnings' means, secondly, to bear the action +of the fire--the judgment of the present and the judgment of the future. +The question for each of us is--How can we face that judicial and +punitive action of that Divine Providence which works even here, and how +can we face the judicial and punitive action in the future? + +I suppose you all believe, or at least say that you believe, that there +is such a future judgment. Have you ever asked yourselves the question, +and rested not until you got a reasonable answer to it, on which, like a +man leaning on a pillar, you can lean the whole weight of your +expectations--How am I to come into the presence of that devouring fire? +Have you any fireproof dress that will enable you to go into the furnace +like the Hebrew youths, and walk up and down in the midst of it, well +and at liberty? Have you? 'Who shall dwell amidst the everlasting +fires?' + +That question has stirred sometimes, I know, in the consciences of every +man and woman that is listening to me. Some of you have tampered with it +and tried to throttle it, or laughed at it and shuffled it out of your +mind by the engrossments of business, and tried to get rid of it in all +sorts of ways: and here it has met you again to-day. Let us have it +settled, in the name of common-sense (to invoke nothing higher), once +for all, upon reasonable principles that will stand; and do you see that +you settle it to-day. + +II. And now, look next at the prophet's answer. + +It is simple. He says that if a man is to hold fellowship with, or to +face the judgment of, the pure and righteous God, the plainest dictate +of reason and common-sense is that he himself must be pure and righteous +to match. The details into which hid answer to the question runs out are +all very homely, prosaic, pedestrian kind of virtues, nothing at all out +of the way, nothing that people would call splendid or heroic. Here they +are:--'He that walks righteously,'--a short injunction, easily spoken, +but how hard!--'and speaketh uprightly, he that despiseth the gain of +oppression, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth +his ears from hearing of blood, that shutteth his eyes from seeing +evil.' Righteous action, righteous speech, inward hatred of possessions +gotten at my neighbour's cost, and a vehement resistance to all the +seductions of sense, shutting one's hands, stopping one's ears, +fastening one's eyes up tight so that he may not handle, nor hear, nor +see the evil--there is the outline of a trite, everyday sort of morality +which is to mark the man who, as Isaiah says, can 'dwell amongst the +everlasting fires.' + +Now, if at your leisure you will turn to Psalms xv. and xxiv., you will +find there two other versions of the same questions and the same answer, +both of which were obviously in our prophet's mind when he spoke. In the +one you have the question put: 'Who shall abide in Thy tabernacle?' In +the other you have the same question put: 'Who shall ascend into the +hill of the Lord?' And both these two psalms answer the question and +sketch the outline (and it is only an outline) of a righteous man, from +the Old Testament point of view, substantially in the same fashion that +Isaiah does here. + +I do not need to remark upon the altogether unscientific and non- +exhaustive nature of the description of righteousness that is set forth +here. There are a great many virtues, plain and obvious, that are left +out of the picture. But I ask you to notice one very special defect, as +it might seem. There is not the slightest reference to anything that we +call religion. It is all purely pedestrian, worldly morality; do +righteous things; do not tell lies; do not cheat your neighbour; stop +your ears if people say foul things in your hearing; shut your eyes if +evil comes before you. These are the kind of duties enjoined, and these +only. The answer of my text moves altogether on the surface, dealing +only with conduct, not with character, and dealing with conduct only in +reference to this world. There is not a word about the inner nature, not +a word about the inner relation of a man to God. It is the minimum of +possible qualifications for dwelling with God. + +Well, now, do you achieve that minimum? Suppose we waive for the moment +all reference to God; suppose we waive for the moment all reference to +motive and inward nature; suppose we keep ourselves only on the outside +of things, and ask what sort of _conduct_ a man must have that is able +to walk with God? We have heard the answer. + +Now, then, is that _me_? Is this sketch here, admittedly imperfect, a +mere black-and-white swift outline, not intended to be shaded or +coloured, or brought up to the round; is this mere outline of what a +good man ought to be, at all like me? Yes or no? I think we must all say +No to the question, and acknowledge our failure to attain to this homely +ideal of conduct. The requirement pared down to its lowest possible +degree, and kept as superficial as ever you can keep it, is still miles +above me, and all I have to say when I listen to such words is, 'God be +merciful to me a sinner.' + +My dear friends, take this one thought away with you:--the requirements +of the most moderate conscience are such as no man among us is able to +comply with. And what then? Am I to be shut up to despair? am I to say: +Then nobody can dwell within that bright flame? Am I to say: Then when +God meets man, man must crumble away into nothing and disappear? Am I to +say, for myself: Then, alas for me! when I stand at His judgment bar? + +III. Let us take the Apostle's answer. + +God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God.' Now, to +begin with, let us distinctly understand that the New Testament answer, +represented by John's great words, entirely endorses Isaiah's; and that +the difference between the two is not that the Old Testament, as +represented by psalmist and prophet, said, 'You must be righteous in +order to dwell with God,' and that the New Testament says, 'You need not +be.' Not at all! John is just as vehement in saying that nothing but +purity can bind a man in thoroughly friendly and familiar conjunction +with God as David or Isaiah was. He insists as much as anybody can +insist upon this great principle, that if we are to dwell with God we +must be like God, and that we are like God when we are like Him in +righteousness and love. + +'He that saith he hath fellowship with Him, and walketh in darkness, is +a liar!' That is John's short way of gathering it all up. Righteousness +is as essential in the gospel scheme for all communion and fellowship +with God as ever it was declared to be by the most rigid of legalists; +and if any of you have the notion that Christianity has any other terms +to lay down than the old terms--that righteousness is essential to +communion--you do not understand Christianity. If any of you are +building upon the notion that a man can come into loving and familiar +friendship with God as long as he loves and cleaves to any sin, you have +got hold of a delusion that will wreck your souls yet,--is, indeed, +harming, wrecking them now, and will finally destroy them if you do not +got rid of it. Let us always remember that the declaration of my first +text lies at the very foundation of the declaration of my second. + +What, then, is the difference between them? Why, for one thing it is +this--ISAIAH tells us that we must he righteous, John tells us how we +may be. The one says, 'There are the conditions,' the other says, 'Here +are the means by which you can have the conditions.' Love is the +productive germ of all righteousness; it is the fulfilling of the law. +Get that into your hearts, and all these relative and personal duties +will come. If the deepest, inmost life is right, all the surface of life +will come right. Conduct will follow character, character will follow +love. + +The efforts of men to make themselves pure, and so to come into the +position of holding fellowship with God, are like the wise efforts of +children in their gardens. They stick in their little bits of rootless +flowers, and they water them; but, being rootless, the flowers are all +withered to-morrow and flung over the hedge the day after. But if we +have the love of God in our hearts, we have not rootless flowers, but +the seed which will spring up and bear fruit of holiness. + +But that is not all. Isaiah says 'Righteousness,' John says 'Love,' +which makes righteousness. And then he tells us how we may get love, +having first told us how we may get righteousness: 'We love Him because +He first loved us.' It is just as impossible for a man to work himself +into loving God as it is for a man to work himself into righteous +actions. There is no difference in the degree of impossibility in the +two cases. But what we can do is, we can go and gaze at the thing that +kindles the love; we can contemplate the Cross on which the great Lover +of our souls died, and thereby we can come to love Him. John's answer +goes down to the depths, for his notion of love is the response of the +believing soul to the love of God which was manifested on the Cross of +Calvary. To have righteousness we must have love; to have love we must +look to the love that God has to us; to look rightly to the love that +God has to us we must have faith. Now you have gone down to the very +bottom of the matter. Faith is the first step of the ladder, and the +second step is love and the third step is righteousness. + +And so the New Testament, in its highest and most blessed declarations, +rests itself firmly upon these rigid requirements of the old law. You +and I, dear brethren, have but one way by which we can walk in the midst +of that fire, rejoicing and unconsumed, namely that we shall know and +believe the love which God hath to us, love Him back again 'with pure +hearts fervently,' and in the might of that receptive faith and +productive love, become like Him in holiness, and ourselves be 'baptized +with the Holy Ghost and with fire.' Thus, fire-born and fiery, we shall +dwell as in our native home, in God Himself. + + + + +THE FORTRESS OF THE FAITHFUL + +'He shall dwell on high: his place of defence shall be the munitions of +rocks; bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.'--ISAIAH +xxxiii. 16. + + +This glowing promise becomes even more striking if we mark its +connection with the solemn question in the previous context. 'Who among +us shall dwell with the devouring fire?' is the prophet's question; 'who +among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?' That question really +means, Who is capable 'of communion with God'? The prophet sketches the +outline of the character in the subsequent verses, and then recurring to +his metaphor of a habitation, and yet with a most lovely and significant +modification, he says, 'he'--the man that he has been sketching--'shall +dwell,' not 'with the everlasting burnings,' but 'on high; his place of +defence shall be the munitions of rocks,' like some little hill, fort, +or city, perched upon a mountain, and having within it ample provision +and an unfailing spring of water. 'His bread shall, be given him, his +water shall be sure.' To dwell with 'the devouring fire' is to 'dwell on +high,' to be safe and satisfied. So then, whilst the words before us +have, of course, direct and immediate reference to the Assyrian +invasion, and promise, in a literal sense, security and exemption from +its evils to the righteous in Israel, they widen and deepen into a +picturesque, but not less real, statement of what comes into the +religious life, by communion with God. There are three things: +elevation, security, satisfaction. + +'He shall dwell on high.' + +In the East, and in all unsettled countries, you will find that the +sites of the cities are on the hilltops, for a very plain reason, and +that is the fact that underlies the prophet's representation. To hold +fellowship with God, to live in union with Him, to have His thoughts for +my thoughts, and His love wrapping my heart, and His will enshrined in +my will; to carry Him about with me into all the pettinesses of daily +life, and, amidst the whirlpool of duties and changing circumstances, to +sit in the centre, as it were the eye of the whirlpool where there is a +dead calm, _that_ lifts a man on high. Communion with God secures +elevation of spirit, raising us clean above the flat that lies beneath. +There are many ways by which men seek for lofty thoughts, and a general +elevation above the carking cares and multiplied minutenesses of this +poor, mortal, transient life; but while books and great thoughts, and +the converse of the wise, and art, and music, and all these other +elevating influences have a real place and a blessed efficiency in +ennobling life, there is not one of them, nor all of them put together, +that will give to the human spirit that strange and beautiful elevation +above the world and the flesh and the devil, which simple communion with +God will give. I have seen many a poor man who knew nothing about the +lofty visions that shape and lift humanity, who had no side of him +responsive to aesthetics or art or music, who was no thinker, no +student, who never had spoken to anybody above the rank of a poor +labouring man, and to whom all the wisdom of the nations was a closed +chamber, who yet in his life, ay! and on his face, bore marks of a +spirit elevated into a serene region where there was no tumult, and +where nothing unclean or vicious could live. A few of the select spirits +of the race may painfully climb on high by thought and effort. Get God +into your hearts, and it will be like filling the round of a silken +balloon with light air; you will soar instead of climbing, and 'dwell on +high.' When you are up there, the things below that look largest will +dwindle and 'show,' as Shakespeare has it, 'scarce so gross as beetles,' +looked at from the height, and the noises will sink to a scarcely +audible murmur, and you will be able to see the lie of the country, and, +as it says in the context, 'your eyes shall behold the land that is very +far off.' Yes! the hilltop is the place for wide views, and for +understanding the course of the serpentine river, and it is the place to +discover how small are the mightiest things at the foot, and how little +a way towards the sun the noises of human praise or censure can ever +travel. 'He shall dwell on high,' and he will see a long way off, and +understand the relative magnitude of things, and the strife of tongues +will have ceased for him. + +And more than that is implied in the promise. If we dwell on high, we +shall come down with all the more force on what lies below. There is no +greater caricature and misconception of Christianity than that which +talks as if the spirit that lived in daily communion with God, high +above the world, was remote from the world. Why, how do they make +electricity nowadays? By the fall of water from a height, and the higher +the level from which it descends, the mightier the force which it +generates in the descent. So nobody will tell on the world like the man +who lives above it. The height from which a weight rushes down measures +the force of its dint where it falls, and of the energy with which it +comes. 'He shall dwell on high'; and only the man that stands above the +world is able to influence it. + +Again, here is another blessing of the Christian life, put in a +picturesque form: 'His defence shall be munitions of rocks.' That is a +promise of security from assailants, which in its essence is true +always, though its truth may seem doubtful to the superficial estimate +of sense. The experience of the South African war showed how impregnable +'the munitions of rocks' were. The Boers lay safe behind them, and our +soldiers might fire lyddite at them all day and never touch them. So, +the man who lives in communion with God has between him and all evil the +Rock of Ages, and he lies at the back of it, quiet and safe, whatever +foe may rage on the other side of it. + +Now, of course, the prophet meant to tell his countrymen that, in the +theocracy of which they were parts, righteousness and nothing else was +the national security, and if a man or a nation lived in communion with +God, it bore a charmed life. That is a great deal more true, in regard +to externals, in the miraculous 'dispensation,' as it is called, of the +Old Testament than it is now, and we are not to take over these promises +in their gross literal form into the Christian era, as if they were +unconditional and absolutely to be fulfilled. But at the same time, if +you reflect how many of our troubles do come to us mainly because we +break our communion with God, I think we shall see that this old word +has still an application to our daily lives and outward circumstances. +Deduct from any man's life all the discomfort and trouble and calamity +which have come down upon him because he was not in touch with God, and +there will not be very much left. Yet there will be some, and the +deepest and sorest of all our sorrows are not to be interpreted as +occasioned by defects in our dwelling in God. Then has my text no +application to them? Yes, because what still remains of earthly cares +and sorrows and evils would, in communion with God, change its +character. The rind is the same; but all the interior contents have +been, as children will do with a fruit, scooped out, and another kind of +thing has been put inside, so that though the outward appearance is the +same, what is at the heart of it is utterly different. It is no longer +some coarse, palate-biting, common vegetable, but a sweet confection, +made by God's own hands, and put into the gourd, which has been hollowed +out and emptied of its evil. That is, perhaps, a very violent figure, +but take a plain case as illustration. Suppose two men, each of them +going to his wife's funeral. The two hearses pass inside the cemetery +gates, one after the other. Outwardly the two afflictions are the same, +but the one man says, 'The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away'; the +other man says, 'They have taken away my gods, and what shall I do +more?' _Are_ the two things the same? 'He shall dwell on high, his place +of defence shall be the munitions of rocks,' and if we do hide ourselves +in the cleft, then no evil shall befall us, nor any plague come nigh our +dwelling. + +But there is another truth contained in this great promise, viz., that +in regard to all the real evils which beset men, and these are all +summed up in the one, the temptation to do wrong, their arrows will be +blunted, and their force be broken, if we keep our minds in touch with +God through humble communion and lowly obedience. Dear brethren, the way +by which we can conquer temptations around, and silence inclinations +within which riotously seek to yield to the temptations is, I believe, +far more by cultivating a consciousness of communion with God, than by +specific efforts directed to the overcoming of a given and particular +temptation. Keep inside the fortress, and no bullet will come near you. +Array yourselves in the most elaborate precautions and step out from its +shadow, and every bullet will strike and wound. Let me keep up my +fellowship with God, and I may laugh at temptation. Security depends on +continual communion with God by faith, love, aspiration, and obedience. + +Now, I need not say more than a word about the last element in these +promises, the satisfaction of desires. 'His bread shall be given him, +and his water shall be sure.' In ancient warfare sieges were usually +blockades; and strong fortresses were reduced by famine much more +frequently than by assault. Mafeking and Ladysmith and Port Arthur were +in most danger from that cause. The promise here assures us that we +shall have all supplies in our abode, if God is our abode. Wherever he +who dwells in God goes, he carries with him his provisions, and he does +not need elaborate arrangements of pipes or reservoirs, because there is +a fountain in the courtyard that the enemy cannot get at. They may stop +the springs throughout the land, they may cut off all water supplies, so +that 'there shall be no fruit in the vine, and the labour of the olive +shall fail,' but they cannot touch the fountain. 'His water shall be +sure,' and he can say, 'In the days of famine I shall be satisfied.' + +God is and gives all that we need for sustenance, for growth, for +refreshment, for satisfaction of our desires. Keep near Him, and you +will find in the heart of the devouring fire a shelter, and you will +have all that you want for life here. My text will be true about us, in +the measure in which we do thus dwell, and if we thus dwell here, and so +dwell on high, with the munitions of rocks for our fortress, and 'the +bread of God that came down from heaven' for our food, and the water of +life for our refreshment, then, when there is no longer any need of +places for defence, the other saying will be true, 'They shall hunger no +more, neither thirst any more, for the Lamb which is in the midst of the +throne shall feed them ... and shall lead them to living fountains of +waters, and God, the Lord, shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.' + + + + +THE RIVERS OF GOD + +'But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and +streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant +ship pass thereby.'--ISAIAH xxxiii. 21. + + +One great peculiarity of Jerusalem, which distinguishes it from almost +all other historical cities, is that it has no river. Babylon was on the +Euphrates, Nineveh on the Tigris, Thebes on the Nile, Rome on the Tiber; +but Jerusalem had nothing but a fountain or two, and a well or two, and +a little trickle and an intermittent stream. The water supply to-day is, +and always has been, a great difficulty, and an insuperable barrier to +the city's ever having a great population. + +That deficiency throws a great deal of beautiful light on more than one +passage in the Old Testament. For instance, this same prophet contrasts +the living stream, the waters of Siloam, as an emblem of the gentle sway +of the divine King of Israel, with 'the river, strong and mighty,' which +was the symbol of Assyria; and a psalm that we all know well, sings, +'There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God,'--a +triumphant exclamation which is robbed of half its force, unless we +remember that the literal Jerusalem had no river at all. The vision of +living waters flowing from the Temple which Ezekiel saw is a variation +of the same theme, and suggests that in the Messianic days the +deficiency shall be made good, and a mysterious stream shall spring up +from behind, and flow out from beneath, the temple doors, and then with +rapid increase and depth and width, but with no tributaries coming into +it, shall run fertilising and life-giving everywhere, till it pours +itself into the noisome waters of the sullen sea of death and heals even +them. + +The same general representation is contained in the words before us. +Isaiah's great vision is not, as I take it, of a future, but of what the +Jerusalem of his day might he to the Israelite if he would live by +faith. The mighty Lord, 'the glorious Lord,' shall Himself 'be a place +of broad rivers and streams.' + +I. First, then, this remarkable promise suggests to me how in God there +is the supply of all deficiencies. + +The city was perched on its barren, hot rock, with scarcely a drop of +water, and its inhabitants must often have been tempted to wish that +there had been running down the sun-bleached bed of the Kedron a +flashing stream, such as laved the rock-cut temples and tombs of Thebes. +Isaiah says, in effect, 'You cannot see it, but if you will trust +yourselves to God, there will be such a river.' + +In like manner every defect in our circumstances, everything lacking in +our lives--and we all have something which does not correspond with, or +which falls beneath, our wishes and apparent needs--everything which +seems to hamper us in some aspects, and to sadden us in others, may be +compensated and made up if we will hold fast by God; and although to +outward sense we dwell 'in a dry and barren land where no water is,' the +eye of faith will see, flashing and flowing all around, the rejoicing +waters of the divine presence, and they will mirror the sky, and the +reflections will teach us that there is a heaven above us. + +If there is in any life a gap, that is a prophecy that God will fill it. +If there is anything in your circumstances in regard to which you often +feel sadly, and are sometimes tempted to feel bitterly, how much +stronger and more fully equipped you would be, if it were otherwise, be +sure that in God there is that which can supply the want, and that the +consciousness of the want is a merciful summons to seek its supply from +and in Him. If there is a breach in the encircling wall of your +defences, God has made it in order that He Himself, and not an enemy, +may enter your lives and hearts. 'In the year that King Uzziah died, I +saw the Lord sitting on a throne,' and it did not matter though that +mortal king was dead, for the true King was thereby revealed as living +for ever, just as when the summer foliage, fluttering and green, drops +from the tree, the sturdy stem and the strong branches are made the more +visible. Our felt deficiencies are doors by which God may come in. Do +you sometimes feel as if you would be better if you had easier worldly +circumstances? Is your health precarious and feeble? Have you to walk a +solitary path through this world, and does your heart often ache for +companionship? You can have all your heart's desire fulfilled in deepest +reality in God, in the same way that that riverless city had Jehovah for +'a place of broad rivers and streams.' + +II. Take another side of the same thought. Here is a revelation of God +and His sweet presence as our true defence. + +The river that lay between some strong city and the advancing enemy was +its strongest fortification when the bridge of boats was taken away. One +of the ancient cities to which I have referred is described by one of +the prophets as being held as within the coils of a serpent, by which he +means the various bendings and twistings of the Euphrates, which +encompassed Babylon, and made it so hard to be conquered. The primitive +city of Paris owed its safety in the wild old times when it was founded, +to its being on an island. Venice has lived through many centuries, +because it is girded about by its lagoons. England is what it is, +largely because of 'the streak of silver sea.' So God's city has a broad +moat all round it. The prophet goes on to explain the force of his bold +figure in regard to the safety promised by it, when he says: 'Wherein +shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby.' +Not a keel of the enemy shall dare to cut its waters, nor break their +surface with the wet plash of invading oars. And so, if we will only +knit ourselves with God by simple trust and continual communion, it is +the plainest prose fact that nothing will harm us, and no foe will ever +get near enough to us to shoot his arrows against us. + +That is a truth for faith, and not for sense. Many a man, truly +compassed about by God, has to go through fiery trial and sorrow and +affliction. But I venture to appeal to every heart that has known grief +most acutely, protractedly, and frequently, and has borne it in the +faith of God, and with submission to Him; and I know that they who are +the 'experts,' and who alone have the right to speak with authority on +the subject, will confirm the statement that I make, that sorrows +recognised as sent from God are the truest blessings of our lives. No +real evil befalls us, because, according to the old superstition that +money bewitched was cleansed if it was handed across running water, our +sorrows only reach us across the river that defends. + +Isaiah is full of symbols of various kinds for the impregnability of +Zion. Sometimes, as in my text, he falls back upon the thought of the +bright waters of the moat on which no enemy can venture to sail. +Sometimes he draws his metaphor from the element opposed to water, and +speaks of a wall of fire round about us. But the simple reality that +lies below all the poetry is, that trust in God brings His presence +around me, and that makes it impossible that any evil should befall me, +and certain that whatever does befall me is His messenger, His loving +messenger, for my good. If we believed that, and lived on the belief, +the whole world would be different. + +III. Take, again, another aspect of this same thought, which suggests to +us God's presence as our true refreshment and satisfaction. + +The waterless city depended on cisterns, and they were often broken, and +were always more or less foul, and sometimes the water fell very low in +them. Isaiah says to us: Even when you are living in external +circumstances like that: + + 'When all created streams are dry, + Thy fulness is the same.' + +The fountain of living waters--if we may slightly vary the metaphor of +my text--never sinks one hair's-breadth in its crystal basin, however +many thirsty lips may be glued to its edge, and however large may be +their draughts from it. This metaphor, turned to the purpose of +suggesting how in God every part of our nature finds its appropriate +nourishment and refreshment which it does not find anywhere besides, has +become one of the commonplaces of the pulpit. Would it were the +commonplace of our lives! It is easy to talk about Him as being the +fountain of living waters; it is easy to quote and to admire the words +which the Master spoke to the Samaritan woman when He said, 'I would +have given thee living water,' and 'the water which I give will be a +fountain springing up into everlasting life.' We repeat or learn such +sayings, and then what do we do? We go away and try to slake our thirst +at broken cisterns, and every draught which we take is like the salt +water from which a shipwrecked-boat's crew in its madness will sometimes +not be able to refrain, each drop increasing the raging thirst and +hastening the impending death. + +If we believed that God was the broad river from which we could draw and +draw, and drink and drink, for ever and ever, should we be clinging with +such desperate tenacity, as most of us exhibit, to earthly goods? Should +we whimper with such childish regrets, as most of us nourish, when these +goods are diminished or withdrawn? Should we live as we constantly do, +day in and day out, seldom applying ourselves to the one source of +strength and peace and refreshment, and trying, like fools, to find what +apart from Him the world can never give? The rivers in northern Tartary +all lose themselves in the sand. Not one of them has volume or force +enough to get to the sea. And the rivers from which we try to drink are +sand-choked long before our thirst is slaked. So, if we are wise, we +shall take Isaiah's hint, and go where the water flows abundantly, and +flows for ever. + +IV. There is a last point that I would also suggest, namely, the +manifold variety in the results of God's presence. + +It shapes itself into many forms, according to our different needs. 'The +glorious Lord shall be a place of broad rivers.' Yes; but notice the +next words--'and streams.' Now, the word which is there translated +'streams' means little channels for irrigation and other purposes, by +which the water of some great river is led off into the melon patches, +and gardens, and plantations, and houses of the inhabitants. So we have +not only the picture of the broad river in its unity, but also that of +the thousand little rivulets in their multiplicity, and in their +direction to each man's plot of ground. It is the same idea that is in +the psalm which I have already quoted: 'There is a river, _the streams_ +whereof make glad the city of our God.' You can divide the river up into +very tiny trickles, according to the moment's small wants. If you make +but a narrow channel, you will get but a shallow streamlet; and if you +make your channel broad and deep, you will get much of Him. + +It is of no profit that we live on the river's bank if we let its waters +go rolling and flashing past our door, or our gardens, or our lips. +Unless you have a sluice, by which you can take them off into your own +territory, and keep the shining blessing to be the source of fertility +in your own garden, and of coolness and refreshment to your own thirst, +your garden will be parched, and your lips will crack. There is a 'broad +river,' and there are also 'streams'; which, being brought down to its +simplest expression, just comes to this--that we may and must make God +our very own property. It is useless to say '_our_ God,' 'the God of +Israel,' 'the God of the Church,' 'the Great Creator,' 'the Universal +Father,' and so on, unless we say '_my_ God and _my_ Saviour,' '_my_ +Refuge and _my_ Strength.' How much of the river have you dipped up in +your own vessel? How much of it have you taken with which to water your +own vineyard and refresh your own souls? + +The time comes when Isaiah's prophecy shall be perfectly fulfilled, +according to the great words in the closing hook of Scripture, about the +river of the water of life proceeding out of the Throne of God and of +the Lamb. But, till that time comes, we do not need to wander thirsty in +a desert; but all round us we may hear the mighty waters rolling +everywhere, and drink deep draughts of delight and supply for all our +needs, from the very presence of God Himself. + + + + +JUDGE, LAWGIVER, KING + +'For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our +King; He will save us.'--ISAIAH xxxiii. 22. + + +There is reference here to the three forms of government in Israel: by +Moses, by Judges, by Kings. In all, Israel was a Theocracy. Isaiah looks +beyond the human representative to the true divine Reality. + +I. A truth for us, in both its more specific and its more general forms. + +(a) Specific. Christ is all these three for us--Authority; His will law; +Defender. + +(b) More general. Everything that human beings are to us, they are by +derivation from Him--and He sums in Himself all forms of good and +blessing. Every name among men for any kind of helper belongs to Him. +All tender, helpful relationships are but 'broken lights of Thee.' + +II. A lesson hard to learn and to remember. + +One knows not whether it is harder for faith to look beyond the visible +helpers or delights to the Unseen Real One, or to look through tears, +when these are gone, and to see Him clearly filling an otherwise empty +field of vision. When we have a palpable prop to lean on, it is +difficult to be clearly aware that, unless the palpable support were +held up by the Unseen, it could not be a prop, and to lean on it would +be like resting one's weight on a staff stuck in yielding mud. But it is +no less difficult to tell our hearts that we have all that we ever had, +when what we had leaned on for many happy days and found to hold us up +is stricken from beneath us. Present, the seen lawgiver, judge, or king +stays the eyes that should travel past him to God Himself; removed, his +absence makes a great emptiness, in whose vacuity it is difficult for +faith to discern the real presence of Him who is all that the departed +seemed to be. The painted glass stays the eye; shattered, it lets in +only the sight of a void and far-off sky. + +Israel could not breathe freely in the rarefied air on the heights of a +theocracy, and demanded a visible king. It had its desire, and as a +consequence, 'leanness in its soul.' Christendom has found it as +difficult to do without visible embodiments of authority, law, defence, +and hence many evils and corruptions in the institutions and practices +of organised Christianity. + +III. A conviction which makes strong and blessed. + +To have dominant in our minds, and operative through our lives, the +settled conviction that God in Christ is for us judge, lawgiver, and +king, and that the purpose of all these offices or relationships is that +'He will save us' is the secret of tranquillity, the fountain of +courage, the talisman which makes life all different and us who live in +it different. Fear cannot survive where that conviction rules and +fortifies a heart. We shall not be slavish adherents of men if we are +accustomed to take our orders from our Lawgiver. Earthly prizes or +dignities will not dazzle eyes that have seen the King in His beauty. We +shall pay little heed to men's judgments if there flames ever before +conscience the thought, 'He that judgeth me is the Lord.' 'He will save +us'; who can destroy what His hand is stretched out to preserve? 'If God +is for us, who is against us? It is God that justifieth; who is He that +condemneth?' + + + + +MIRACLES OF HEALING + +'Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf +shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the +tongue of the dumb sing.'--ISAIAH xxxv. 5,6. + + +'Then'--when? The previous verse answers, 'Behold, your God will come, +He will come and save you.' And what or when is that 'coming'? A glance +at the place which this grand hymn occupies in the series of Isaiah's +prophecies answers that question. It stands at the close of the first +part of these, and is the limit of the prophet's vision. He has been +setting forth the Lord's judgments upon all heathen, and His deliverance +of Israel from its oppressors; and the 'coming' is His manifestation for +that double purpose. Before its flashing brightness, barrenness is +changed into verdure, diseases that lame men's powers vanish, the dry +and thirsty land gleams with the shining light of sudden streams. Across +the wilderness stretches a broad path, raised high above the bewildering +monotony of pathless sand, too plain to be missed, too lofty for wild +beasts' suppleness to spring upon it: along it troop with song and +gladness the returning exiles, with hope in their hearts as they journey +to Zion, where they find a joyful home undimmed by sorrow, and in which +sighing and sorrow are heard and felt no more. + +Now this is poetry, no doubt; the golden light of imagination suffuses +it all, but it is poetry with a solid meaning in it. It is not a mere +play of fancy exalting the 'coming of the Lord' by heaping together all +images that suggest the vanishing of evil and the coming of good. If +there is a basis of facts in it, what are they? What is the period of +that emphatic 'then' at the beginning of our text? The return of the +Jews from exile? Yes, certainly; but some greater event shines through +the words. Some future restoration of that undying race to their own +land? Yes, possibly, again we answer, but that does not exhaust the +prophecy. The great coming of God to save in the gift of His Son? Yes, +that in an eminent degree. The second coming of Christ? Yes, that too. +All the events in which God has come for men's deliverance are shadowed +here; for in them all, the same principles are at work, and in all, +similar effects have followed. But mainly the mission and work of Jesus +Christ is pointed at here--whether in its first stage of Incarnation and +Passion, or in its second stage of Coming in glory, 'the second time +without sin, unto salvation.' + +And the bodily diseases here enumerated are symbols, just as Christ's +miracles were symbolical, just as every language has used the body as a +parable of the soul, and has felt that there is such a harmony between +them that the outward and visible does correspond to and shadow the +inward and spiritual. + +I think, then, that we may fairly take these four promises as bringing +out very distinctly the main characteristics of the blessed effects of +Christ's work in the world. The great subject of these words is the +power of Christ in restoring to men the spiritual capacities which are +all but destroyed. We have here three classes of bodily infirmities +represented as cured at the date of that blessed 'Then.' Blindness and +deafness are defects in perception, and stand for incapacities affecting +the powers of knowledge. Lameness affects powers of motion, and stands +for incapacity of activity. Dumbness prevents speech, and stands for +incapacity of utterance. + +I. Christ as the restorer of the powers of knowing. + +Bodily diseases are taken to symbolise spiritual infirmities. + +Mark the peculiarities of Scripture anthropology as brought out in this +view of humanity:--- + +Its gloomy views of man's actual condition. + +Its emphatic declaration that that condition is abnormal. + +Its confidence of effecting a cure. + +Its transcendentally glorious conception of what man may become. + +Men are blind and deaf; that is to say, their powers of perception are +destroyed by reason of disease. What a picture! The great spiritual +realities are all unseen, as Elisha's young servant was blind to the +fiery chariots that girdled the prophet. Men are blind to the starry +truths that shine as silver in the firmament. They are deaf to the Voice +which is gone out to the ends of the earth, and yet they have eyes and +ears, conscience, intuitions. They possess organs, but these are +powerless. + +And while the blindness is primarily in regard to spiritual and +religious truths, it is not confined to these, but wherever spiritual +blindness has fallen, the whole of a man's knowledge will suffer. There +will be blindness to the highest philosophy, to the true basis and +motive of morals, to true psychology, to the noblest poetry. All will be +of the earth, earthy. You cannot strike religion out of men's thoughts, +as you might take a stone out of a wall and leave the wall standing; you +take out foundation and mortar, and make a ruinous heap. + +I know, of course, that there may be much mental activity without any +perception of spiritual realities, but all knowledge which is not purely +mathematical or physical suffers by the absence of such perception. All +this blindness is caused by sin. + +Christ is the giver of spiritual sight. He restores the faculty by +taking away the hindrance to its exercise. Further, He gives sight +because He gives light. + +But turn to facts of experience, and consider the mental apathy of +heathenism as contrasted with the energy of mind within the limits of +Christendom. Greece, of course, is a brilliant exception, but even there +(1) what of the conceptions of God? (2) what of the effect of the wise +on the mass of the nation? Think of the languid intellectual life of the +East. Think of the energy of thought which has been working within the +limits of Christianity. Think of Christian theology compared with the +mythologies of idolatry. And the contrast holds not only in the +religious field but all over the field of thought. + +There is no such sure way of diffusing a culture which will refine and +strengthen all the powers of mind as to diffuse the knowledge of Jesus, +and to make men love Him. In His light they will see light. + +To know Him and to keep company with Him is 'a liberal education,' as is +seen in many a lowly life, all uninfluenced by what is called learning, +but enriched with the finest flowers of 'culture,' and having gathered +them all in Christ's garden. + +Christ is the true light; in Him do we see. Without Him, what is all +other knowledge? He is central to all, like genial heat about the roots +of a plant. There is other knowledge than that of sense; and for the +highest of all our knowledge we depend on Him who is the Word. In that +region we can neither observe nor experiment. In that region facts must +be brought by some other means than we can command, and we can but draw +more or less accurate deductions from them. Logic without revelation is +like a spinning-machine without any cotton, busy drawing out nothing. +Here we have to listen. 'The entrance of Thy words giveth light.' Your +God shall come and save you; then, by that divine coming and saving, +'the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall +be unstopped.' + +II. Christ as the Restorer of the Powers of Action. + +Again turn to heathenism, see the apathetic indolence, the unprogressive +torpor, 'Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay.' Sin lames +for service of God; it leaves the lower nature free to act, and that +freedom paralyses all noble activity. + +Christianity brings the Energising of the Soul-- + +(a) By its reference of everything to God--our powers and our +circumstances and our activities. + +(b) By its prominence given to Retribution. It speaks not merely of +_vita brevis_--but of _vita brevis_ and an Eternity which grows out of +it. + +(c) By its great motive for work--love. + +(d) By the freedom It brings from the weight that paralysed. + +It takes away sin. Lifting that dreary load from our backs, it makes us +joyful, strong, and agile. + +The true view of Christianity is not, as some of its friends, and some +of its foes, mistakenly concur in supposing, that it weakens interest +in, and energy on, the Present, but that it heightens the power of +action. A life plunged in that jar of oxygen will glow with redoubled +brilliance. + +III. Christ as the Restorer of Powers of Utterance. + +The silence that broods over the world. It is dumb for all holy, +thankful words; with no voice to sing, no utterance of joyful praise. + +Think of the effect of Christianity on human speech, giving it new +themes, refining words and crowding them with new meanings. Translate +the Bible into any language, and that language is elevated and enriched. + +Think of the effect on human praise. That great treasure of Christian +poetry. + +Think of the effect on human gladness. Christ fills the heart with such +reasons for praise, and makes life one song of joy. + +Thus Christ is the Healer. + +To men seeking for knowledge, He offers a higher gift--healing. And as +for true knowledge and culture, in Christ, and in Christ alone, will you +find it. + +Let your culture be rooted in Him. Let your Religion influence all your +nature. + +The effects of Christianity are its best evidence. What else does the +like of that which it does? Let Jannes and Jambres 'do the same with +their enchantments.' We may answer the question, 'Art Thou He that +should come?' as Christ did, 'The blind receive their sight, and the +lame walk; the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear.' + +The perfect Restoration will be in heaven. Then, indeed, when our souls +are freed from mortal grossness, and the thin veils of sense are rent +and we behold Him as He is, then when they rest not day nor night, but +with ever renewed strength run to His commandments, then when He has put +into their lips a new song--'then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, +and the ears of the deaf be unstopped; then shall the lame man leap as +an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing.' + + + + +MIRAGE OR LAKE + +'For in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the +desert. And the glowing sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground +springs of water.' ISAIAH xxxv. 6, 7. + + +What a picture is painted in these verses! The dreary wilderness +stretches before us, monotonous, treeless, in some parts bearing a +scanty vegetation which flourishes in early spring and dies before +fierce summer heats, but for the most part utterly desolate, the sand +blinding the eyes, the ground cracked and gaping as if athirst for the +rain that will not fall; over it the tantalising mirage dancing in +mockery, and amid the hot sand the yelp of the jackals. What does this +dead land want? One thing alone--water. Could that be poured upon it, +all would be changed; nothing else will do any good. And it comes. +Suddenly it bursts from the sand, and streams bring life along the +desert. It gathers into placid lakes, with their whispering reeds and +nodding rushes, and the thick cool grass round their margins. The foul +beasts that wandered through dry places seeking rest are drowned out. So +full of blessed change will be the coming of the Lord, of which all this +context speaks. Mark that this burst of waters is when 'the Lord shall +come,' and that it is the reason for the restoration of lost powers in +men, and especially for a chorus of praise from dumb lips. This, then, +is the central blessing. It is not merely a joyful transformation, but +it is the reason for a yet more joyful transformation (chap. xliv. 3). +Recall Christ's words to the Samaritan woman and in the Temple on the +great day of the Feast. + +Then this is pre-eminently a description of the work of Christ. + +I. Christ brings the Supernatural Communication of a New Life. + +We may fairly regard this metaphor as setting forth the very deepest +characteristic of the gospel. Consider man's need, as typified in the +image of the desert. Mark that the supply for that need must come from +without; that coming from without, it must be lodged in the heart of the +race; that the supernatural communication of a new life and power is the +very essence of the work of Christ; that such a communication is the +only thing adequate to produce these wondrous effects. + +II. This new life slakes men's thirst. + +The pangs and tortures of the waterless wilderness. The thirst of human +souls; they long, whether they know it or not, for-- + + Truth for Understanding. + Love for Heart. + Basis and Guidance for Will and Effort. + Cleansing for Conscience. + Adequate objects for their powers. + +They need that all these should be in One. + +The gnawing pain of our thirst is not a myth; it is the secret of man's +restlessness. We are ever on the march, not only because change is the +law of the world, nor only because effort and progress are the law for +civilised men, but because, like caravans in the desert, we have to +search for water. + +In Christ it is slaked; all is found there. + +III. The Communication of this New Life turns Illusions into Realities. + +'The mirage shall become a pool.' Life without Christ is but a long +illusion. 'Sin makes a mock of fools.' How seldom are hopes fulfilled, +and how still less frequently are they, when fulfilled, as good as we +painted them! The prismatic splendours of the rain bow, which gleam +before us and which we toil to catch, are but grey rain-drops when +caught. Joys attract and, attained, have incompleteness and a tang of +bitterness. The fish is never so heavy when landed on the sward as it +felt when struggling on our hook. 'All is vanity'--yes, if creatures and +things temporal are pursued as our good. But nothing is vanity, if we +have the life in us which Jesus comes to give. His Gospel gives solid, +unmingled joys, sure promises which are greater when fulfilled than when +longed for, certain hopes whose most brilliant colours are duller than +those of the realities. The half has not been told of the 'things which +God hath prepared for them that love Him.' + +Sure Promises. + +A certain Hope. + +IV. This New Life gives Fruitfulness. It stimulates all our nature. A +godless life is in a very tragic sense barren, and a wilderness. There +is in it nothing really worth doing, nor anything that will last. Christ +gives Power, Motive, Pattern, and makes a life of holy activity +possible. The works done by men apart from Him are, if measured by the +whole relations and capacities of the doers, unfruitful works, however +they may seem laden with ruddy clusters. It is only lives into which +that river of God which is full of water flows that bring forth fruit, +and whose fruit remains. The desert irrigated becomes a garden of the +Lord. + +Note, too, how this river drowns out wild beasts. The true way of +conquering evil is to turn the river into it. Cultivate, and weeds die. +The expulsive power of a new affection is the most potent instrument for +perfecting character. + +What is the use of water if we do not drink? We may perish with thirst +even on the river's bank. 'If any man thirst, let him come to Me and +drink.' + + + + +THE KING'S HIGHWAY + +'And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the +way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for +those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion +shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not +be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there.'--ISAIAH xxxv. 8, 9. + + +We can fancy what it is to be lost in a forest where a traveller may +ride round in a circle, thinking he is advancing, till he dies. But it +is as easy to be lost in a wilderness, where there is nothing to see, as +in a wood where one can see nothing. And there is something even more +ghastly in being lost below the broad heavens in the open face of day +than 'in the close covert of innumerous boughs.' The monotonous swells +of the sand-heaps, the weary expanse stretching right away to the +horizon, no land-marks but the bleaching bones of former victims, the +gigantic sameness, the useless light streaming down, and in the centre +one tiny, black speck toiling vainly, rushing madly hither and +thither--a lost man--till he desperately flings himself down and lets +death bury him, that is the one picture suggested by the text. The other +is of that same wilderness, but across it a mighty king has flung up a +broad, lofty embankment, a highway raised above the sands, cutting +across them so conspicuously that even an idiot could not help seeing +it, so high above the land around that the lion's spring falls far +beneath it, and the supple tiger skulks baffled at its base. It is like +one of those roads which the terrible energy of conquering Rome carried +straight as an arrow from the milestone in the Forum over mountains, +across rivers and deserts, morasses and forests, to flash along them the +lightning of her legions, and over whose solid blocks we travel to-day +in many a land. + +The prophet has seen in his vision the blind and deaf cured, the +capacities of human nature destroyed by sin restored. He has told us +that this miraculous change has come from the opening of a spring of new +life in the midst of man's thirsty desert, and now he gets before us, in +yet another image, another aspect of the glorious change which is to +follow that coming of the Lord to save, which filled the farthest +horizon of his vision. The desert shall have a plain path on which those +diseased men who have been healed journey. Life shall no longer be +trackless, but God will, by His coming, prepare paths that we should +walk in them; and as He has given the lame man power to walk, so will he +also provide the way by which His happy pilgrims will journey to their +home. + +I. The pathless wandering of godless lives. + +The old, old comparison of life to a journey is very natural and very +pathetic. It expresses life's ceaseless change; every day carries us +into a new scene, every day the bends of the road shut out some happy +valley where we fain would have rested, every day brings new faces, new +associations, new difficulties, and even if the same recur, yet it is +with such changes that they are substantially new, and of each day's +march it is true, even when life is most monotonous, that 'ye have not +passed this way heretofore.' It expresses life's ceaseless effort and +constant plodding. To-day's march does not secure to-morrow's rest, but, +however footsore and weary, we have to move on, like some child dragged +along by a careless nurse. It expresses the awful crumbling away of life +beneath us. The road has an end, and each step takes us nearer to it. +The numbers that face us on the milestones slowly and surely decrease; +we pass the last and on we go, tramp, tramp, and we cannot stop till we +reach the narrow chamber, cold and dark, where, at any rate, we have got +the long march over. + +But to many men, the journey of life is one which has no definite +direction deliberately chosen, which has no all-inclusive aim, which has +no steady progress. There may be much running hither and thither, but it +is as aimless as the marchings of a fly upon a window, as busy and yet +as uncertain as that of the ants who bustle about on an ant-hill. + +Now that is the idea, which our text implies, of all the activity of a +godless life, that it is not a steady advance to a chosen goal, but a +rushing up and down in a trackless desert, with many immense exertions +all thrown away. Then, in contrast, it puts this great thought: that God +has come to us and made for us a path for our feet. + +II. The highway that God casts up. + +Of course that coming we take to be Christ's coming, and we have just to +consider the manner in which His coming fulfils this great promise, and +has made in the trackless wilderness a way for us to walk in. + +1. Christ gives us a Definite Aim for Life. I know, of course, that men +may have this apart from Him, definite enough in all conscience. But +such aims are unworthy of men's whole capacities. Not one of them is fit +to be made the exclusive, all-embracing purpose of a life, and, taken +together, they are so multifarious that in their diversity they come to +be equal to none. How many we have all had! Most of us are like men who +zig-zag about, chasing after butterflies! Nor are any such aims certain +to be reached during life, and they all are certain to be lost at death. + +Godless men are enticed on like some dumb creature lured to slaughter- +house by a bunch of fodder--once inside, down comes the pole-axe. + +But Christ gives us a definite aim which is worthy of a man, which +includes all others; which binds this life and the next into one. + +2. Christ gives us distinct knowledge of whither we should go. It is not +enough to give general directions; we need to know what our next step is +to be. It is of no avail that we see the shining turrets far off on the +hill, if all the valleys between are unknown and trackless. Well: we +have Him to point us our course. He is the exemplar--the true ideal of +human nature. Hour by hour His pattern fits to our lives. True, we shall +often be in perplexity, but that perplexity will clear itself by patient +thought, by holding our wills in suspense till He speaks, and by an +honest wish to go right. There will no longer be doubt as to what is our +law, though there may be as to the application of it. We are not to be +guided by men's maxims, nor by the standards and patterns round us, but +by Him. + +3. Christ gives means by which we can reach the aim. He does so by +supplying a stimulus to our activity, in the motive of His love; by the +removal of the hindrances arising from sin, through His redeeming work; +by the gifts of new life from His Spirit. + +'The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he +knoweth not how to go to the city.' But he that follows Jesus treads the +right way to the city of habitation. + +4. Christ goes with us. The obscure words, 'It shall be for those' are +by some rendered, 'He shall be with them,' and we may take them so, as +referring to the presence with His happy pilgrims of the Lord Himself. +Perhaps Isaiah may have been casting back a thought to the desert march, +where the pillar led the host. But at all events we have the same +companion to 'talk with us by the way,' and make 'our hearts burn within +us,' as had the two disconsolate pedestrians on the road to Emmaus. It +is Jesus who goes before us, whether He leads us to green pastures and +waters of quietness or through valleys of the shadow of death, and we +can be smitten by no evil, since He is with us. + +III. The travellers upon God's highway. + +Two conditions are laid down in the text. One is negative-the unclean +can find no footing there. It is 'the way of holiness,' not only because +holiness is in some sense the goal to which it leads, but still more, +because only holy feet can tread it, holy at least in the travellers' +aspiration and inward consecration, though still needing to be washed +daily. One is positive--it is 'the simple' who shall not err therein. +They who distrust themselves and their own skill to find or force a path +through life's jungle, and trust themselves to higher guidance, are they +whose feet will be kept in the way. + +No lion or ravenous beast can spring or creep up thereon. Simple keeping +on Christ's highway elevates us above temptations and evils of all +sorts, whether nightly prowlers or daylight foes. + +This generation is boasting or complaining that old landmarks are +blotted out, ancient paths broken, footmarks obliterated, stars hid, and +mist shrouding the desert. But Christ still guides, and His promise +still holds good: 'He that followeth Me shall not walk in the darkness, +but shall have the light of life.' The alternative for each 'traveller +between life and death' is to tread in His footsteps or to 'wander in +the wilderness in a solitary way, hungry and thirsty,' with fainting +soul. Let us make the ancient prayer ours: 'See if there be any wicked +way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.' + + + + +WHAT LIFE'S JOURNEY MAY BE + +'The redeemed shall walk there: And the ransomed of the Lord shall +return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their +heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall +flee away.'--ISAIAH XXXV 9,10. + + +We have here the closing words of Isaiah's prophecy. It has been +steadily rising, and now it has reached the summit. Men restored to all +their powers, a supernatural communication of a new life, a pathway for +our journey--these have been the visions of the preceding verses, and +now the prophet sees the happy pilgrims flocking along the raised way, +and hears some faint strains of their glad music, and he marks them, +rank after rank, entering the city of their solemnities, and through the +gates can behold them invested with joy and gladness, while sorrow and +sighing, like some night-loving birds shrinking from the blaze of that +better sun which lights the city, spread their black wings and flee +away. + +The noble rhythm of our English version rises here to a strain of +pathetic music, the very cadence of which stirs thoughts that lie too +deep for tears, and one shrinks from taking these lofty words of +immortal hope--which life's sorrows have interpreted, I trust, for many +of us--as the text of a sermon. But I would fain try whether some of +their gracious sweetness and power may not survive even our rude +handling of them. + +The prophet here is not only speaking of the literal return of his +brethren from captivity. The place which this prophecy holds at the very +close of the book, the noble loftiness of the language, the entire +absence of any details or specific allusions which compel reference to +the Captivity, would be sufficient of themselves to make us suspect that +there was very much more here. The structure of prophecy is +misunderstood unless it be recognised that all the history of Israel was +itself a prediction, a great supernatural system of types and shadows, +and that all the interventions of the divine hand are one in principle, +and all foretell the great intervention of redeeming love, in the person +of Jesus Christ. Nor need that be unlikely in the eyes of any who +believe that Christ's coming is the centre of the world's history, and +that there is in prophecy a supernatural element. We are not reading our +own fancies into Scripture; we are not using, in allowable freedom, +words which had another meaning altogether, to adorn our own theology, +but we are apprehending the innermost meaning of prophecy, when we see +in it Christ and His salvation (1 Peter i. 10). + +We have then here a picture of what Christ does for us weary journeyers +on life's road, + +I. Who are the travellers? + +'Redeemed,' 'ransomed of the Lord.' Israel had in its past history one +great act, under the imagery of which all future deliverances were +prophesied. The events of the Exodus were the great storehouse from +which prophets drew the clothing of their brightest hopes; and that is a +lesson for us of how to use the history of God's past deliverances. They +believed that each transitory act was a revelation of an unchanging +purpose and an unexhausted power, and that it would be repeated over and +over again. Experience supplied the material out of which Hope wove its +fairest webs, but Faith drove the shuttle. Here the names which describe +the pilgrims come from the old story. They are slaves, purchased or +otherwise set free from captivity by a divine act. The epithets are +transferred to the New Testament, and become the standing designation +for those who have been delivered by Christ. + +That designation, 'ransomed of the Lord,' opens out into the great +evangelical thoughts which are the very life-blood of vital +Christianity. + +Emancipation from bondage is the first thing that we all need. 'He that +committeth sin is the slave of sin.' An iron yoke presses on every neck. + +The needed emancipation can only be obtained by a ransom price. The +question of to whom the ransom is paid is not in the horizon of prophet +or apostle or of Jesus Himself, in using this metaphor. What is strongly +in their minds is that a great surrender must be greatly made by the +Emancipator. + +Jesus conceived of Himself as giving 'His life a ransom for the many.' + +The emancipation must be a divine act. It surpasses any created power. + +There can be no happy pilgrims unless they are first set free. + +II. The end of the journey. + +'They shall come to Zion.' It is one great distinctive characteristic +and blessedness of the Christian conception of the future that it takes +away from it all the chilling sense of strangeness, arising from +ignorance and lack of experience, and invests it with the attraction of +being the mother-city of us all. So the pilgrims are not travelling a +dreary road into the common darkness, but are like colonists who visit +England for the first time, and are full of happy anticipations of +'going home,' though they have never seen its shores. + +That conception of the future perfect state as a 'city' includes the +ideas of happy social life, of a settled polity, of stability and +security. The travellers who were often solitary on the march will all +be together there. The nomads, who had to leave their camping-place each +morning and let the fire that cheered them in the night die down into a +little ring of grey ashes, will 'go no more out,' but yet make endless +progress within the gates. The defenceless travellers, who were fain to +make the best 'laager' they could, and keep vigilant watch for human and +bestial enemies crouching beyond the ring of light from the camp-fires, +are safe at last, and they that swallowed them up shall be far away. + +Contrast the future outlook of the noblest minds in heathenism with the +calm certainty which the gospel has put within the reach of the +simplest! 'Blessed are your eyes, for they see.' + +III. The joy of the road. + +The pilgrims do not plod wearily in silence, but, like the tribes going +up to the feasts, burst out often, as they journey, into song. They are +like Jehoshaphat's soldiers, who marched to the fight with the singers +in the van chanting 'Give thanks unto the Lord, for His mercy endureth +for ever.' The Christian life should be a joyful life, ever echoing with +the 'high praises of God.' However difficult the march, there is good +reason for song, and it helps to overcome the difficulties. 'A merry +heart goes all the day, a sad heart tires in a mile.' Why should the +ransomed pilgrims sing? For present blessings, for deliverance from the +burden of self and sin, for communion with God, for light shed on the +meaning of life, and for the sure anticipation of future bliss. + +'Everlasting joy on their heads.' Other joys are transitory. It is not +only 'we poets' who 'in our youth begin with gladness,' whereof 'cometh +in the end despondency and madness'; but, in a measure, these are the +outlines of the sequence in all godless lives. The world's festal +wreathes wilt and wither in the hot fumes of the banqueting house, and +'the crown of pride shall be trodden under foot.' But joy of Christ's +giving 'shall remain,' and even before we sit at the feast, we may have +our brows wreathed with a garland 'that fadeth not away.' + +IV. The perfecting of joy at last. + +'They shall obtain joy and gladness': but had they not had it on their +heads as they marched? Yes; but at last they have it in perfect measure +and manner. The flame that burned but dimly in the heavy air of earth +flashes up into new brightness in the purer atmosphere of the city. + +And one part of its perfecting is the removal of all its opposites. +Sorrow ends when sin and the discipline that sin needs have ended. 'The +inhabitant shall not say: I am sick; the people that dwell therein shall +be forgiven their iniquity.' Sighing ends when weariness, loss, physical +pain, and all the other ills that flesh is heir to have ceased to vex +and weigh upon the spirit. Life purges the dross of imperfection from +character. Death purges the alloy of sorrow and sighing from joy, and +leaves the perfected spirit possessor of the pure gold of perfect and +eternal gladness. + + + + +THE TRIUMPH OF FAITH + +'And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and +read it: and Hezekiah went up unto the house of the Lord, and spread it +before the Lord. 15. And Hezekiah prayed unto the Lord, saying, 16. O +Lord of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, Thou +art the God, even Thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: Thou +hast made heaven and earth. 17. Incline Thine ear, O Lord, and hear; +open Thine eyes, O Lord, and see: and hear all the words of Sennacherib, +which hath sent to reproach the living God. 18. Of a truth, Lord, the +kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations, and their countries, +19. And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but +the work of men's hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed +them. 20. Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all +the kingdoms of the earth may know that Thou art the Lord, even Thou +only. 21. Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent unto Hezekiah, saying. Thus +saith the Lord God of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to Me against +Sennacherib king of Assyria.... 33. Therefore thus saith the Lord +concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor +shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank +against it. 34. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, +and shall not come into this city, saith the Lord. 35. For I will defend +this city to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake. +36. Then the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the +Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose +early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. 37. So +Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt +at Nineveh. 38. And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house +of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him +with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Armenia: and +Esarhaddon his you reigned in his stead.'--ISAIAH xxxvii. 14-21, 33-38. + + +Is trust in Jehovah folly or wisdom? That was the question raised by +Sennacherib's invasion. A glance at the preceding chapters will show how +the high military official, 'the rabshakeh,' or chief of the officers, +shaped all his insolent and yet skilful mixture of threats and promises +so as to demonstrate the vanity of trust in Egypt or in Jehovah, or in +any but 'the great king.' Isaiah had been labouring to lift his +countrymen to the height of reliance on Jehovah alone, and now the +crucial test of the truth of his contention had come. On the one hand +were Sennacherib and his host, flushed with victory, and sure of +crushing this puny kinglet Hezekiah and his obstinate little city, +perched on its rock. On the other was nothing but a prophet's word. +Where is the stronger force? And does political prudence dictate +reliance on the Unseen or on the visible? The moment is the crisis of +Isaiah's work, and this narrative has been placed, with true insight +into its importance, at the close of the first half of this book. + +To grasp the significance of the text the preceding events have to be +remembered. Hezekiah's kingdom had been overrun, and tribute exacted +from him. The rabshakeh had been sent from the main body of the Assyrian +army, which was down at Lachish in the Philistine low country on the +road to Egypt, in order to try to secure Jerusalem by promises and +threats, since it was too important a post to leave in the rear, if +Egypt was to be invaded. That attempt having failed, and the Egyptian +forces being in motion, this new effort was made to induce Hezekiah to +surrender. A letter was sent, whether accompanied by any considerable +armed force or no does not appear. At this point the narrative begins. +It may be best studied as an illustration of the trial of faith, its +refuge, its pleading, and its deliverance. + +I. Note the trial of faith. Rabshakeh had derided the obstinate +confidence in Jehovah, which kept these starving men on the walls grimly +silent in spite of his coaxing. The letter of Sennacherib harps on the +same string. It is written in a tone of assumed friendly remonstrance, +and lays out with speciousness the apparent grounds for calling trust in +Jehovah absurdity. There are no threats in it. It is all an appeal to +common sense and political prudence. It marshals undeniable facts. +Experience has shown the irresistible power of Assyria. There have been +plenty of other little nations which have trusted in their local +deities, and what has become of them? Barbarous names are flourished in +Hezekiah's face, and their wasted dominions are pointed to as warnings +against his committing a parallel folly. There is nothing in the letter +which might not have been said by a friend, and nothing which was not +said by the Jews who had lost their faith in their God. It was but the +putting into plain words of what 'common-sense' and faint faith had +often whispered to Hezekiah. The very absence of temper or demand in the +letter gives it an aspect of that 'sweet reasonableness' so dear to +sense-bound souls. + +_Mutatis mutandis_, the letter may stand for a specimen of the arguments +which worldly prudence brings to shake faith, in all ages. We, too, are +assailed by much that sounds most forcible from the point of view of +mere earthly calculation. Sennacherib does not lie in boasting of his +victories. He and his shoals of soldiers are very real and potent. It +does seem madness for one little kingdom to stand out, and all the more +so because its king is cooped up in his city, as the cuneiform +inscription proudly tells, 'like a bird in a cage,' and all the rest of +his land is in the conqueror's grip. They who look only at the things +seen cannot but think the men of faith mad. They who look at the things +unseen cannot but know that the men of sense are fools. The latter +elaborately prove that the former are impotent, but they have left out +one factor in their calculations, and that is God. One man and God at +his back are stronger than Sennacherib and all his mercenaries. + +II. Note the refuge of tempted faith. What was Hezekiah to do with the +crafty missive? It was hoped that he would listen to reason, and come +down from his perch. But he neither yielded nor took counsel with his +servants, but, like a devout man, went into the house of the Lord, and +spread the letter before the Lord. It would have gone hard with him if +he had not been to the house of the Lord many a time before. It is not +easy to find our way thither for the first time, when our eyes are +blinded by tears or our way darkened by calamities. But faith +instinctively turns to God when anything goes wrong, because it has been +accustomed to turn to Him when all was right, according to the world's +estimate of right and wrong. Whither should the burdened heart betake +itself but to Him who daily bears our burdens? The impulse to tell God +all troubles is as truly a mark of the faithful soul as the impulse to +tell everything to the beloved is the life-breath of love. + +The act of spreading the letter before the Lord is an eloquent symbol, +which some prosaic and learned commentators have been dull enough to +call gross, and to compare to Buddhist praying-mills! Its meaning is +expressed in the prayer which follows. It is faith's appeal to His +knowledge. It is faith's casting of its burden on the Lord. Our faith is +of little power to bless, unless it impels us to take God into +confidence in regard to everything which troubles us. If the letter is +not grave enough to be spread before _Him_, it is too small to annoy +_us_. If we truly live in fellowship with God, we shall find ourselves +in His house, with the cause of our trouble in our hands, before we have +time to think. Instinct acts more quickly than reason, and, if our faith +be vital, it will not need to be argued into speaking to God of all that +weighs upon us. + +III. Note the pleading of faith. Hezekiah's address to God is no mere +formal recapitulation of divine names, but is the effort of faith to +grasp firmly the truths which the enemy denies, and on which it builds. +So considered, the accumulation of titles in verse 16 is very +instructive, and shows how a trustful soul puts forth the energy of its +faith in summoning to mind the great aspects of the divine name as +bulwarks against suggested fears, and bases of supplication. Hezekiah +appeals to 'the God of Hosts,' the Ruler of all the embattled forces of +the universe, as well as of the armies of angels. What is Sennacherib's +array compared with these? He appeals to the 'God of Israel,' as +pleading the ancient relationship, which binds the unchangeable Guardian +of the people to be still what He has been, and casts the responsibility +of Israel's preservation upon Him. He appeals to Him 'who sits between +the cherubim,' as thence defending and filling the threatened city. He +grasps the thought that Jehovah is 'God alone' with a vividness which is +partly due no doubt to Isaiah's teaching, but is also the indignant +recoil of faith from the assumption of the letter, that Jehovah was but +as the beaten deities of Gozan and the rest. Faith clings the more +tenaciously to truths denied, as a dog will hold on to the stick that +one tries to pull from it. + +Thus, having heartened himself and pled with God by all these names, +Hezekiah comes to his petition. It is but translating into words the +symbol of spreading the letter before God. He asks God to behold and to +hear the defiant words. Prayer tells God what it knows that He knows +already, for it relieves the burdened heart to tell Him. It asks Him to +see and hear what it knows that He does see and hear. But the prayer is +not for mere observance followed by no divine act, but for taking +knowledge as the precursor of the appropriate help. Of such seeing and +hearing by God, believing prayer is the appointed condition. 'Your +Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him'; but that +is not a reason for silence, but for supplication. + +Hezekiah rightly regarded Sennacherib's words as meant to reproach the +living God, for the point of the letter was to dissuade from trust in +Him, as no more powerful than the petty deities of already conquered +cities. The prayer, therefore, pleads that God would take care of His +own honour, and by delivering Jerusalem, show His sole sovereignty. It +is a high and wonderful level for faith to reach, when it regards +personal deliverance mainly in its aspect as vindicating God and +warranting faith. We may too easily conclude that God's honour is +involved in our deliverance, and it is well to be on our guard against +that. + +But it is possible to die to self so fully as to feel that our cause is +His, because His is so entirely ours; and then we may come to that +heroic faith which seeks even personal good more for God's sake than for +our own. It was noble that this man should have no word to say about +self but 'Save us, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that Thou +art God alone.' Like him, we may each feel that our defence is more +God's affair than ours, in proportion as we feel we are His rather than +our own. That siege of Jerusalem was indeed as a duel between faith and +unbelief on the one hand, and between Jehovah and the gods who were 'no +gods' on the other. Sennacherib's letter was a defiant challenge to +Jehovah to do His best for this people, and when faith repeated in +prayer the insolence of unbelief only one result was possible. It came. + +IV. Note the deliverance of faith. Isaiah's grand prophecy tempts us to +linger over its many beauties and magnificent roll of triumphant scorn, +but it falls outside our purpose. As for the catastrophe, it should be +noted that its place and time are not definitely stated, and that +probably the notion that the Assyrian army was annihilated before +Jerusalem is a mistake. Sennacherib and his troops were at Libnah, on +their way to meet the Egyptian forces. If there were any of them before +Jerusalem, they would at most be a small detachment, sufficient to +invest it. Probably the course of events was that, at some time not +specified, soon after the dismissal of the messengers who brought the +letter, the awful destruction fell, and that, when the news of the +disaster reached the detachment at Jerusalem, as the psalm which throbs +with the echoes of the triumph says, 'They were troubled, and hasted +away.' + +How complete was the crushing blow the lame record of this campaign in +the inscriptions shows, in which the failure of the attempt to capture +the city is covered up by vapouring about tribute and the like. If it +had not failed, however, the success would certainly have been told, as +all similar cases are told, with abundant boasting. The other fact is +also to be remembered, that Sennacherib tried no more conclusions with +Jerusalem and Jehovah, and though he lived for some twenty years +afterwards, never again ventured on to the soil where that mighty God +fought for His people. + +The appended notice of Sennacherib's death has been added by some +narrator, since it probably occurred after Isaiah's martyrdom. 'All they +that take the sword shall perish with the sword.' Such a career as his +could not but give taste for violence and bloodshed, and dimmish regard +for human life. Retribution comes slowly, for twenty years intervened +between the catastrophe to the army and the murder of the king. Its +penalties increase as its fall delays; for first came the blotting out +of the army, and then, when that had no effect, at last the sword in his +own heart. 'He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall +suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.' + +But the great lesson of that death is the same as that of the other +king's deliverance. Hezekiah 'went unto the house of the Lord,' and +found Him a very present help in trouble. Sennacherib was slain in the +house of his god. The two pictures of the worshippers and their fates +are symbolic of the meaning of the whole story. Sennacherib had dared +Jehovah to try His strength against him and his deities. The challenge +was accepted, and that bloody corpse before the idol that could not help +preaches a ghastly sermon on the text, 'They that make them are like +unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them. O Israel, trust thou +in the Lord: He is their help and their shield.' + + + + +WHERE TO CARRY TROUBLES + +And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and +read it: and Hezekiah went up unto the house of the Lord, and spread it +before the Lord.'--ISAIAH xxxvii. 14. + + +When Hezekiah heard the threatenings of Sennacherib's servants, he rent +his clothes and went into the house of the Lord, and sent to Isaiah +entreating his prayers. When he received the menacing letter, his faith +was greater, having been heartened by Isaiah's assurances. So he then +himself appealed to Jehovah, spreading the letter before Him, and +himself prayed God to guard His own honour, and answer the challenge +flung down by the insolent Assyrian. It is noble when faith increases as +dangers increase. + +I. We have here an example of what to do with troubles and difficulties. + +We are to lay them out before God, as we can do by praying about them. +Hezekiah's trouble was great. His kingdom could be crushed like an +eggshell by the grasp of Sennacherib's hand. But little troubles as well +as great ones are best dealt with by being 'spread before the Lord.' +Whatever is important enough to disturb me is important enough for me to +speak to God about it. Whether the poison inflaming our blood be from a +gnat's bite, or a cobra's sting, the best antidote is--pray about it. + +How much more real and fervid our prayers would be, if we habitually +turned all our affairs into materials for petition! That is a very empty +dispute as to whether we ought to pray for deliverance from outward +sorrows. If we are living in touch with God, we cannot but take Him into +our confidence, if we may so say, as to everything that affects us. And +we should as soon think of hiding any matter from our dearest on earth +as from our Friend in heaven. 'In _everything_, by prayer and +supplication' is the commandment, and will be the instinct of the devout +heart. + +Note Hezekiah's assurance that God cares about him. + +Note his clear perception that God is his only help. + +Note his identification of his own deliverance with God's honour. We +cannot identify our welfare, or deliverance in small matters, with God's +fair fame, in such a fashion. But we ought to be quite sure that He will +not let us sink or perish, and will never desert us. And we can be quite +sure that, if we identify ourselves and our work with Him, He will +identify Himself with us and it. His treatment of His servants will tell +the world (and not one world only) what He is, how faithful, how loving, +how strong. + +II. We have here an example of how God answers His servants' prayers. + +It was 'by terrible things in righteousness' that Hezekiah's answer +came. His prayer was at one end of the chain, and at the other was a +camp full of corpses. One poor man's cry can set in motion tremendous +powers, as a low whisper can start an avalanche. That magnificent +theophany in Psalm xviii., with all its majesty and terror of flashing +lightnings and a rocking earth, was brought about by nothing more than +'In my distress I called upon the Lord,' and its purpose was nothing +more than to draw the suppliant out of many waters and deliver him from +his strong enemy. + +That army swept off the earth may teach us how much God will do for a +praying child of His. His people's deliverance is cheaply purchased at +such a price. 'He reproved kings for their sake.' + +One man with God beside him is stronger than all the world. As the +psalmist learned in his hour of peril, 'Thou, Lord, makest me to dwell +in safety, thou alone!' + + + + +GREAT VOICES FROM HEAVEN + +'Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. 2. Speak ye +comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is +accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of +the Lord's hand double for all her sins. 3. The voice of him that crieth +in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the +desert a highway for our God. 4. Every valley shall be exalted, and +every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made +straight, and the rough places plain: 5. And the glory of the Lord shall +be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the +Lord hath spoken it. 6. The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I +cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower +of the field: 7. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the +spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. 8. The +grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand +for ever. 9. 0 Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the +high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy +voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid: say unto the cities of +Judah, Behold your God! 10. Behold, the Lord God will come with strong +hand, and His arm shall rule for Him: behold, His reward is with Him, +and His work before Him.'--ISAIAH xi. 1-10. + + +How majestically this second part of the Book of Isaiah opens with these +mysterious voices! Other prophecies are wont to begin with symbolic +visions, but here the ear takes the place of the eye; and instead of +forms and flashing lights, which need to be translated, the prophet +hears words, the impressiveness of which is heightened by the absence of +any designation of the speakers. This much is clear, that the first +words are God's, addressed to the prophets. They are the keynote of the +whole. Israel is comforted in the assurance that her trial is ended and +her sin purged. Then there is silence, broken by a voice to which no +personality is attached, the herald and forerunner of the coming King +and God. When the echoes of it have died away, another is heard, +commanding yet another unnamed to 'cry,' and, in response to the +latter's asking what is to be the burden of his message, bidding him +peal out the frailty of man and the eternal vigour of the word of the +Lord, which assures its own fulfilment. + +Then comes a longer pause. The way has been prepared, the coming God has +come; He has set up His throne in the restored Jerusalem, and His glory +is seen upon her. So there rings out from unnamed lips the stirring +command to the city, thus visited by the indwelling God, to proclaim the +glad tidings with a voice, the strength of which shall correspond to +their gladness and certainty. This rapid glance at the structure of the +whole naturally suggests the fourfold division to which we shall adhere. + +I. God speaks and bids His servants speak (vs. 1, 2), That is a +wonderfully tender word with which the silence and sadness of exile are +broken. The inmost meaning of God's voice is ever comfort. What a world +of yearning love there is, too, in the two little words 'my' and 'your'! +The exiles are still His; He who has hidden His face from them so long +is still theirs. And what was true of them is true of us; for sin may +separate us from God, but it does not separate Him from us, and He still +seeks to make us recognise the imperishable bond, which itself is the +ground of both our comfort and of His will that we should be comforted. + +As the very first words go deep into the meaning of all God's voices, +and unveil the permanence of His relation of love even to sinful and +punished men, so the next disclose the tender manner of His approach to +us, and prescribe the tone for all His true servants: 'Speak ye to the +heart of Jerusalem,' with loving words, which may win her love; for is +she not the bride of Jehovah, fallen though she be? And is not humanity +the beloved of Jesus, in whom God's heart is unveiled that our hearts +may be won? How shall human voices be softened to tenderness worthy of +the message which they carry? Only by dwelling near enough to Him to +catch the echoes, and copy the modulations, of His voice, as some birds +are taught sweeter notes than their own. The prophet's charge is laid +upon all who would speak of Christ to men. Speak to the heart, not only +to the head or to the conscience. God beseeches in the person of His +'ambassadors.' The substance of the message may well find its way to the +heart; for it is the assurance that the long, hard service of the +appointed term of exile is past, that the sin which brought it about is +forgiven, and, more wonderful and gracious still, that God's mercy +reckons that the ills which followed on faithlessness have more than +expiated it. We need not seek for any other explanation of these +startling words than the exuberance of the divine pity, which 'doth not +willingly afflict.' + +Of course, the captivity is in the foreground of the prophet's vision; +but the wider sense of the prophecy embraces the worse captivity of sin +under which we all groan, and the divine voice bids His prophets +proclaim that Jehovah comes, to set us all free, to end the weary +bondage, and to exact no more punishment for sins. + +II. The forerunner speaks. There is something very impressive in the +abrupt bursting in of this second voice, all unnamed. It is the +reverberation, as it were, of the former, giving the preparation on the +side of man for the coming of Jehovah. Israel in bondage in Egypt had +been delivered by Jehovah marching through the wilderness, a wilderness +stretched between Babylon and Jerusalem; these supply the scenery, so to +speak; but the scenery is symbolic, and the call is really one to +prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness of human sin, by raising +up the cast-down by reason of transgressions or sorrows, to subdue lofty +thoughts and self-sufficiency by humble self-abnegation, to make the +'crooked things' or 'rugged things' straight or smooth, and the rough +ground where heights were tumbled on heights a deep valley, by forsaking +evil. + +The moral preparation, not the physical, is meant. It was fitting that +the road for such a coming should be prepared. But the coming was not so +contingent on the preparation that the 'glory of the Lord' would not 'be +revealed' unless men made a highway for Him. True, that the revelation +of His glory to the individual soul must be preceded by such a +preparation; but that raising of abjectness and levelling of loftiness +needs some perception of Him ere it can be done by man. Christ must come +to the heart before the heart can be prepared for His coming. John the +Baptist came crying in the wilderness, but his fiery message did little +to cast up a highway for the footsteps of the King. John's immovable +humility pierced to the very heart of the prophecy when he answered the +question 'Who art thou?' with 'I am a voice. The voice was unnamed; why, +what does it matter who I am?' + +The substance and the range of the coming manifestation are next +defined. It is to be the revelation of 'the glory of the Lord,' and to +be for all mankind, not for Israel only. That lowly life and that +shameful death were a strange revelation of God's glory. If _they_ +revealed it, then it cannot consist in power or any of the majestic +'attributes,' but in love, pity, and long-suffering. Love is the +divinest thing in God. The guarantee for all lies simply here, that God +has spoken it. It is because the unnamed herald's ear has heard the +divine voice uttering the gracious assurances of verse 1, that _his_ +voice is lifted up in the commands and assurances of verse 4. Absolute +faith in God's utterances, however they seem to transcend experience, is +wisdom and duty. + +III. Yet another voice, whether sounding from heaven or earth is as +uncertain as is the person to whom it is addressed, authoritatively +commands a third to 'cry,' and, on being asked what is to be the burden +of the call, answers. This new herald is to proclaim man's frailty and +the immortal vigour of God's word, which secures the fulfilment of His +promises. Is it the questioning voice, or the commanding one, which +says, 'All flesh is grass,... the people is grass'? If the former, it is +the utterance of hopelessness, all but refusing the commission. But, +dramatic as that construction is, it seems better to regard the whole as +the answer to the question, 'What shall I cry?' The repetition of the +theme of man's frailty is not unnatural, and gives emphasis to the +contrast of the unchangeable stability of God's word. An hour of the +deadly hot wind will scorch the pastures, and all the petals of the +flowers among the herbage will fall. So everything lovely, bright, and +vigorous in humanity wilts and dies. One thing alone remains fresh from +age to age,--the uttered will of Jehovah. His breath kills and makes +alive. It withers the creatural, and it speaks the undying word. + +This message is to follow those others which tell of God's merciful +promises, that trembling hearts may not falter when they see all created +stays sharing the common lot, but may rest assured that God's promises +are as good as God's facts, and so may hope when all things visible +would preach despair. It was given to hearten confidence in the prophecy +of a future revelation of the glory of God. It remains with us to +hearten confidence in a past revelation, which will stand unshaken, +whatever forces war against it. Its foes and its friends are alike +short-lived as the summer's grass. The defences of the one and the +attacks of the other are being antiquated while being spoken; but the +bare word of God, the record of the incarnate Word, who is the true +revelation of the glory of God, will stand for ever,--'And this is the +Word which by the gospel is preached to you.' + +IV. The prophet seems to be the speaker in verses 9-11, or perhaps the +same anonymous voice which already commanded the previous message +summons Jerusalem to become the ambassadress of her God. The coming of +the Lord is conceived as having taken place, and He is enthroned in +Zion. The construction which takes Jerusalem or Zion (the double name so +characteristic of the second part of Isaiah) to be the recipient of the +good tidings is much less natural than that which regards her as their +bearer. + +The word rendered 'tellest good tidings' is a feminine form, and falls +in with the usual personification of a city as a woman. She, long laid +in ruins, the Niobe of nations, the sad and desolate widow, is bid to +bear to her daughter cities the glad tidings, that God is in her of a +truth. It is exactly the same thought as 'Cry out and shout, thou +inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of +thee.' The prophecy refers to the Church. It sets forth her highest +office as being the proclamation of her indwelling King. The possession +of Christ makes the Church the evangelist for the world; for it gives +the capacity and the impulse as well as the obligation to speak the glad +tidings. Every Christian has this command binding on him by the fact of +his having Christ. + +The command sets forth the bold clearness which should mark the herald's +call. Naturally, any one with a message to peal out to a crowd would +seek some vantage-ground, from which his words might fly the farther. If +we have a message to deliver, let us seek the best place from which to +deliver it. 'Lift up thy voice with strength.' No whisper will do. Bated +breath is no fit vehicle for God's gospel. There are too many of God's +heralds who are always apologising for their message, and seeking to +reconcile it with popular opinions. We are all apt to speak truth less +confidently because it is denied; but, while it is needful to speak with +all gentleness and in meekness to them that oppose, it is cowardly, as +well as impolitic, to let one tremor be heard in our tones though a +world should deny our message. + +The command tells the substance of the Church's message. Its essence is +the proclamation of the manifested God. To gaze on Jesus is to behold +God. That God is made known in the twin glories of power and gentleness. +He comes 'as a strong one.' His dominion rests on His own power, and on +no human allies. His reign is retributive, and that not merely as +penally recompensing evil, but as rewarding the faith and hope of those +who waited for Him. + +But beyond the limits of our text, in verse 11, we have the necessary +completion of the manifestation, in the lovely figure of the Shepherd +carrying the lambs in His arms, and gently leading the flock of +returning exiles. The strength of Jesus is His lowliness; and His mighty +arm is used, not to wield an iron sceptre, but to gather us to His bosom +and guide us in His ways. The paradox of the gospel, which points to a +poor, weak man dying in the dark on a cross and says, 'Behold the great +Power of God!' is anticipated in this prophecy. The triumphant paradox +of the Apostle is shadowed here: 'We preach Christ crucified, ... the +power of God, and the wisdom of God.' + + + + +O THOU THAT BRINGEST GOOD TIDINGS + +'O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain: +O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with +strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, +Behold your God!'--ISAIAH xl. 9. + + +There is something very grand in these august and mysterious voices +which call one to another in the opening verses of this chapter. First, +the purged ear of the prophet hears the divine command to him and to his +brethren--Comfort Jerusalem with the message of the God who comes for +her deliverance. Then afar off another voice is heard, the herald and +forerunner of the approaching Deity; and when thus the foundation has +been laid, yet another takes up the speech, and 'The voice said, Cry,' +and the anonymous recipient of the command asks with what message he +shall be entrusted, and the answer is the signature and pledge of the +divine fulfilment of the word thus spoken. And then there comes, as I +take it, a pause of silence, within which the great Epiphany and +manifestation takes place, and the coming God comes, enters into the +rebuilded city, and there shines in His beauty; and then breaks forth +the rapturous commandment of my text to the resuscitated city, to tell +to all her daughters of Judah the glad tidings of a present God. + +I need not, I suppose, spend your time in vindicating the translation of +our Bible as against one which has been made very familiar by being +wedded to Handel's music, and has commended itself to many, according to +which Zion is rather the recipient than the herald of the tidings, 'O +thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with +strength,' and so on. + +And I suppose I need not either spend any time in vindicating the +transference of the text to the Gentile Church, beyond the simple remark +that, whatever be the date of this second portion of Isaiah's prophecy, +its standpoint is the time of the Captivity, when Jerusalem lay +desolate, burned with fire, and all their pleasant things were laid +waste, so that the city here addressed is the new form of the ancient +Zion, which had risen from her ashes, and had a better tidings of glad +significance to impart to all the nations. And so, dear brethren, +looking at the words from that point of view, I think that they may very +fairly yield to us two or three very old-fashioned and well-worn +thoughts, which may yet be stimulating and encouraging to us. I take +them as simply as possible, just as they run here in this text, which +brings out very strikingly and beautifully, first, the function of the +Evangelist Zion; secondly, the manner of her message; and lastly, its +contents. + +I. Look with me at the thoughts that cluster round the name, 'O Zion, +that bringest glad tidings.' + +It is almost a definition of the Church; at any rate, it is a +description of her by her most characteristic office and function, that +which marks and separates her from all associations and societies of +men. This is her highest office; this is the reason of her being; this +is her noblest dignity. All mystical powers have been claimed for her, +men have been bidden to submit their judgment and manhood to her +authority; but her true dignity is that she bears a gospel in her hand, +and that grace is poured into her lips. Fond and sense-bound regrets +have been sighed forth that her miracle-working gifts have faded away; +but so long as her voice can quicken dead souls, and make the tongue of +the dumb to speak, her noblest energies remain unimpaired, and so we may +think of her as most exalted and dignified in that her Master addresses +her, 'O Zion, that bringest good tidings.' + +Now, if I was right in my preliminary remark, to the effect that, prior +to my text, we are to suppose the manifestation and approach of the +Divine Deliverer, then I think it is quite clear that what constitutes +Zion the messenger of good tidings is the presence in her of the living +God. Translate that into New Testament language, and it just comes to +this: that what constitutes the Church the evangelist for the world is +the simple possession of Christ or of the Gospel. That thought branches +into some considerations on which we may touch. + +The first of them is this: Whoever has Christ has the power to impart +Him. All believers are preachers, or meant to be so, by virtue of the +possession of that Divine Christ for your own. We Nonconformists are +ready enough to proclaim the universal priesthood of all believers when +we are opposing ecclesiastical assumption; are we as ready to take it +for the law of our own lives, and to say, 'Yes, priests by the +imposition of a mightier hand, and ministers of Christ by the possession +of Christ, and therefore bound and able to impart Him to all around'? He +has given us His love, and He thereby has made us fit to impart Him. +Zion only needed to receive its God, in order thereby to possess the +power to say unto all the cities of Judah, 'Behold your God.' It does +not take much genius, it does not take much culture, it does not need +any prolonged training, for a man who has Christ to say, 'Behold, I have +Him.' The very first Christian sermon that was ever preached was a very +short one, and a very effectual one, for it converted the whole +congregation, and it was this: 'We have found the Messiah.' That was +all--the utterance of individual possession and personal experience--and +it 'brought him to Jesus.' + +Take another point. The possession of Christ for ourselves imposes upon +us the obligation to impart Him. All property in this world is trust +property, and everything that a man has that can help or bless the moral +or spiritual or intellectual condition of his fellows, he is thereby +under solemn obligation to impart. There is an obligation arising from +the bands that knit us to one another, so that no man can possess his +good alone without being untrue to what we call nowadays the solidarity +of humanity. You have, you say, the bread of life: very well, what would +you think of a man in a famine who, when women were boiling their +children, and men were fighting with the swine on the dunghill for +garbage, was content to eat his morsel alone, and leave others to perish +by starvation? You possess, you say, the healing for all the diseases of +humanity: very well, what would you think of a man who, in a pestilence, +was contented with swallowing his own specific, and leaving others to +die and to rot in the street? If you have the Christ, you have Him that +you may impart Him. 'He that withholdeth bread, the people shall curse +him'; of how much deeper malediction from despairing lips will they be +thought worthy who call themselves the followers of Him that gave His +life to be the bread of the world, and yet withhold it from famishing +souls? + +And it is an obligation that arises, too, from the very purposes of our +calling. What are Christian men and women saved for? For their own +blessedness? Yes, and no. No creature in God's great universe but is +great enough to be a worthy end of the divine action; the happiness of +the humblest and most insignificant moves His mighty hand. Ay, but no +creature in God's universe so great as that he is a worthy end of the +divine action, if he is going to keep all the divine gifts in himself. +We are all brought into the light that we may impart light. + + 'Heaven doth with us as we with torches do; + Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues + Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike + As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch'd + But to fine issues.' + +II. And now turn to the second thought which I desire to draw from these +words. We have here, in a very picturesque and vivid form, the setting +forth of the manner in which the Evangelist Zion is to proclaim her +message. + +The fair-featured herald is bidden to get up into the high mountain-- +perhaps a mere picturesque detail, perhaps some reference to the local +position of the city set upon a hill--like the priests on Ebal and +Gerizim, or Alpine shepherds, calling to each other across the valleys, +to secure some vantage-ground, and next, to let her voice roll out +across the glen. No faltering whisper will do, but a voice that compels +audience, that can be heard above the tumult and afar off, and confident +and loud and clear, because courageous and without dread. 'Lift up thy +voice with strength.' Yes, but a timid heart will make a tremulous +voice, and fear and doubt will whisper a message when courage will ring +it out. 'Be not afraid' is the foundation of the clearness and the +loudness with which the word is to be uttered. + +That thought opens itself out into these two others, on each of which I +say a word or two. Our message is to be given with a courage and a force +that are worthy of it; 'Be not afraid.' That is a lesson for this day, +my brethren. There are plenty of causes of fear round about us if, like +poor Peter on the water, we look at the waves instead of at the Master. +There are the great forces of evil that are always arrayed against +Christ. There is the thoroughgoing and formidable rejection of all that +is dearest to us, which is creeping like poison through cultivated +society at home; there is the manifest disproportion between our +resources and the task that we have set ourselves to. 'They need not +depart; give ye them to eat,' said the Master. What! five thousand +people need not depart, and only this scanty provision of loaves and +fishes! Yes; the Master's hand can multiply it. There is the +consciousness of our own weakness; there is the apparent slow progress +of the Gospel in the world. All these things come surging in upon us +when our spirits are low and our faith weak; and yet the message comes +to us, 'Be not afraid.' I venture to break that injunction up into two +or three exhortations, which I cast into the shape of exhortations, not +from any assumption of superiority, but for the sake of point and force. + +First of all, I would say, let us cherish a firm, soul-absorbing +confidence in the power and truth of the message we have to carry. I do +not speak now of the intellectual discipline which may be required from +each of us to meet the difficulties of this day--that is outside of my +present subject; but there is a moral discipline quite as important as +the intellectual. There cannot be any question, I suppose, to any one +who looks round about, and notices the tendencies of his own mind, but +that all we Christian people, in our various circles and organisations, +are under a very great temptation to a very perceptible lowering of our +key in the presence of widespread doubt. We are tempted to fancy that a +truth is less certain because it is denied; that because a has attacked +this thing, and b's clever book has unsettled that thing, and c's +researches seem to cast a great deal of doubt upon that other thing, +therefore we are to surrender them all, and talk about them as if they +were doubtful problems or hypotheses rather than sure verities of our +faith. And there are some of us, I venture to say, who are in danger of +another temptation, and that is of getting a little ashamed and becoming +afraid to say 'Yes, I stand by that great truth, God in Christ +reconciling the world to Himself,' for fear of being thought to +be--well, 'narrow' is the favourite word, 'old-fashioned,' or 'holders +of a creed outworn,' 'in antagonism with the spirit of the age,' and so +on, and so on. Brethren, I am not the man, I hope, to preach an +unreasonable attitude of antagonism; I am not the man to ask anybody to +exaggerate his beliefs because somebody else denies them, but I do +believe that among us all, and especially among young men, there is the +temptation just to be a little bit afraid, and not to let the voice ring +out with that clear certitude which becomes the messenger of the Cross. +Try by mental discipline to find intellectual standing-ground that will +be firm below your feet, and then remember that that is not all, but +that moral discipline is wanted also that I may open my mouth boldly, as +I ought to speak.' + +And then, if I might venture to dwell for a moment or two further upon +this class of consideration, I would say, Do not let us make too much of +the enemy. There is no need why we should take them at their own +appraisement. Men are always tempted to think that no generation ever +had such a fight as their own generation. They have said that ever since +there was a Christian Church. But the true, healthy way of looking at +the adversary--and by that I mean all the various forms of difficulty +which beset us in our evangelistic work, difficulties in the +mission-field, difficulties in the state of things here round us--the +true, healthy way of looking at them all, is to look at them as the +brave Apostle Paul did, when he said, 'I am going to stop at Ephesus +till Pentecost, for there is a great and effectual door opened to me.' +And how did he know that? He tells us in the next clause, 'There are +many adversaries.' Where there are many adversaries, there is an +effectual door, if you and I are bold and big enough to go in and +occupy. + +And then I would venture to say, still further, let us remember the +victories of the past. Let us make personal experience of the overcoming +powers that are stored and hidden in Christ's Gospel. And, above all, +let us remember who fights with us. Jesus Christ and one man are always +the majority. There is an old story, which you may remember, about the +Conqueror of Rome, who dashed his sword into the scales when the ransom +was being weighed; and Christ flings His sharp sword with the two edges +into the scales when we are weighing resources, and the other kicks the +beam. There are enemies, plenty of them, all round about. Yes, and the +spreading forth of their wings fills the breadth of the land. Be it so. +But notwithstanding the irruption of the barbarous and cruel hosts, it +is 'Thy land, O Emanuel!' And in His time He will sweep them before His +presence, as the north wind drives the locusts into the hindermost sea. +I do not know if any of you remember an ancient Christian legend, and I +do not know whether it is a legend or a truth--it does not matter, it +will serve for our purpose all the same either way--how when the Emperor +Julian, surnamed the Apostate, once taunted a humble Christian man with +the question, 'What is the carpenter's son doing now?' and the answer +was, 'Hewing wood for the emperor's funeral pile,' and not very long +after there came the fatal field on which, according to ancient +tradition, he died with the words on his lips, 'Thou hast conquered, +Galilean. As in Carlyle's grand translation of Luther's Hymn of the +Reformation-- + + 'Of our own strength we nothing can, + Full soon were we downridden; + But for us fights the proper Man, + Whom God Himself hath bidden. + Ask ye, who is the same? + Christ Jesus is His name, + The Lord Sabaoth's Son. + He and none other one + Shall conquer in this battle.' + +'Lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid.' + +III. I come to the last thought that emerges from these words, and that +is the substance and contents of the Evangelist Zion's message: 'Say +unto the cities of Judah, behold your God!' + +They were to be pointed to a great historical act, in which God had +manifested and made Himself visible to men; and the words of my text +are, not only an exclamation, but they are an entreaty, and the message +was to be given to these little daughter cities of Judah as representing +all of those for whom the deliverance had been wrought--all which things +are paralleled in the message that is committed to our hand. + +For, first of all, we all have given to us the charge of pointing men to +the great historical fact wherein God is visible to men, and so crying, +'Behold your God!' God cannot be revealed by word, God cannot be +revealed by thought. There is no way open to Him to make Himself known +to His creatures except the way by which men make themselves known to +one another; that is, by their deeds; and so, high above all +speculation, high above all abstraction, nearer to us than all thought +stands the historical fact in which God shows Himself to the world, and +that is the person and work of Jesus Christ, 'the brightness of His +glory and the express image of His person,' in whom the abysses of the +divine nature are opened, and through whom all the certitude of divine +light that human eyes can receive pours itself in genial and yet +intensest radiance upon the world. How beautiful in that connection the +verses following my text are I need only indicate in a word as I pass, +'Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand,' and yet, 'behold, He +shall feed His flock like a shepherd.' And so in Christ is the power of +God, for I take it that He is the arm of the Lord; and in Christ is the +gentleness of God; and whilst men grope in the darkness, our business is +to point to the living, dying Son, and to say, 'There you have the +complete, the ultimate revelation of the unseen God.' + +And do not let us forget that the burning centre of all that brightness +is the Cross, that ever-wondrous paradox; that the depth of humiliation +is the height of glorifying; that Christ's Cross is the throne of the +manifested divine power quite as much as it is the seat of the +manifested divine love, and that when He is hanging there in His +weakness and mortal agony, the words are yet true--strange, paradoxical, +blessedly true--'He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.' And when we +say, pointing to His Cross and Him there, His brow paled with dying, and +His soul faint with loss--when we say, 'Behold the Lamb!' we are also +and therein saying, 'Behold your God!' + +And therefore, with what of gentleness, with what of tenderness, with +what of patient entreaty as well as strength and confidence, the word +that speaks of a strength manifested in weakness, and a God made visible +in Christ, should be spoken, it needs not here to enlarge upon--only +take that one last thought that I suggested, that this message comes to +all those for whom God has appeared, and for whom the deliverance has +been wrought. We each have the right, and we each have the charge, to go +to every man and say, 'Behold your God!' and the hearts of men will leap +up to meet the message. For, though overlaid by sin, perverted often +into its own opposite by fear, misinterpreted and misunderstood by the +very men that bear it, there yet lies deep in every heart the aching +thirst for the living God, and we have the word that alone can meet that +thirst. All around us men are saying--'In all the fields of science and +of nature, in human history and in the spirit of men, I find no God,' +and are falling back into that dreary negation, 'Behold, we know not +anything!' And some of them, orphaned in their agony, are crying, though +it be often in contemptuous tones that almost sound as if they meant the +opposite, 'Oh, that I knew where I might find Him!' We have a word that +can meet that. For cultivated Europe it has come to this--Christ or +nothing; either He has shown us the Father, or there is no knowledge of +Him possible. We do not need to dread the alternative; we can face it, +and overcome it. And in far-off lands men are groping in twilight +uncertainty, worshipping, with a nameless horror at their hearts, gods +capricious, gods cruel, gods terrible--tamely believing in gods far-off +and mysterious, cowering before gods careless and heartless, degrading +their manhood by imitating gods foul and bestial, and yet all the while +dimly feeling, 'Surely, surely there is somewhere a good and a fair +Being, that has an eye to see my sorrows, and a heart to pity them; an +ear to hear my prayer, and a hand to stretch out.' We have a word that +can meet that. Let that word ring out, brother, as far as your influence +can reach. Set the trumpet to thy mouth, and say, 'Behold your God!' and +be sure that from the uttermost parts of the earth we shall hear the +choral songs of many voices answering, 'Lo! this is our God, we have +waited for Him, and He will save us! This is our God; we will be glad +and rejoice in His salvation!' + + + + +'HAVE YE NOT? HAST THOU NOT?' + +'Have ye not known, have ye not heard? hath it not been told yon from +the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the +earth?... Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard?'--ISAIAH xl. 21 and +28. + + +The recurrence of the same form of interrogation in these two verses is +remarkable. In the first case the plural is used, in the second the +singular, and we may reasonably conclude that as Israel is addressed in +the latter, the nations outside the sphere illumined by Revelation are +appealed to in the former. The context of the two passages confirms this +reference, for the witness of Creation and History is summoned in the +former section, and that of God's inward dealings with trustful souls is +brought out in the latter. + +I. What Nature and History tell men about God. + +Observe that emphatic '_told you_'; then the witness here appealed to is +truly a Revelation, though a silent one. 'There is no speech nor +language,' yet 'their line is gone out through all the earth, and their +words to the ends of the world.' + +The general idea of the divine nature, as revealed 'from the beginning' +and 'from the foundation of the earth,' is that of Majesty transcending +all comparison. + +The contrast is drawn between Him and men, in the magnificent image of +Him as throned above 'the circle of the earth,' and so far above that +all the busy tribes of men 'are as grasshoppers,' their restless +activity but aimless leaping, and 'the tumult of the peoples' only as a +meaningless chirping. + +God's creative and sustaining power is further set forth by that great +image of His 'stretching out the heavens as a curtain, and spreading +them out as a tent to dwell in.' As easily as travellers set up their +tents when the day's march is done, did He stretch the great expanse +above the low earth; and all its depths and spaces are, in comparison +with Him, thin, transient, and as easily rolled up and put aside as the +stuff that makes a nomad's home for a night. Nor are the two implied +thoughts that 'the heavens' are a veil screening Him from men even while +they tell of Him to men, and that they are His lofty dwelling-place, to +be left out of view. + +But in verse 26 we have a more specific and grander exhibition of God's +relation to the Universe. The stars, in number numberless, are conceived +of as a great army drilled and directed by Him. And that metaphor, +familiar to us as it is, and condensed into the divine title so frequent +in this prophetic book, is pregnant with great truths. + +It speaks of God as the Imperator, the Commander, exercising supreme +authority by 'the word of His power,' and of creation as obedient +thereto. 'For ever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in the heavens.' The +Commander needs but to speak, and so mystic is the power of His uttered +will, that effects on the material universe follow that altogether +immaterial energy. + +It speaks of the harmony and order of the whole Creation. 'By number' +and 'by name' He sways and ranks them. 'All things work together.' They +are an ordered whole--a kosmos, not a chaos. Modern science is slowly +establishing by experiment the truth which is enshrined in that old +name, 'the Lord of hosts,' that all things in the physical universe are +a unity. + +It speaks of the perfectness of God's knowledge of each item in the +mighty whole. 'He calleth them all by name.' Thereby are expressed +authority, ownership, particular knowledge of, and relation to, each +individual of the overwhelming aggregate. God knows all, because He +knows each. + +It speaks of the inexhaustible energy of His sustaining power, and the +consequent strength of His creatures. 'Preservation is a continued +creation.' The prophet saw much deeper than the mechanical view of the +creative act. To him God was, to use more modern language, 'immanent' as +well as 'transcendent.' True, He 'sits above the circle of the earth,' +but as truly He is working on His creatures, and it is by His +communicated strength that they are strong. If any being--star, or +insect--were separated utterly from Him, it would crumble into +nothingness. + +But the appeal to Creation is singularly interrupted by an appeal to +History. The prophet drops from the serene expanse of the silent yet +eloquent heavens to the stormy scenes of changing dynasties and +revolutions of earth's kingdoms. How calm the one, how tumultuous the +other! How the one witnesses to Him by its apparently unchanging +continuance! how the other witnesses by its swift mutations! In the one, +He is revealed as Preserver; in the other, the most clear demonstration +of His power is given in His destroying of rebel kingdoms. But in these +acts by which ancient and firmly rooted dynasties are rooted up or +withered as by the simoom, He reveals a side of His nature to which the +calm heavens bore no witness. He is the moral Governor of the world, +'The history of the world is the judgment of the world,' and when hoary +iniquities are smitten to death, 'the Holy One' is revealed as the +righteous Judge. And the conjoint witness of creation and of history +attests that none can be 'likened' to Him. + +II. What Revelation tells Israel about God. + +It is noteworthy that in the section of which our first text is the +centre, there is no mention of the divine Name, and even the well-known +title, 'the Holy One of Israel,' is truncated, so as to leave out +reference to the people of Revelation; whereas in this section He is not +only designated as God and Creator, but as Jehovah, the God who has made +a covenant with Israel, and made known His will and to some extent His +nature. The distinct climax in the divine Names itself implies a nobler +relation to men, and a clearer revelation than was declared in the +former part of this prophecy. It is the fitting preparation for the +loftier and infinitely more tender and touching aspect of the divine +nature which shines with lambent, inviting lustre within the sphere of +Revelation. + +The distinctive glory of the long process of God's self-manifestation to +Israel is that, while it emphasises all that nature and history affirm +of Him, it sets Him forth as restoring the weak, as well as sustaining +the strong. The sad contrast between the untroubled and unwearied +strength of the calm heavens and the soon-exhausted strength of +struggling and often beaten men strikes the poet prophet's sensitive +soul. He did not know, what modern astronomy teaches us, that change, +convulsions, ruin, are not confined to earth, but that stars as well as +men faint and fail, dwindle and die. The scriptural view of Nature is +not that of the scientist, but that of the poet and of the devout man. +It lies quite apart from the scientific attitude, and has as good a +right to exist as it has. The contrast of heaven and earth is for the +prophet the contrast of strength with weakness, of joyful harmony with +moral disorder, of punctual, entire obedience with rebellion and the +clash of multitudes of anarchic self-willed men. + +But there is a sadder contrast still--namely, that between God and the +wretched weaklings that men have made of themselves. 'He fainteth not, +neither is weary.' Strange anomaly that in His universe there should be +the faint and 'them that have no might'! The only explanation of such an +exception to the order of Creation is that men have broken loose from +Creation's dependence on God, and that therefore the inflow of +sustaining strength has been checked. In other words, man's weakness +comes from man's sin. + +Hence to restore strength to those whose power has been drained away by +sin is God's divinest work. It is more to restore than to sustain. It +takes less energy to keep a weight stationary at a height than to roll +it up again if it falls to the bottom. Since sin is the cause of our +weakness, the first step to deliver from the weakness is to deliver from +the sin. If we are ever to be restored, hearts, consciences, averted +wills must be dealt with--and but One Hand can deal with these. + +And not only does God outdo all His mightiest works in the work of +restoring strength to the faint, but He crowns that restoration by +making the restored weakling like Himself. 'He fainteth not, neither is +weary.' They, too, 'shall ran and not be weary, they shall walk and not +faint.' In the long drawn out grind of monotonous marching along the +common path of daily small duties and uneventful life, they shall not +faint; in the rare occasional spurts, occurring in every man's +experience, when extraordinary tax is laid on heart and limbs, they +shall not be weary. And they will be able both to walk and to run, +because they soar on wings as eagles. And they do all because they wait +on the Lord. Communion with Him buoys us above this low earth, and bears +us up into the heavenly places, and, living there, we shall be fit for +the slow hours of commonplace plodding and for the crowded moments of +great crises. + + + + +UNFAILING STABS AND FAINTING MEN + +'...For that He is strong in power; not one faileth.... He giveth power +to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength.'-- +ISAIAH xl. 26 and 29. + + +These two verses set forth two widely different operations of the divine +power as exercised in two sadly different fields, the starry heavens and +this weary world. They are interlocked, as it were, by the recurrence in +the latter of the emphatic words of the former. The one verse says, 'He +is strong in power'; the other, 'He giveth power.' In the former verse, +'the greatness of His might' sustains the stars; in the latter verse, a +still diviner operation is set forth in that 'to them that have no might +He increaseth strength.' Thus there are three contrasts suggested: that +between unfailing stars, and men that faint; that between the unwearied +God and wearied men; and that between the sustaining power that is +exercised in the heavens and the restoring power that is manifested on +earth. + +There is another interlocking between the latter of these two texts and +its context, which is indicated by a similar recurrence of epithets. In +my second text we read of the 'faint,' and in the verse that follows it, +again we find the expressions 'faint' and 'weary,' while in the verse +before my text we read that 'the Lord fainteth not, neither is weary.' +So again the contrast between Him and us is set forth, but, in the verse +that closes the chapter, we read how that contrast merges into likeness, +inasmuch as the unfainting and unwearied God makes even the men that +wait upon Him unwearied and unfainting. Here, then, we have lessons that +we may well ponder. + +Note, first-- + +I. That sad contrast. + +The prophet in the former of these verses seems to be expanding the +thoughts that lie in the name, 'the Lord of hosts,' in so far as that +name expresses the divine relation to the starry universe. The image +that underlies both it and the words of the text is that of a captain +who commands his soldiers, and they obey. Discipline and plan array them +in their ranks; they are not a mob, but an army. The voice that reads +the roll-call summons one after another to his place, and, punctually +obedient, there they stand, ready for any evolution that may be +prescribed. The plain prose of which is, that night by night above the +horizon rise the bright orbs, and roll on their path obedient to the +Sovereign will; 'because He is strong in might not one' is lacking. +Astronomers have taught us, what the prophet did not know, that even in +the apparently serene spaces there are collisions and catastrophes, and +that stars may dwindle and dim, and finally go out. But while Scripture +deals with creation neither from the scientific nor from the aesthetic +point of view, it leaves room for both of these--for all that the poet's +imagination can see or say, for all that the scientist's investigation +can discover, it sees that beneath the beauty is the Fountain of all +loveliness, beneath and behind the 'number' of the numberless stars +works the infinite will of God. Surely an intelligible creation must +have an intelligent source. Surely a universe in which Mind can +apprehend order and number must have a Mind at the back of it. +Wordsworth has nobly said of Duty what we may more truly say of God: +'Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong, And the most ancient heavens +through Thee are fresh and strong.' 'For that He is great in might, not +one faileth.' Scripture bids us think of God, not as a creative energy +that set the universe in motion, and leaves it to roll or spin, but as +of a Divine Presence--to use a word which can only be in a very modified +sense applied to that mysterious, intelligent Entity--operating in, and +being the sustaining Cause of, all that is. This Divine Presence stamps +its signature on the unfailing strength of these bright creatures above. + +But in our second text we drop from the illumination of the heavens to +the shadowed plain of this low earth. It is as if a man, looking up into +the violet sky, with all its shining orbs, should then turn to some +reeking alley, with its tumult and its squalor. Just because man is +greater than the stars, man 'fails,' whilst they shine on unwearied. For +what the prophet has in view as the clinging curse that cleaves to our +greatness, is not merely the bodily fatigue which is necessarily +involved in the very fact of bodily existence, since energy cannot be +put forth without waste and weariness, but it is far more the weary +heart, the heart that is weary of itself, the heart that is weary of +toil, the heart that is weary of the momentary crises that demand +effort, and wearier still of the effortless monotony of our daily lives; +the heart that all of us carry, and which to all of us sometimes +whispers, with a dark and gloomy voice which we cannot contradict, +'Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.' I was going to say, happy are you +if you do not know that weariness, but I check myself and say, tenfold +more miserable are you if you have never been sober and wise enough to +have felt the weariness and weight of all this unintelligible world, and +of your own sorry selves. + +For it is ever to be remembered that the faintness and the ebbing away +of might, which is the truly tragic thing in humanity, does not depend +upon physical constitution, but upon separation from the Source of all +strength, breaking the union between ourselves and God. If a star could +shake off its dependence, and shut out the influx of the sustaining +power that by continual creation preserves it, it would die into +darkness, or crumble into dust. It cannot, and we cannot, in so far as +our physical being is concerned, but we can shake ourselves free from +God, in so far as the life of the spirit is concerned, and the godless +spirit bears the Cain-curse of restlessness and weariness ever upon it. +So the contrast between the unfailing strengths that ever shine down +upon us from the heavens, and the weariness of body and of mind +afflicting the sleeping millions on whom they shine, is tragical indeed. +But far more tragical is the contrast, of which the other is but an +indication because it is a consequence, the contrast between the +punctual obedience with which these hosts, summoned by the great +Commander, appear and take their places, and the self-will which turns a +man into a 'wandering star unto whom is reserved the blackness of +darkness for ever.' Above is peace and order, because above is the +supremacy of an uncontested will. Below is tumult and weariness, because +when God says 'Thou shalt,' men respond, 'I will not.' + +Secondly, my text suggests to us-- + +II. Another sad contrast, melting into a blessed likeness. + +'He fainteth not, neither is weary.' 'He giveth power to the faint.' +'Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall +utterly fail,' but waiting on God the curse removes, and faintness and +weariness cease, and the humble man becomes in some measure participant +of, and conformed to, that life which knows no exhausting, operates +unspent, burns with an undying flame, works and never wearies. We may +take to ourselves all the peace and strength that come from that +transcendent hope, whilst we are still subject, as of course we must be, +to the limitations imposed on spirits fettered, as well as housed, in +body. Whilst toil leaves as its consequence fatigue, and as our days +increase our strength wanes; whilst physical weariness remains +unaffected, there may pour into our spirits the influx of divine power, +by which they will remain fresh and strong through advancing years and +heavy tasks and stiff battles. Is it not something to believe it +possible that + + 'In old age, when others fade, + _We_ fruit still forth shall bring' + +Is it not something to know it as a possibility that we may have that +within us which has no tendency to decay, which neither perishes with +the using nor is exhausted by exercise, which grows the more the longer +we live, which has in it the pledge of immortality, because it has in it +the impossibility of exhaustion? Thus to all of us who know how weary +life sometimes is, thus to those of us who in the flush of our youth are +deceived into thinking that the vigorous limbs will always be vigorous, +and the clear eyesight will always be keen, and to those of us who, in +the long weary levels of middle life, where there are few changes, are +worn out by the eventless recurrence, day after day, of duties that have +become burdensome, because they are so small, and to those of us who are +learning by experience how inevitably early strength utterly fails; to +us all surely it comes us a gospel, 'They that wait on the Lord shall +renew their strength; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk +and not faint.' It is true; and each of us may set to our seals, if we +will, that the promise is faithful and sure. + +Is that not a higher exercise of power than to 'preserve the stars from +wrong'? Is not the strength that restores mightier than the strength +that sustains? Is not the hand that, put beneath the falling body, stops +its plunge, and lifts it whence it fell, displaying a greater +manifestation of strength, than the hand that held it unfailing at the +height? The mighty miracle of the calm, steadfast heavens, with no +vacant spaces where yesterday a star blazed, is less than the miracle of +that restoring energy which, coming to men separated from the Fountain +of power, re-establishes the connection between them, and out of the +fainting creature makes one that is neither faint nor weary for ever. +God is greater, in the miracle that He works upon you and me, poor +strengthless souls, than when He rolls the stars along. Redemption is +more than Creation, and to the hosts of 'the principalities and powers +in heavenly places, is made known,' by the Church, 'of restored and +redeemed souls, the manifold wisdom of God.' + +What are the consequences that the prophet traces to this restoring +power? 'They shall mount up with wings as eagles.' Power to soar, to +lift our heavy selves from earth, and to reach the heavenly places where +we shall commune with God, that is the greatest of all gifts to +strengthened spirits. And it is the foundation of all the others, for it +is only they who know how to soar that can creep, and it is only they +who have renewed their strength hour by hour, by communion with the +Source of all energy and might, who when they 'drop with quivering +wings, composed and still,' down to the low earth, there live unwearied +and unfainting. + +'They shall run and not be weary.' Crises come--moments when +circumstances demand from us more than ordinary energy and swifter rate +of progress. We have often, in the course of our years, to make short +spurts of unusual effort. 'They shall run and not be weary. They shall +walk.' The bulk of our lives is a slow jog-trot, and it is harder to +keep elasticity, buoyancy, freshness of spirit, in the eventless mill- +horse round of our trivial lives than it is in the rarer bursts. +Excitement helps us in the one; nothing but dogged principle, and close +communion with God, 'mounting on wings as eagles,' will help us in the +other. But we may have Him with us in all the arid and featureless +levels across which we have to plod, as well as in the height to which +we sometimes have to struggle upwards, or in the depths into which we +have sometimes to plunge. If we have the life of Christ within us, then +neither the one nor the other will exhaust our energy or darken our +spirits. + +Lastly, one word as to-- + +III. The way by which these contrasts can be reconciled, and this +likeness secured. + +'They that wait upon the Lord'--that is the whole secret. What does +waiting on the Lord include? Let me put it in three brief exhortations. +Keep near Him; keep still; expect. If I stray away from Him, I cannot +expect His power to come to me. If I fling myself about, in vain +impatience, struggling, resisting providences, shirking duties, +perturbing my soul, I cannot expect that the peace which brings +strength, or the strength which brings peace, will come to me. It must +be a windless sea that mirrors the sunshine and the blue, and the +troubled heart has not God's strength in it. If I do not expect to get +anything from Him, He will not give me anything; not because He will +not, but because He cannot. Take the old Psalmist's words, 'I have +quieted myself as a weaned child,' and nestle on the great bosom, and +its warmth, its fragrance, its serenity will be granted to you. Keep +hold of God's hand in expectation, in submission, in close union, and +the contact will communicate something of His own power. 'In quietness +and in confidence shall be your strength.' The bitter contrasts may all +be harmonised, and the miraculous assimilation of humanity to divinity +may, in growing measure according to our faith, be realised in us. And +though we must still bear the limitations of our present corporeal +condition, and though life's tasks must still oftentimes be felt by us +as toils, and life's burdens as too burdensome for our feeble shoulders, +yet we shall be held up. 'As thy day so shall thy strength be,' and at +last, when we mount up further than eagle's wings have ever soared, and +look down upon the stars that are 'rolled together as a scroll,' we +shall through eternal ages 'run and not be weary' and 'walk and not +faint.' + + + + +THE SECRET OF IMMORTAL YOUTH + +'Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall +utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their +strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and +not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.'--ISAIAH xl. 30, 31. + + +I remember a sunset at sea, where the bosom of each wavelet that fronted +the west was aglow with fiery gold, and the back of each turned eastward +was cold green; so that, looking on the one hand all was glory, and on +the other all was sober melancholy. So differently does life look to you +young people and to us older ones. Every man must buy his own experience +for himself, and no preaching nor talking will ever make you see life as +we see it. It is neither possible nor desirable that you should; but it +is both possible and most desirable that you should open your eyes to +plain, grave facts, which do not at all depend on our way of looking at +things, and that if they be ascertainable, as they are, you should let +them shape your lives. + +Here are a couple of facts in my text which I ask you to look steadily +in the face, and to take account of them, because, if you do so now, it +may save you an immense deal of disappointment and sorrow in the days +that are to come. You have the priceless prerogative still in your hands +of determining what that future is to be; but you will never use that +power rightly if you are guided by illusions, or if, unguided by +anything but inclination, you let things drift, and do as you like. + +So, then, my object is simply to deal with these two forecasts which my +text presents; the one a dreary certainty of weariness and decay, the +other a blessed possibility of inexhaustible and incorruptible strength +and youth, and on the contrast to build as earnest an appeal to you as I +can make. + +I. Now, then, look at the first fact here, that of the dreary certainty +of weariness and decay. + +I do not need to spend much time in talking about that. It is one of the +commonplaces which are so familiar that they have lost all power of +impression, and can only be rescued from their trivial insignificance by +being brought into immediate connection with our own experience. If, +instead of the toothless generality, 'the youths shall faint and be +weary,' I could get you young people to say, '_I--I_ shall faint and be +weary, and, as sure as I am living, I shall lose what makes to me the +very joy of life at this moment,' I should not have preached in vain. + +Of course the words of my text point to the plain fact that all created +and physical life, by the very law of its being, in the act of living +tends to death; and by the very operation of its strength tends to +exhaustion. There are three stages in every creature's life--that of +growth, that of equilibrium, that of decay. You are in the first. If you +live, it is as certain as fate that you will come to the second and the +third. _Your_ 'eyes will grow dim,' _your_ 'natural force' will be +'abated,' _your_ body will become a burden, _your_ years that are full +of buoyancy will be changed for years of heaviness and weariness, +strength will decay, 'and the young men'--that is _you_--'shall utterly +fall.' + +And the text points also to another fact, that, long before your natural +life shall have begun to tend towards decay, hard work and occasional +sorrows and responsibilities and burdens of all sorts will very often +make you wearied and ready to faint. In your early days you dream of +life as a kind of enchanted garden, full of all manner of delights; and +you stand at the threshold with eager eyes and outstretched hands. Ah! +dear young friend, long before you have traversed the length of one of +its walks, you will often have been sick and tired of the whole thing, +and weary of what is laid upon you. + +My text points to another fact, as certain as gravitation, that the +faintness and weariness and decay of the bodily strength will be +accompanied with a parallel change in your feelings. We are drawn onward +by hopes, and when we get them fulfilled we find that they are +disappointing. Custom, which weighs upon us 'heavy as frost, and deep +almost as life,' takes the edge off everything that is delightsome, +though it does not so completely take away the pain of things that are +burdensome and painful. Men travel from a tinted morning into the sober +light of common day, and with failing faculties and shattered illusions +and dissipated hopes, and powers bending under the long monotony of +middle life, most of them live. Now all that is the veriest threadbare +morality, and I dare say while I have been speaking, some of you have +been thinking that I am repeating platitudes that every old woman could +preach. So I am. That is to say, I am trying to put into feeble words +the universal human experience. That is your experience, and what I want +to get you to think about now is that, as sure as you are living and +rejoicing in your youth and strength, this is the fate that is awaiting +you--'the youths shall faint and be weary, and shall utterly fall.' + +Well, then, one question: Do you not think that, if that is so, it would +be as well to face it? Do you not think that a wise man would take +account of all the elements in forecasting his life and would shape his +conduct accordingly? If there be something certain to come, it is a very +questionable piece of wisdom to make that the thing which we are most +unwilling to think about. I do not want to be a kill-joy; I do not want +to take anything out of the happy buoyancy of youth. I would say, as +even that cynical, bitter Ecclesiastes says, 'Rejoice, O young man, in +thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth.' By +all means; only take all the facts into account, and if you have joys +which shrivel up at the touch of this thought, then the sooner you get +rid of such joys the better. If your gladness depends upon your forcibly +shutting your eyes to what is inevitably certain to come about, do you +not think that you are living in a fool's paradise that you had better +get out of as soon as possible? There is the fact. Will you be a wise +and brave man and front it, and settle how you are going to deal with +it, or will you let it hang there on your horizon, a thunder-cloud that +you do not like to look at, and that you are all the more unwilling to +entertain the thought of, because you are so sure that it will burst in +storm? Lay this, then, to heart, though it is a dreary certainty, that +weariness and decay are sure to be your fate. + +II. Now turn, in the next place, to the blessed opposite possibility of +inexhaustible and immortal strength. 'They that wait upon the Lord shall +renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they +shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.' The life of +nature tends inevitably downward, but there may be another life within +the life of nature, which shall have the opposite motion, and tend as +certainly upwards. 'The youths shall faint and be weary'--whether they +be Christians or not, the law of decay and fatigue will act upon them; +but there may be that within each of us, if we will, which shall resist +that law, and have no proclivity whatsoever to extinction in its blaze, +to death in its life, to weariness in its effort, and shall be +replenished and not exhausted by expenditure. 'They that wait upon the +Lord shall renew their strength,' and, in all forms of motion possible +to a creature they shall expatiate and never tire. So let us look on +this blessed possibility a little more closely. + +Note, then, how to get at it. 'They that wait upon the Lord' is Old +Testament dialect for what in New Testament phraseology is meant by +'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.' For the notion expressed here by +'waiting' is that of expectant dependence, and the New Testament 'faith' +is the very same in its attitude of expectant dependence, while the +object of the Old Testament 'waiting,' Jehovah, is identical with the +object of the New Testament faith, which fastens on God manifest in the +flesh, the Man Jesus Christ. + +Therefore, I am not diverting the language of my text from its true +meaning, but simply opening its depth, when I say that the condition of +the inflow of this unwearied and immortal life into our poor, fainting, +dying humanity is simply the trust in Jesus Christ the Redeemer of our +souls. True, the revelation has advanced; the contents of that which we +grasp are more developed and articulate, blessed be God! True, we know +more about Jehovah, when we see Him in Jesus Christ, than Isaiah did. +True, we have to trust in Him as dying on the Cross for our salvation +and as the pattern and example in His humanity of all nobleness and +beauty of life for young or old, but the Christ is the 'same yesterday, +and to-day, and for ever.' And the faith that knit the furthest back of +the saints of old to the Jehovah, whom they dimly knew, is in essence +identical with the faith that binds my poor sinful heart to the Christ +that died and that lives for my redemption and salvation. So, dear +brethren, here is the simple old message for each of you, young or old. +No matter where we stand on the course of life, there may come into our +hearts a Divine Indweller, who laughs at weariness and knows nothing of +decay; and He will come if, as sinful men, we turn ourselves to that +dear Lord, who fainted and was weary many a time in His humanity, and +who now lives, the 'strong Son of God, immortal love,' to make us +partakers in His immortality and His strength. The way, then, by which +we get this divine gift is by faith in Jesus Christ, which is the +expansion, as it was the root, of trust in Jehovah. + +Further, what is this strength that we thus get, if we will, by faith? +It is the true entrance into our souls of a divine life. God in His Son +will come to us, according to His own gracious and profound promise: 'If +any man open the door I will enter in.' He will come into our hearts and +abide there. He will give to us a life derived from, and therefore, +kindred with, His own. And in that connection it is very striking to +notice how the prophet, in the context, reiterates these two words, +_'fainteth_ not, neither is _weary._' He begins by speaking of 'God, the +Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, who fainteth not, neither is +weary.' He passes on to speak of His gift of power to the faint. He +returns to the contrast between the Creator's incorruptible strength and +the fleeting power of the strongest and youngest. And then he crowns all +with the thought that the same characteristics will mark them in whom +the unwearied God dwells, as mark Him. We too, like Him, if we have +Christ in our hearts by faith, will share, in some fashion and degree, +in His wondrous prerogative of unwearied strength. + +So, brethren, here is the promise. God will give Himself to you, and in +the very heart of your decaying nature will plant the seed of an +immortal being which shall, like His own, shake off fatigue from the +limbs, and never tend to dissolution or an end. The life of nature dies +by living; the life of grace, which may belong to us all, lives by +living, and lives evermore thereby. And so that life is continuous and +progressive, with no tendency to decay, nor term to its being. 'The path +of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more,' until +it riseth to the zenith of the noontide of the day. Each of you, looking +forward to the certain ebbing away of creatural power, to the certain +changes that will pass upon you, may say, 'I know that I shall have to +leave behind me my present youthful strength, my unworn freshness, my +buoyancy, my confidence, my wonder, my hope; but I shall carry my +Christ; and in Him I shall possess the secret of an immortal youth.' + +The oldest angels are the youngest. The longer men live in fellowship +with Christ, the stronger do they grow. And though our lives, whether we +are Christians or no, are necessarily subject to the common laws of +mortality, we may carry all that is worth preserving of the earliest +stages into the latest; and when grey hairs are upon us, and we are +living next door to our graves, we may still have the enthusiasm, the +energy, and above all, the boundless hopefulness that made the gladness +and the spring of our long-buried youth. 'They shall still bring forth +fruit in old age.' 'The youths shall faint and be weary, but they that +wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.' + +There is one more point to touch, and then I have done, and that is the +manner in which this immortal strength is exercised. The latter clauses +of my text give us, so to speak, three forms of motion. 'They shall +mount up with wings as eagles.' Some good commentators find in this a +parallel to the words in the 103rd Psalm, 'My youth is renewed like the +eagle's,' and propose to translate it in this fashion, 'They shall cast +their plumage like the eagle.' But it seems much more in accordance with +the context and the language to adopt substantially the reading of our +English version here, or to make the slight change, 'They shall lift up +their wings as the eagle,' implying, of course, the steady upward flight +towards the light of heaven. + +So, then, there are three forms of unwearied strength lying ready for +you, young men and women, to take for your very own if you like: +strength to soar, strength to run, strength to walk. + +There is strength to soar. Old men generally shed their wings, and can +only manage to crawl. They have done with romance. Enthusiasms are dead. +Sometimes they cynically smile at their own past selves and their +dreams. And it is a bad sign when an old man does that. But for the most +part they are content, unless they have got Christ in their hearts, to +keep along the low levels, and their soaring days are done. But if you +and I have Jesus Christ for the life of our spirits, as certainly as +fire sends its shooting tongues upwards, so certainly shall we rise +above the sorrows and sins and cares of this 'dim spot which men call +earth,' and find an ampler field for buoyant motion high up in communion +with God. Strength to soar means the gracious power of bringing all +heaven into our grasp, and setting our affections on things above. As +the night falls, and joys become fewer and life sterner, and hopes +become rarer and more doubtful, it is something to feel that, however +straitened may be the ground below, there is plenty of room above, and +that, though we are strangers upon earth, we can lift our thoughts +yonder. If there be darkness here, still we can 'outsoar the shadow of +our night,' and live close to the sun in fellowship with God. Dear +brethren, life on earth were too wretched unless it were possible to +'mount up with wings as eagles.' + +Again, you may have strength to run--that is to say, there is power +waiting for you for all the great crises of your lives which call for +special, though it may be brief, exertion. Such crises will come to each +of you, in sorrow, work, difficulty, hard conflicts. Moments will be +sprung upon you without warning, in which you will feel that years hang +on the issue of an instant. Great tasks will be clashed down before you +unexpectedly which will demand the gathering together of all your power. +And there is only one way to be ready for such times as these, and that +is to live waiting on the Lord, near Christ, with Him in your hearts, +and then nothing will come that will be too hard for you. However rough +the road, and however severe the struggle, and however swift the pace, +you will be able to keep it up. Though it may be with panting lungs and +a throbbing heart, and dim eyes and quivering muscles, yet if you wait +on the Lord you will run and not be weary. You will be masters of the +crises. + +Strength to walk may be yours--that is to say, patient power for +persistent pursuit of weary, monotonous duty. That is the hardest, and +so it is named last. Many a man finds it easy, under the pressure of +strong excitement, and for a moment or two, to keep up a swift pace, who +finds it very difficult to keep steadily at unexciting work. And yet +there is nothing to be done except by doggedly plodding along the dusty +road of trivial duties, unhelped by excitement and unwearied by +monotony. Only one thing will conquer the disgust at the wearisome round +of mill-horse tasks which, sooner or later, seizes all godless men, and +that is to bring the great principles of the gospel to bear on them, and +to do them in the might and for the sake of the dear Lord. 'They shall +run and not be weary, they shall walk' along life's common way in +cheerful godliness, 'and they shall not faint.' + +Dear friends, life to us all is, and must be, full of sorrow and of +effort. Constant work and frequent sorrows wear us all out, and bring us +many a time to the verge of fainting. I beseech you to begin right, and +not to add to the other occasions for weariness that of having to +retrace, with remorseful heart and ashamed feet, the paths of evil on +which you have run. Begin right, which is to say, begin with Christ and +take Him for inspiration, for pattern, for guide, for companion. 'Run +with patience the race set before you, looking unto Jesus the author of +your faith, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.' + +And if you have Him in your hearts, then, however your creatural power +may grow weary, yet because He is with you, 'your shoes shall be iron +and brass, and as your days so shall your strength be,' and you may lift +up in your turn the glad, triumphant acknowledgment: 'For this cause we +faint not, but though our outward man perish, our inward man is renewed +day by day.' + +God bless you all and make that your experience! + + + + +CHRIST THE ARRESTER OF INCIPIENT EVIL AND THE NOURISHER OF INCIPIENT +GOOD + +'A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not +quench.... He shall not fail nor be discouraged.'--ISAIAH xlii. 3, 4. + + +The two metaphors which we have in the former part of these words are +not altogether parallel. 'A bruised reed' has suffered an injury which, +however, is neither complete nor irreparable. 'Smoking flax,' on the +other hand--by which, of course, is meant flax used as a wick in an +old-fashioned oil lamp--is partially lit. In the one a process has been +begun which, if continued, ends in destruction; in the other, a process +has been begun which, if continued, ends in a bright flame. So the one +metaphor may refer to the beginnings of evil which may still be averted, +and the other the beginnings of incipient and incomplete good. If we +keep this distinction in mind, the words of our text gain wonderfully in +comprehensiveness. + +Then again, it is to be noticed that in the last words of our text, +which are separated from the former by a clause which we omit, we have +an echo of these metaphors. The word translated 'fail' is the same as +that rendered in the previous verse 'smoking,' or 'dimly burning'; and +the word 'discouraged' is the same as that rendered in the previous +verse 'bruised.' So then, this 'Servant of the Lord,' who is not to +break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax, is fitted for His +work, because He Himself has no share in the evils which He would heal, +and none in the weaknesses which He would strengthen. His perfect +manhood knows no flaws nor bruises; His complete goodness is capable of +and needs no increase. Neither outward force nor inward weakness can +hinder His power to heal and bless; therefore His work can never cease +till it has attained its ultimate purpose. 'He shall not fail nor be +discouraged'; shall neither be broken by outward violence, nor shall the +flame of His fading energy burn faint until He hath 'set judgment in the +earth,' and crowned His purposes with complete success. + +We have, then, here set before us three significant representations of +the servant of the Lord, which may well commend Him to our confidence +and our love. I shall not spend any time in answering the question: Of +whom speaketh the prophet this? The answer is plain for us. He speaks of +the personal Servant of the Lord, and the personal Servant of the Lord +is Jesus Christ our Saviour. I ask you then to come with me while I +deal, as simply as may be, with these three ideas that lie before us in +this great prophecy. + +I. Consider then, first, the representation of the Servant of the Lord +as the arrester of incipient ruin. + +'He shall not break the bruised reed.' Here is the picture--a slender +bulrush, growing by the margin of some tarn or pond; its sides crushed +and dented in by some outward power, a gust of wind, a sudden blow, the +foot of a passing animal. The head is hanging by a thread, but it is not +yet snapped or broken off from the stem. + +But, blessed be God! there emerges from the metaphor not only the solemn +thought of the bruises by sin that all men bear, but the other blessed +one, that there is no man so bruised as that he is broken; none so +injured as that restoration is impossible, no depravity so total but +that it may be healed, none so far off but that he may be brought nigh. +On no man has sin fastened its venomous claws so deeply but that these +may be wrenched away. In none of us has the virus so gone through our +veins but that it is capable of being expelled. The reeds are all +bruised, the reeds are none of them broken. And so my text comes with +its great triumphant hopefulness, and gathers into one mass as capable +of restoration the most abject, the most worthless, the most ignorant, +the most sensuous, the most godless, the most Christ-hating of the race. +Jesus looks on all the tremendous bulk of a world's sins with the +confidence that He can move that mountain and cast it into the depths of +the sea. + +There is a man in Paris that says he has found a cure for that horrible +disease of hydrophobia, and who therefore regards the poor sufferers of +whom others despair as not beyond the reach of hope. Christ looks upon a +world of men smitten with madness, and in whose breasts awful poison is +working, with the calm confidence that He carries in His hand an elixir, +one drop of which inoculated into the veins of the furious patient will +save him from death, and make him whole. 'The blood of Jesus Christ +cleanseth from all sin.' 'He will not break,' and that means He will +restore, 'the bruised reed.' There are no hopeless outcasts. None of you +are beyond the reach of a Saviour's love, a Saviour's blood, a Saviour's +healing. + +But then the words in my text may be taken in a somewhat narrower sense, +applying more particularly to a class. In accordance with other +metaphors of Scripture, we may think of 'the bruised reed' as expressive +of the condition of men whose hearts have been crushed by the +consciousness of their sins. 'The broken and the contrite heart,' +bruised and pulverised, as it were, by a sense of evil, may be typified +for us by this bruised reed. And then from the words of my text there +emerges the great and blessed hope that such a heart, wholesomely +removed from its self-complacent fancy of soundness, shall certainly be +healed and bound up by His tender hand. Did you ever see a gardener +dealing with some plant, a spray of which may have been wounded? How +delicately and tenderly the big, clumsy hand busies itself about the +tiny spray, and by stays and bandages brings it into an erect position, +and then gives it water and loving care. Just so does Jesus Christ deal +with the conscious and sensitive heart of a man who has begun to find +out how bad he is, and has been driven away from all his foolish +confidence. Christ comes to such an one and restores him, and just +because he is crushed deals with him gently, pouring in His consolation. +Wheresoever there is a touch of penitence, there is present a restoring +Christ. + +And the words may be looked at from yet another point of view. We may +think of them as representing to us the merciful dealing of the Master +with the spirits which are beaten and bruised, sore and wounded, by +sorrows and calamities; to whom the Christ comes in all the tenderness +of His gentleness, and lays a hand upon them--the only hand in all the +universe that can touch a bleeding heart without hurting it. + +Brother and sister suffering from any sorrow, and bleeding from any +wound, there is a balm and a physician. There is one hand that will +never be laid with blundering kindness or with harshness upon our sore +hearts, but whose touch will be healing, and whose presence will be +peace. + +The Christ who knows our sins and sorrows will not break the bruised +reed. The whole race of man may be represented in that parable that came +from His own lips, as fallen among thieves that have robbed him and +wounded him and left him bruised, but, blessed be God! only 'half dead'; +sorely wounded, indeed, but not so sorely but that he may be restored. +And there comes One with the wine and the oil, and pours them into the +wounds. 'The bruised reed shall He not break.' + +II. Now, in the next place, look at the completing thought that is here, +in the second clause, which represents Christ as the fosterer of +incipient and imperfect good. + +'The dimly-burning wick He shall not quench.' A process, as I have said, +is begun in the smoking flax, which only needs to be carried on to lead +to a brilliant flame. That represents for us not the beginnings of a not +irreparable evil, but the commencement of very dim and imperfect good. +Now, then, who are represented by this 'smoking flax'? You will not +misunderstand me, nor think that I am contradicting what I have already +been saying, if I claim for this second metaphor as wide a universality +as the former, and say that in all men, just because the process of evil +and the wounds from it are not so deep and complete as that restoration +is impossible, therefore is there something in their nature which +corresponds to this dim flame that needs to be fostered in order to +blaze brightly abroad. There is no man out of hell but has in him +something that needs but to be brought to sovereign power in his life in +order to make him a light in the world. You have consciences at the +least; you have convictions, you know you have, which if you followed +them out would make Christians of you straight away. You have +aspirations after good, desires, some of you, after purity and nobleness +of living, which only need to be raised to the height and the dominance +in your lives which they ought to possess, in order to revolutionise +your whole course. There is a spark in every man which, fanned and cared +for, will change him from darkness into light. Fanned and cared for it +needs to be, and fanned and cared for it can only be by a divine power +coming down upon it from without. This second metaphor of my text, as +truly as the other, belongs to every soul of man upon the earth. He from +whom all sparks and light have died out is not a man but a devil. And +for all of us the exhortation comes: 'Thou hast a voice within +testifying to God and to duty'; listen to it and care for it. + +Then again, dear brethren, in a narrower way, the words may be applied +to a class. There are some of us who have in us a little spark, as we +believe, of a divine life, the faint beginnings of a Christian +character. We call ourselves Christ's disciples. We are; but oh! how +dimly the flax burns. They say that where there is smoke there is fire. +There is a great deal more smoke than fire in the most of Christian +people in this generation, and if it were not for such thoughts as this +of my text about that dear Christ who will not lay a hasty hand upon +some little tremulous spark, and by one rash movement extinguish it for +ever, there would be but small hope for a great many of us. + +Whether, then, the dimly-burning wick be taken to symbolise the +lingering remains of a better nature which still abides with all sinful +men, yet capable of redemption, or whether it be taken to mean the low +and imperfect and inconsistent and feeble Christianity of us professing +Christians, the words of my text are equally blessed and equally true. +Christ will neither despise, nor so bring down His hand upon it as to +extinguish, the feeblest spark. Look at His life on earth, think how He +bore with those blundering, foolish, selfish disciples of His; how +patient the divine Teacher was with their slow learning of His meaning +and catching of His character. Remember how, when a man came to Him with +a very imperfect goodness, the Evangelist tells us that Jesus, beholding +him, loved him. And take out of these blessed stories this great hope, +that howsoever small men 'despise the day of small things,' the Greatest +does not; and howsoever men may say 'Such a little spark can never be +kindled into flame, the fire is out, you may as well let it alone,' He +never says that, but by patient teaching and fostering and continual +care and wise treatment will nourish and nurture it until it leaps into +a blaze. + +How do you make 'smoking flax' burn? You give it oil, you give it air, +and you take away the charred portions. And Christ will give you, in +your feebleness, the oil of His Spirit, that you may burn brightly as +one of the candlesticks in His Temple; and He will let air in, and +sometimes take away the charred portions by the wise discipline of +sorrow and trial, in order that the smoking flax may become a shining +light. But by whatsoever means He may work, be sure of this, that He +will neither despise nor neglect the feeblest inclination of good after +Him, but will nourish it to perfection and to beauty. + +The reason why so many Christian men's Christian light is so fuliginous +and dim is just that they keep away from Jesus Christ. 'Abide in Me and +I in you.' 'As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide +in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in Me.' How can the Temple +lamps burn bright unless the Priest of the Temple tends them? Keep near +Him that His hand may nourish your smoking dimness into a pure flame, +leaping heavenward and illuminating your lives. + +III. And now, lastly, we have here the representation of the servant of +the Lord's exemption from human evil and weakness, as the foundation of +His restoring and fostering work. + +'He shall not burn dimly nor be broken till He hath set judgment in the +earth.' There are no bruises in this reed; that is to say, Christ's +manhood is free from all scars and wounds of evil or of sin. There is no +dimness in this light, that is to say, Christ's character is perfect, +His goodness needs no increase. There is no trace of effort in His +holiness, no growth manifest in His God-likeness, from the beginning to +the end. There is no outward violence that can be brought to bear upon +Him that will stay Him in His purpose. There is no inward failure of +strength in Him that may lead us to fear that His work shall not be +completed. And because of these things, because of His perfect exemption +from human infirmity, because in Him was no sin. He is manifested to +take away our sins. Because in Him there was goodness incapable of +increase, being perfect from the beginning, therefore He is manifested +to make us participants of His own unalterable and infinite goodness and +purity. Because no outward violence, no inward weakness, can ever stay +His course, nor make Him abandon His purpose, therefore His gospel looks +upon the world with boundless hopefulness, with calm triumph; will not +hear of there being any outcast and irreclaimable classes; declares it +to be a blasphemy against God and Christ to say that any men or any +nations are incapable of receiving the gospel and of being redeemed by +it, and comes with supreme love and a calm consciousness of infinite +power to you, my brother, in your deepest darkness, in your moods most +removed from God and purity, and insures you that it will heal you, and +will raise all that in you is feeble to its own strength. Every man may +pray to that strong Christ who fails not nor is discouraged-- + + 'What in me is dark + Illumine; what is low, raise and support,' + +in the confidence that He will hear and answer. If you do that you will +not do it in vain, but His gentle hand laid upon you will heal the +bruises that sin has made. Out of your weakness, as of 'a reed shaken +with the wind,' the Restorer will make a pillar of marble in the Temple +of His God. And out of your smoking dimness and wavering light, a spark +at the best, almost buried in the thick smoke that accompanies it, the +fostering Christ will make a brightness which shall flame as the perfect +light that 'shineth more and more unto the noontide of the day.' + + + + +THE BLIND MAN'S GUIDE + +'I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in +paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, +and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not +forsake them.'--ISAIAH xiii. 16. + + +The grand stormy verses before these words, with all their dread array +of natural convulsions, have one object--the tender guidance promised in +the text. So we have the combination of terror and love, the blending in +the divine government of terrible judgments and most gentle guidance. +The words apply, of course, primarily to the redemption of Israel; but +through them shines a picture of the greater redemption of humanity. + +1. The blind travellers. They are blind, and their road is unknown to +them. It is a symbol of our condition and of our paths in life. Our +limited foresight cannot discern certainly even the next moment. It is +always the unexpected that happens. We cannot tell what lies behind the +next bend in the road, and there are so many bends; and behind one of +them, we cannot tell whether it may be the next, sits 'the Shadow feared +of man.' Life is like the course of the Congo, which makes so mighty a +bend northward that, till it had been followed from source to mouth, no +one could have supposed that it was to enter the ocean far away to the +west. Not only God's mercies, but our paths, are 'new every morning.' +Experience, like conscience, sheds light mainly on what lies behind, and +scarcely 'doth attain to something of prophetic strain.' + +2. The Leader. How tenderly God makes Himself the leader of the blind +pilgrims! It does not matter about being blind, if we put our hands in +His. Then He will 'be to us instead of eyes.' Jesus took the blind man +by the hand. + +So here is the promise of guidance by Providence, Word, Spirit. And here +is the condition of receiving it, namely, our conscious blindness and +realisation of the complexities of life, leading to putting ourselves +into His hands in docile faith. + +3. The gradual light. Darkness is made light. We receive the knowledge +of each step, when it needs to be taken; the light shines only on the +next; we are like men in a fog, who are able only to see a yard ahead. + +4. The clearing away of hindrances. 'Crooked things straight.' A careful +guide lifts stones out of a blind man's way. How far is this true? There +will be plenty of crooked things left crooked, but still so many +straightened as to make our road passable. + +5. The perpetual Presence. If God is with me, then all these blessings +will surely be mine. He will be with me if I keep myself with Him. It is +His felt presence that gives me light on the road, and levels and +straightens out the crookedest and roughest path. + + + + +THY NAME: MY NAME + +'I have called thee by thy name.'--ISAIAH xliii. 1. + +'Every one that is called by My name.'--ISAIAH xliii. 7. + + +Great stress is laid on names in Scripture. These two parallel and +antithetic clauses bring out striking complementary relations between +God and the collective Israel. But they are as applicable to each +individual member of the true Israel of God. + +I. What does God's calling a man by his name imply? + +1. Intimate knowledge. + +Adam naming the creatures. + +Christ naming His disciples. + +2. Loving friendship. + +Moses, 'I know thee by name, and thou hast found grace in my sight.' + +3. Designation and adaptation to work. + +Bezaleel--Exodus xxxi. 2; Cyrus--ISAIAH xlv. 3; Servant of the Lord-- +ISAIAH xlix. 1. + +II. What does God's calling a man by His name imply? + +1. God's possession of him. That possession by God involves God's +protection and man's safety. He does not hold His property slackly. +'None shall pluck them out of My Father's hand.' + +2. Kindred. The man bears the family name. He is adopted into the +household. The sonship of the receiver of the new name is dimly +shadowed. + +3. Likeness. + +The Biblical meaning of 'name' is 'character manifested.' + +Nomen and omen coincide. + +We must bring into connection with the texts the prominence given in the +Apocalypse to analogous promises. + +'I will write on him the name of My God.' That means a fuller disclosing +of God's character, and a clear impress of that character on perfected +men 'His name shall be in their foreheads.' + + + + +JACOB--ISRAEL--JESHURUN + +'Yet now hear, O Jacob My servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen.... +Fear not, O Jacob, My servant; and thou, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. +--ISAIAH xliv. 1, 2. + + +You observe that there are here three different names applied to the +Jewish nation. Two of them, namely Jacob and Israel, were borne by their +great ancestor, and by him transmitted to his descendants. The third was +never borne by him, and is applied to the people only here and in the +Book of Deuteronomy. + +The occurrence of all three here is very remarkable, and the order in +which they stand is not accidental. The prophet begins with the name +that belonged to the patriarch by birth; the name of nature, which +contained some indications of character. He passes on to the name which +commemorated the mysterious conflict where, as a prince, Jacob had power +with God and prevailed. He ends with the name Jeshurun, of which the +meaning is 'the righteous one,' and which was bestowed upon the people +as a reminder of what they ought to be. + +Now, as I take it, the occurrence of these names here, and their +sequence, may teach us some very important lessons; and it is simply to +these lessons, and not at all to the context, that I ask your attention. + +I. I take, then, these three names in their order as teaching us, first, +the path of transformation. + +Every 'Jacob' may become a 'righteous one,' if he will tread Jacob's +road. We start with that first name of nature which, according to Esau's +bitter etymology of it, meant 'a supplanter'--not without some +suggestions of craft and treachery in it. It is descriptive of the +natural disposition of the patriarch, which was by no means attractive. +Cool, calculating, subtle, with a very keen eye to his own interests, +and not at all scrupulous as to the means by which he secured them, he +had no generous impulses, and few unselfish affections. He told lies to +his poor old blind father, he cheated his brother, he met the shiftiness +of Laban with equal shiftiness. It was 'diamond cut diamond' all +through. He tried to make a bargain with God Himself at Bethel, and to +lay down conditions on which he would bring Him the tenth of his +substance. And all through his earlier career he does not look like the +stuff of which heroes and saints are made. + +But in the mid-path of his life there came that hour of deep dejection +and helplessness, when, driven out of all dependence on self, and +feeling round in his agony for something to lay hold upon, there came +into his nightly solitude a vision of God. In conscious weakness, and in +the confidence of self-despair, he wrestled with the mysterious Visitant +in the only fashion in which He can be wrestled with. 'He wept and made +supplication to Him,' as one of the prophets puts it, and so he bore +away the threefold gift--blessing from those mighty lips whose blessing +is the communication, and not only the invocation, of mercy, a deeper +knowledge of that divine and mysterious Name, and for himself a new +name. + +That new name implied a new direction given to his character. + +Hitherto he had wrestled with men whom he would supplant, for his own +advantage, by craft and subtlety; henceforward he strove with God for +higher blessings, which, in striving, he won. All the rest of his life +was on a loftier plane. Old ambitions were dead within him, and though +the last of these names in our text was never actually borne by him, he +began to deserve it, and grew steadily in nobleness and beauty of +character until the end, when he sang his swan-song and lay down to die, +with thanksgiving for the past and glowing prophecies for the future, +pouring from his trembling lips. + +And now, brethren, that is the outline of the only way in which, from +out of the evil and the sinfulness of our natural disposition, any of us +can be raised to the loftiness and purity of a righteous life. There +must be a Peniel between the two halves of the character, if there is to +be transformation. + +Have you ever been beaten out of all your confidence, and ground down +into the dust of self-disgust and self-abandonment? Have you ever felt, +'there is nothing in me or about me that I can cling to or rely upon'? +Have you ever in the thickest of that darkness had, gleaming in upon +your solitude, the vision of His face, whose face we see in Jesus +Christ? Have you ever grasped Him who is infinitely willing to be held +by the weakest hand, and who never 'makes as though He would go +further,' except in order to induce us to say, with deeper earnestness +of desire, 'Abide with us, for it is dark'? And have you ever, in +fellowship with Him thus, found pouring into your enlightened mind a +deeper reading of the meaning of His character and a fuller conception +of the mystery of His love? And have you ever--certainly you have if +these things have preceded it, certainly you have not if they have not +--have you ever thereby been borne up on to a higher level of feeling +and life, and been aware of new impulses, hopes, joys, new directions +and new capacities budding and blossoming in your spirit? + +Brethren! there is only one way by which, out of the mire and clay of +earth, there can be formed a fair image of holiness, and that is, that +Jacob's experience, in deeper, more inward, more wonderful form, should +be repeated in each one of us; and that thus, penitent and yet hopeful, +we should behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and draw +from Him our righteousness. That is the path of transformation. The road +passes through Peniel, and Jacob must become Israel before he is +Jeshurun. He must hold communion with God in Christ before he is clothed +with righteousness. + +How different that path is from the road which men are apt to take in +working out their own self-improvement! How many forms of religion, and +how many toiling souls put the cart before the horse, and in effect just +reverse the process, and say practically--'first make yourselves +righteous, and then you will have communion with God'! That is an +endless and a hopeless task. I have no doubt that some of you have +spent--and I would not say wasted, but it has been almost so--years of +life, not without many an honest effort, in the task of self- +improvement, and are very much where you were long ago. Why have you +failed? Because you have never been to Peniel. You have never seen the +face of God in Christ, You have not received from Him the blessing, even +righteousness, from the God of your salvation. + +Dear friends, give up treading that endless, weary path of vain effort; +and learn--oh! learn--that the righteousness which makes a soul pure and +beautiful must come as a gift from God, and is given only in Jesus +Christ. + +This sequence too, I think, may very fairly be used to teach us the +lesson that there is no kind of character so debased but that it may +partake of the purifying and ennobling influence. All the Jacobs may be +turned into righteous ones, however crafty, however subtle, however +selfish, however worldly they are. Christianity looks at no man and +says, 'That is too bad a case for me to deal with.' It will undertake +any and every case, and whoever will take its medicines can be cured 'of +whatsoever disease he had.' + +To all of us, no matter what our past may have been, this blessed +message comes: 'There is hope for thee, if thou wilt use these means.' +Only remember, the road from the depths of evil to the heights of purity +always lies through Peniel. You must have power with God and draw a +blessing from Him, and hold communion with Him, before you can become +righteous. + +How do they print photographs? By taking sensitive paper, and laying it, +in touch with the negative, in the sun. Lay your spirits on Christ, and +keep them still, touching Him, in the light of God, and that will turn +you into His likeness. That, and nothing else will do it. + +II. And now there is a second lesson from the occurrence of these three +names, viz., here we may find expressed the law for the Christian life. + +There are some religious people that seem to think that it is enough if +only they can say; 'Well! I have been to Jesus Christ and I have got my +past sins forgiven; I have been on the mountain and have held communion +with God; I do know what it is to have fellowship with Him, in many an +hour of devout communion.' and who are in much danger of treating the +further stage of simple, practical righteousness as of secondary +importance. Now the order of these names here points the lesson that the +apex of the pyramid, the goal of the whole course, is--Righteousness. +The object for which the whole majestic structure of Revelation has been +builded up, is simply to make good men and women. God does not tell us +His Name merely in order that we may know His Name, but in order that, +knowing it, we may be smitten with the love of it, and so may come into +the likeness of it. There is no religious truth which is given men for +the sake of clearing their understandings and enlightening their minds +only. We get the truth to enlighten our minds and to clear our +understandings in order that thereby, as becomes reasonable men with +heads on our shoulders, we may let our principles guide our conduct. +Conduct is the end of principle, and all Revelation is given to us in +order that we may be pure and good men and women. + +For the same end all God's mercy of forgiveness and deliverance from +guilt and punishment in Jesus Christ is given to you, not merely in +order that you may escape the penalties of your evil, but in order that, +being pardoned, you may in glad thankfulness be lifted up into an +enthusiasm of service which will make you eager to serve Him and long to +be like Him. He sets you free from guilt, from punishment, and His +wrath, in order that by the golden cord of love you may be fastened to +Him in thankful obedience. God's purpose in redemption is that 'we, +being delivered out of the hand of our enemies should serve Him without +fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.' + +And in like manner, righteousness, by which, in the present connection, +we mean simply the doing of the things, and the being the character, +which a conscience enlightened by the law of God dictates to us to be +and to do--righteousness is the intention and the aim of all religious +emotion and feeling. It is all very well to have the joy of fellowship +with God in our inmost soul, but there is a type of Christianity which +is a great deal stronger on the side of devout emotion than on the side +of transparent godliness; and although it becomes no man to say what +Jesus Christ could say to those whose religion is mainly emotional, +'Hypocrites!' it is the part of every honest preacher to warn all that +listen to him that there does lie a danger, a very real danger, very +close to some of us, to substitute devout emotion for plain, practical +goodness, and to be a great deal nearer God in the words of our prayers +than we are in the current and set of our daily lives. Take, then, these +three names of my text as flashing into force and emphasis the +exhortation that the crown of all religion is righteousness, and as +preaching, in antique guise, the same lesson that the very Apostle of +affectionate contemplation uttered with such earnestness:--'Little +children! let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is +righteous, even as He is righteous.' An ounce of practical godliness is +worth a pound of fine feeling and a ton of correct orthodoxy. Remember +what the Master said, and take the lesson in the measure in which you +need it: 'Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not +prophesied in Thy name, and in Thy name have cast out devils, and in Thy +name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I +never knew you, depart from Me.' And the proof that I never knew you, +nor you Me, is: 'Ye that work iniquity.' + +III. Then there is another lesson still which I draw from these words, +viz. the merciful judgment which God makes of the character of them that +love Him. + +Jeshurun means 'the righteous one.' How far beneath the ideal of the +name these Jewish people fell we all know, and yet the name is applied +to them. Although the realisation of the ideal has been so imperfect, +the ideal is not destroyed. Although they have done so many sins, yet He +calls them by His name of 'righteous.' And so we Christian people find +that the New Testament calls us 'saints.' That name is not applied to +some select and lofty specimens of Christianity, but to all Christians, +however imperfect their present life and character may be. Then people +sneer and say, 'Ah! a strange kind of saints these Christians are! Do +you think that a man can condone practical immorality by saying that he +is trusting in Jesus Christ? The Church's "saint" seems to mean less +than the world's "man of honour."' God forbid that it should be fancied +that Christian sainthood is more tolerant of evil than worldly morality, +or has any fantastic standard of goodness which makes up for departures +from the plain rule of right by prayers and raptures. But surely there +may be a principle of action deep down at the bottom of a heart, very +feeble in its present exercise and manifestation, which yet is the true +man, and is destined to conquer the whole nature which now wars against +it. Here, for instance, is a tiny spark, and there is a huge pile of +damp, green wood. Yes; and the little spark will turn all the wood into +flame, if you give it time and fair play. The leaven may be hid in an +immensely greater mass of meal, but it, and not the three measures of +flour, is the active principle. And if there is in a man, overlaid by +ever so many absurdities, and contradictions, and inconsistencies, a +little seed of faith in Jesus Christ, there will be in him +proportionately a little particle of a divine life which is omnipotent, +which is immortal, which will conquer and transform all the rest into +its own likeness; and He who sees not as men see, beholds the inmost +tendencies and desires of the nature, as well as the facts of the life, +and discerning the inmost and true self of His children, and knowing +that it will conquer, calls us 'righteous ones,' even while the outward +life has not yet been brought into harmony with the new man, created in +righteousness after God's image. + +All wrong-doing is inconsistent with Christianity, but, thank God, it is +not for us to say that _any_ wrong-doing is incompatible with it; and +therefore, for ourselves there is hope, and for our estimate of one +another there ought to be charity, and for all Christian people there is +the lesson--live up to your name. _Noblesse oblige!_ Fulfil your ideal. +Be what God calls you, and 'press toward the mark for the prize.' + +If one had time to deal with it, there is another lesson naturally +suggested by these names, but I only put it in a sentence and leave it; +and that is the union between the founder of the nation and the nation. +The name of the patriarch passes to his descendants, the nation is +called after him that begat it. In some sense it prolongs his life and +spirit and character upon the earth. That is the old-world way of +looking at the solidarity of a nation. There is a New Testament fact +which goes even deeper than that. The names which Christ bears are given +to Christ's followers. Is He a King, is He a Priest? He 'makes us kings +and priests.' Is He anointed the Messiah? God 'hath anointed us in Him.' +Is He the Light of the World? + +'Ye are the lights of the world.' His life passeth into all that love +Him in the measure of their trust and love. We are one with Jesus if we +rest upon Him; one in life, one in character, approximating by slow +degrees, but surely, to His likeness; and blessed be His name! one in +destiny. Then, my friend, if you will only keep near that Lord, trust +Him, live in the light of His face, go to Him in your weakness, in your +despair, in your self-abandonment; wrestle with Him, with the +supplication and the tears that He delights to receive, then you will be +knit to Him in a union so real and deep that all which is His shall be +yours, His life shall be the life of your spirit, His power the strength +of your life, His dominion the foundation of your dignity as a prince +with God, His all-prevailing priesthood the security that your prayer +shall have power, and the spotless robe of His righteousness the fine +linen, clean and white, in which arrayed, you shall be found of Him, and +in Him at last, in peace, 'not having your own righteousness, but that +which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God +by faith.' + + + + +FEEDING ON ASHES + +'He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he +cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right +hand?'--ISAIAH xliv. 20. + + +The prophet has been pouring fierce scorn on idolaters. They make, he +says, the gods they worship. They take a tree and saw it up: one log +serves for a fire to cook their food, and with compass and pencil and +plane they carve the figure of a man, and then they bow down to it and +say, 'Deliver me, for thou art my god!' He sums up the whole in this +sentence of my text, in which the tone changes from bitter irony to +astonished pity. Now, if this were the time and the place, one would +like to expand and illustrate the deep thoughts in these words in +reference to idolatry; thoughts which go dead in the teeth of a great +deal that is now supposed to be scientifically established, but which +may be none the more true for all that. He asserts that idolatry is +empty, a feeding on ashes. He declares, in opposition to modern ideas, +that the low, gross forms of polytheism and idol-worship are a departure +from a previous higher stage, whereas to-day we are told by a hundred +voices that all religion begins at the bottom, and slowly struggles up +to the top. Isaiah says the very opposite. The pure form is the +primitive; the secondary form is the gross, which is a corruption. They +tell us too, nowadays, that all religion pursues a process of evolution, +and gradually clears itself of its more imperfect and carnal elements. +Isaiah says, 'he cannot deliver his soul'; and no religion ever worked +itself up, unless under the impulse of a revelation from without. That +is Isaiah's philosophy of idolatry, and I expect it will be accepted as +the true one some day. + +But my text has a wider bearing. It not only describes, in pathetic +language, the condition of the idolater, but it is true about all lives, +which are really idolatrous in so far as they make anything else than +God their aim and their joy. Every word of this text applies to such +lives--that is to say, to the lives of a good many people listening to +me now. And I would fain try to lay the truths here on some hearts. Let +me just take them as they lie in the words before me. + +I. A life that substantially ignores God is empty of all true +satisfaction. + +'He feedeth on ashes'! Very little imagination will realise the force of +that picture. The gritty cinders will irritate the lips and tongue, will +dry up the moisture of the mouth, will interfere with the breathing, and +there will be no nourishment in a sackful of them. + +Dear brethren, the underlying truth is this--God is the only food of a +man's soul. You pick up the skeleton of a bird upon a moor; and if you +know anything about osteology--the science of bones--you will see, in +the very make of its breast-bone and its wing-bones, the declaration +that its destiny was to soar into the blue. You pick up the skeleton of +a fish lying on the beach, and you will see in its very form and +characteristics that its destiny is to expatiate in the depths of the +sea. And, written on you, as distinctly as flight on the bird, or +swimming on the fish, is this, that you are meant, by your very make, to +soar up into the heights of the glory of God, and to plunge deep into +the abysses of His infinite love and wisdom. Man is made for God. 'Whose +image and superscription hath it?' said Christ. The coin belongs to the +king whose head and titles are displayed upon it; and on your heart, +friend, though a usurper has tried to recoin the piece, and put his own +foul image on the top of the original one, is stamped deep that you +belong to the King of kings, to God Himself. + +For what does our heart want? A perfect, changeless, all-powerful love. +And what does our mind want? Reliable, guiding, inexhaustible, and yet +accessible truth. And what does our will want? Commandments which have +an authoritative ring in their very utterance, and which will serve for +infallible guides for our lives. And what do our weak, sinful natures +want? Something that shall free our consciences, and shall deliver us +from the burden of our transgressions, and shall calm our fears, and +shall quicken and warrant our lofty hopes. And what do men whose destiny +is to live for ever want but something that shall go with them through +all changes of condition, and, like a light in the midst of the darkest +tunnel, shall burn in the passage between this and the other world, and +shall never be taken away from them? We want a Person to be everything +to us. No accumulation of things will satisfy a man. And we want all our +treasures to be in one Person, and we need that that Person shall live +as long as we live, and as long as we need shall be sufficient to supply +us. And all this is only the spelling in many letters of the one +name--God. That is what we want, that, and nothing less. + +Then the next step that I suggest to you is, that where a man will take +God for the food of his spirit, and turn love and mind and will and +conscience and practical life to Him, seeing Him in everything, and +seeing all things in Him; saturating, as it were, the universe with the +thought of God, and recreating his own spirit with communion of +friendship to Him; to that man lower goods do first disclose their real +sweetness, their most poignant delight, and their most solid +satisfaction. To say of a world where God has set us, that it is all +'vanity and vexation of spirit,' goes in flat contradiction to what He +said when, creation finished, He looked upon His world, and proclaimed +to the waiting seraphim around that 'it was very good.' There is a view +of the world which calls itself pious, but is really an insult to God; +and the irreligious pessimism that is fashionable nowadays, as if human +life were a great mistake, and everything were mean and poor and +insufficient, is contrary to the facts and to the consciousness of every +man. But if you make things first which were meant to be second, then +you make what was meant to be food 'ashes.' They are all good in their +place. Wealth is good; wisdom is good; success is good; love is good. +And all these things may be enjoyed without God, and will each of them +yield their proportional satisfaction to the part of our nature to which +they belong. But if you put them first you degrade them; a change passes +over them at once. A long row of cyphers means nothing; put a +significant digit in front of it, and it means millions. Take away the +digit, and it goes back to nothing again. The world, and all its fading +sweets, if you put God in the forefront of it, and begin the series with +Him, is sweet, though it may be fleeting, and is meant to be felt by us +as such. But if you take away Him, it is a row of cyphers signifying +nothing, and able to contribute nothing to the real, deepest necessities +of the human soul. And so the old question comes--'Why do ye spend your +money for that which is not bread?' It is bread, if only you will +remember first that God is the food of your souls. But if you try to +nourish yourselves on it alone, then, as I said, a sackful of such ashes +will not stay your appetite. Oh! brethren, God has not so blundered in +making the world that He has surrounded us with things that are all +lies, but He has so made it that whosoever flies in the face of the +gracious commandment which is also an invitation, 'Seek ye first the +Kingdom of God and His righteousness,' has not only no security that the +'other things' shall 'be added unto him,' but has the certainty that +though they were added to him, in degree beyond his dreams and highest +hopes, they would avail nothing to satisfy the hunger of his heart. As +George Herbert puts it-- + + Shadows well mounted, dreams in a career, + Embroidered lies, nothing between two dishes, + These are the pleasures here.' + +'He feedeth on ashes,' because he does not take God for the food of his +soul. + +II. So, secondly, notice that a life which thus ignores God is +tragically unaware of its own emptiness. + +'A deceived heart hath turned him aside.' That explains how the man +comes to fancy that ashes are food. His whole nature is perverted, his +vision distorted, his power of judgment marred. He is given over to +hallucinations and illusions and dreams. + +That explains, too, why men persist in this feeding on ashes after all +experience. There is no fact stranger or more tragical in our histories +than that we do not learn by a thousand failures that the world will not +avail to make us restful and blessed. You will see a dog chasing a +sparrow,--it has chased hundreds before and never caught one. Yet, when +the bird rises from the ground, away it goes after it once more, with +eager yelp and rush, to renew the old experience. Ah! that is like what +a great many of you are doing, and you have not the same excuse that the +dog has. You have been trying all your lives--and some of you have grey +hairs on your heads--to slake your thirst by dipping leaky buckets into +empty wells, and you are at it yet. As some one says, 'experience throws +a light on the wave behind us,' but it does very little to fling a light +on the sea before us. Experience confirms my text, for I venture to put +it to the experience of every man--how many moments of complete +satisfaction and rest can you summon up in your memory as having been +yours in the past? 'He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with +silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase.' Appetite always +grows faster than supply. And so, though we have tried them in vain so +often, we turn again to the old discredited sources, and fancy we shall +do better this time. Is it not strange? Is there any explanation of it, +other than that of my text? 'A deceived heart hath turned him aside.' + +And that deceived heart, stronger than experience, is also stronger than +conscience. Do you not know that you ought to be Christians? Do you not +know that it is both wrong and foolish of you to ignore God? Do you not +know that you will have to answer for it? Have you not had moments of +illumination when there has risen up before you the whole vanity of your +past lives, and when you have felt 'I have played the fool, and erred +exceedingly'? And yet, what has come of it all with some of you? Why, +what comes of it with the drunkard in the Book of Proverbs, who, as soon +as he has got over the bruises and the sickness of his last debauch, +says, 'I will seek it yet again.' 'A deceived heart hath turned him +aside.' + +And how is it that this hallucination that you have fed full and been +satisfied, when all the while your hunger has not been appeased, can +continue to act on us? For the very plain reason that every one of us +has in himself a higher and a lower self, a set of desires for the +grosser, more earthly, and, using the word in its proper sense, worldly +sort--that is to say, directed towards material things, and a higher set +which look right up to God if they were allowed fair play. And of these +two sets--which really are one at bottom, if a man would only see +it--the lower gets the upper hand, and suppresses the higher and the +nobler. And so in many a man and woman the longing for God is crushed +out by the grosser delights of sense. + +One sometimes hears of cowardly, unmanly sailors, who in shipwreck push +the women and children aside, and struggle to the boats. And there are +in all of us groups of sturdy mendicants, so to speak, who elbow their +way to the front, and will have their wants satisfied. What becomes of +the gentler group that stand behind, unnoticed and silent? It is an +awful thing when men and women do, as so many of us do, pervert the +tastes that are meant to lead them to God, in order to stifle the +consciousness that they need a God at all. There are tribes of low +savages who are known as 'clay-eaters.' That is what a great many of us +are; we feed upon the serpent's meat, the dust of the earth, and let all +the higher heavenly food, which addresses itself first to loftier +desires, but also satisfies these lower ones, stand unnoticed, unsought +for, unpartaken of. Dear friends, do not be befooled by that treacherous +heart of yours, but let the deepest voices in your soul be heard. +Understand, I beseech you, that their cry is for no created person or +thing, and that only God Himself can satisfy them. + +III. And now, lastly, notice that a life thus ignoring God needs a power +from without to set it free. + +'He cannot deliver his soul.' Can you? Do you think you can break the +habits of a lifetime? Do you think that, left to yourself, you would +ever have any inclination to break them? Certainly, left to yourselves, +you will never have the power. These long indulged appetites of ours +grow with indulgence; and that which first was light as a cobweb, and +soft as a silken bracelet, becomes heavier and solider until it is an +iron fetter upon the limb, which no man can break. There is nothing more +awful in life than the influence of habit, so unthinkingly acquired, so +inexorably certain, so limiting our possibilities and enclosing us in +its grip. + +Dear brethren, there is something more wanted than yourselves to break +this chain. You have tried, I have no doubt, in the course of your +lives, more and more resolutely, to cure yourselves of some more or less +unworthy habits. They may be but mere slight tricks of attitude or +intonation, or movement. Has your success been such as to encourage you +to think that you can revolutionise your lives, and dethrone the despots +that have ruled over you in the past? I leave the question to +yourselves. To me it seems that the world of men is certain to go on +ignoring God, and seeking its delight only in the world of creatures, +unless there comes in an outside power into the heart of the world and +revolutionises all things. + +It is that power that I have to preach, the Christ who is the 'Bread of +God that came down from Heaven,' who can lift up any soul from the most +obstinate and long-continued grovelling amongst the transitory things of +this limited world, and the superficial delights of sense and a +gratified bodily life; who can bring the forgiveness which is essential, +the deliverance from the power of evil which is not less essential, and +who can fill our hearts with Himself the food of the world. He comes to +each of us; He comes to you, with the old unanswerable question upon His +lips, 'Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your +labour for that which satisfieth not?' It is unanswerable, for you can +give no reason sufficient for such madness. All that you could say, and +you durst not say it to Him, is, 'a deceived heart hath turned me +aside.' He comes with the old gracious word upon His lips, 'Take! eat! +this is My body which is broken for you.' He offers us Himself. He can +stay all the hungers of all mankind. He can feed your heart with love, +your mind with truth which is Himself, your will with His sweet +commands. + +As of old He made the thousands sit down upon the grass, and they did +all eat and were filled, so He stands before the world to-day and says, +'I am the Bread of Life; He that cometh to Me shall never hunger.' And +if you will only come to Him--that is to say, will trust yourselves +altogether to the merits of His sacrifice, and the might of His +indwelling Spirit--He will take away all the taste for the leeks and +onions and garlic, and will give you the appetite for heavenly food. He +will spread for you a table in the wilderness, and what would else be +ashes will become sweet, wholesome, and nourishing. Nor will He cease +there, for in His own good time He will call us to the banqueting house +above, where He will make us to sit down to meat, and come forth Himself +and serve us. Here, hunger often brings pain, and eating is followed by +repletion. But there, appetite and satisfaction will produce each other +perpetually, and the blessed ones who then hunger will not hunger so as +to feel faintness or emptiness, nor be so filled as to cease to desire +larger portions of the Bread of God. I beseech you, cry, 'Lord, ever +more give us this bread!' + + + + +WRITING BLOTTED OUT AND MIST MELTED + +'I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a +cloud, thy sins.'--ISAIAH xliv. 22. + + +Isaiah has often and well been called the Evangelical Prophet. Many +parts of this second half of his prophecies referring to the Messiah +read like history rather than prediction. But it is not only from the +clearness with which the great figure of the future king of Israel +stands out on his page that he deserves that title. Other thoughts +belonging to the very substance of the gospel appear in him with a +vividness and a frequency which well warrants its application to him. He +speaks much of the characteristically Christian conceptions of sin, +forgiveness, and redemption. The whole of the latter parts of this book +are laden with that burden. They are gathered up in the extraordinarily +pregnant and blessed words of my text, in which metaphors are blended +with much disregard to oratorical propriety, in order to bring out the +whole fulness of the prophet's meaning. 'I have blotted out'--that +suggests a book. 'I have blotted out as a cloud'--that suggests the +thinning away of morning mists. The prophet blends the two thoughts +together, and on that great revelation of a forgiveness granted before +it has been asked, and given, not only to one penitent soul wailing out +like the abased king of Israel in his deep contrition, 'according to the +multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions,' but +promised to a whole people, is rested the great invitation, 'Return unto +Me, for I have redeemed thee.' + +Let me try and bring out, as simply and earnestly as I can, the great +teaching that is condensed into these words. + +I. Observe here the penetrating glance into the very essential +characteristics of all sin. + +There are two words, as you see, employed in my text, 'transgressions' +and 'sins.' They apply to the same kind of actions, but they look at +them from different angles and points of view. They are partially +synonymous, but they cover very various conceptions, and if we take note +of the original significations of the two words, we get two very +important and often forgotten thoughts. + +For that expression rendered in my text, and rendered correctly enough +--transgressions--means at bottom, 'rebellion,' the rising up of a +disobedient will, not only against a law, but against a lawgiver. There +we have a deepening of that solemn fact of a man's wrongdoing, which +brings it into immediate connection with God, and marks its foulness by +reason of that connection. + +Ah! brethren, it makes all the difference to a man's notions of right +and wrong, whether he stops on the surface or goes down to the depths; +whether he says to himself, 'The thing is a vice; it is wrong; it is +contrary to what I ought to be'; or whether he gets down to the darker, +deeper, and truer thought, and says, 'The damnable thing about every +little evil that I do is this, that in it _I_--poor puny I--perk myself +up against God, and say to Him, "Thou wilt; wilt thou? _I_ shall not!"' +Sin is rebellion. + +And so what becomes of the hazy distinction between great sins and +little ones? An overt act of rebellion is of the same gravity, +whatsoever may be its form. The man that lifts his sword against the +sovereign, and the man behind him that holds his horse, are equally +criminal. And when once you let in the notion that in all our actions we +have to do with a Person, to whom we are bound to be obedient, then the +distinction which sophisticates so many people's consciences, and does +such infinite harm in so many lives, between great and small +transgressions, disappears altogether. Sin is rebellion. + +Then the other word of my text is equally profound and significant. For +it, literally taken, means--as the words for 'sin' do in other languages +besides the Hebrew--missing a mark. Every wrong thing that any man does +is beside the mark, at which he, by virtue of his manhood, and his very +make and nature, ought to aim. It is beside the mark in another sense +than that. As some one says, 'A rogue is a roundabout fool.' No man ever +secures that, and only that, which he aims at by any departure from the +straight path of imperative duty. For if he gets some vulgar and +transient titillation of appetite, or satisfaction of desire, he gets +along with it something that takes all the gilt off the gingerbread, and +all the sweetness out of the satisfaction. So that it is always a +blunder to be bad, and every arrow that is drawn by a sinful hand misses +the target to which all our arrows should be pointed, and misses even +the poor mark that we think we are aiming at. Take these two thoughts +with you--I will not dwell on them, but I desire to lay them upon all +your hearts--all evil is sin, and every sin is rebellion against God, +and a blunder in regard to myself. + +II. And now I come to the second point of our text, and ask you to note +the permanent record which every sin leaves. + +I explained in the earlier part of my remarks that we have a case here +of the thing that horrifies rhetoricians, but does not matter a bit to a +prophet, the blending or confusing of two metaphors. The first of +them--'I have blotted out'--suggests a piece of writing, a book, or +manuscript of some sort. And the plain English of what lies behind that +metaphor is this solemn thought, which I would might blaze before each +of us, in all our lives, that God's calm and all-comprehensive knowledge +and remembrance takes and keeps filed, and ready for reference, the +whole story of our whole acts. There _is_ a book. It is a violent +metaphor, no doubt, but there is a solemn truth underlying it which we +are too apt to forget. The world is groaning nowadays with two-volume +memoirs of men that nobody wants to know anything more about. But every +man is ever writing his autobiography with invisible but indelible ink. +You have seen those old-fashioned 'manifold writers' in your places of +business, and the construction of them is this: a flimsy sheet of tissue +paper, a bit of black to be put in below it, and then another sheet on +the other side; and the pen that writes on the flimsy top surface makes +an impression that is carried through the black to the sheet below, and +there is a duplicate which the writer keeps. You and I, upon the +flimsinesses of this fleeting--sometimes, we think, futile--life, are +penning what is neither flimsy nor futile, which goes through the opaque +dark, and is reproduced and docketed yonder. That is what we are doing +every day and every minute, writing, writing, writing our own biography. +And who is going to read it? Well, God does read it now, and you will +have to read it out one day, and how will you like that? + +This metaphor will bear a little further expansion. Scripture tells us, +and conscience tells us, what manner of manuscript it is that we are +each so busy adding line upon line to. It is a ledger; it is an +indictment. Our own handwriting puts down in the ledger our own debts, +and we cannot deny our own handwriting when we are confronted with it. +It is an indictment, and our own hand draws it, and we have to plead +'guilty,' or 'not guilty,' to it. Which, being translated into plain +fact, is this--that there goes with all our deeds some sense and reality +of responsibility for them, and that all our rebellions against God, and +our blunders against self, be they great or small, carry with them a +sense of guilt and a reality of guilt whether we have the sense of it or +not. God has a judgment at this moment about every man and woman, based +upon the facts of the unfinished biography which they are writing. + +Mystical and awful, yet blessed and elevating, is the thought that +nothing--_nothing,_ ever dies; and that what was, is now, and always +will be. + +Amongst the specimens from the coal measures in a museum you will find +slabs upon which the tiniest fronds of ferns that grew nobody knows how +many millenniums since are preserved for ever. Our lives, when the blow +of the last hammer lays them open, will, in like manner, bear the +impress of the minutest filament of every deed that we have ever done. + +But my metaphor will bear yet further expansion, for this +autobiographical record which we are busy preparing, which is at once +ledger and indictment, is to be read out one day. There is a great scene +in the last book of Scripture, the whole solemn significance of which, I +suppose, we shall not understand till we have learned it by experience, +but the truth of which we have sufficient premonitions to assure us of, +which declares that at a given time, on the confines of Eternity, the +Great White Throne is to be set, and the books are to be opened, and the +dead are judged 'out of the books,' which, the seer goes on to explain, +is 'according to their works.' The story of Esther tells us how the +sleepless monarch in the night-watches sent for the records of the +kingdom and had them read to him. The King who never slumbers nor +sleeps, in that dawning of heaven's eternal morning, will have the books +opened before Him, and my deeds will be read out. He and I will hear +them, whether any else may hear or no. That is my second lesson. + +III. The third is, that we have here suggested the darkening power of +sin. + +The prophet, as I said, mixes metaphors. 'I have blotted out as a cloud +thy transgressions.' He uses two words for 'cloud' here; both of them +mean substantially the same thing, and both suggest the same idea. When +cloud fills the sky it darkens the earth, and shuts out the sunshine and +the blue, it closes the petals of the little flowers, it hushes the +songs of the birds. Sin makes for the sinning man 'an under-roof of +doleful grey,' which shuts out all the glories above. Put that metaphor +into plain English, and it is just this, 'Your sins have separated +between you and your God, and your iniquities have hid His face from you +that He will not hear.' It is impossible for a man that has his heart +all stiffened by the rebellion of his will against God's, or all +seething with unrestrained passions, or perturbed with worldly longings +and desires, to enter into calm fellowship with God or to keep the +thought of God clear before his mind. For we know Him, not by sense nor +by reason, but by sympathy and by feeling. And whatsoever comes in to +disturb a man's purity, comes in to hinder his vision of God. 'Blessed +are the pure in heart, for they'--and they only--'shall see God.' +Whenever from the undrained swamps of my own passions and sensualities, +or from the as malarious though loftier grounds of my own self-regard, +be I student or thinker, or moral man, there rise up these light mists, +they will fill the sky and hide the sun. On a winter's night you will +see the Pleiades, or other bright constellations, varying in brilliancy +from moment to moment as some invisible cloud-wrack floats across the +heavens. So, brother, every evil thing that we do rises up and gets +diffused through our atmosphere, and blots out from our vision the face +of God Himself, the blessed Son. + +Not only by reason of dimming and darkening my thoughts of Him is my sin +rightly compared to an obscuring cloud; but the comparison also holds +good because, just as the blanket of a wet mist swathing the wintry +fields prevents the sunshine from falling upon them in blessing, so the +accumulated effect of my evil doings and evil designings and thinkings +and willings comes between me and all spiritual blessings which God can +bestow, so that the very light of light, the highest blessings that He +yearns to give, and we faint for want of possessing, are impossible even +to His love to communicate until the cloud is swept away. So my sin +darkens my soul, and separates me from the light of life. + +But the metaphor carries with it, too, a suggestion of the limitations +of the power of sin. For when the cloud is thickest and most obscuring +it only hugs the earth, and rises but a little way Into the heavens; and +far above it the blue is as blue, and the sunshine as bright, as if +there were no mist or fog in the lower regions. Therefore, let us +remember that, while the cloud must veil us from the light, the light is +above it, and 'every cloud that veileth love' may some day be thinned +away by the love it veils. + +IV. That brings me to the last word of my text,--viz. the prophet's +teaching as to the removal of the sin. + +We have to carry both the metaphors together with us here. 'I have +blotted out'--that is, as erasing from a book. 'I have blotted out as a +cloud'--that is, the thinning away of the mist. The blurred and stained +page can be cancelled. Chemicals will take the ink out. 'The blood of +Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin'; and it, passed over all that foul +record, makes it pure and clean. 'What I have written, I have written,' +said Pilate in his obstinacy. 'What I have written, I have written,' +wails many a man in the sense of the irrevocableness of his past. +Brother! be not afraid. Christ can take away all that stained record, +and give you back the page ready to receive holier words. + +The cloud is thinned away. What thins the cloud? As I have said, the +light which the cloud obscures, shining on the upper surface of it, +dissipates it layer by layer till it gets down at last to the lowermost, +and then rends a gap in it, and sends the shaft of the sunbeam through +on to the green earth. And that is only a highly imaginative way of +saying that it is the love against which we transgress that thins away +the cloud of transgression, and at last, as the placid moon, by simply +shining silently on, will sweep the whole sky clear of its clouds, +dissipates them all, and leaves the calm blue. God forgives. The ledger +account--if I may use so grossly commercial a figure--is settled in +full; the indictment is endorsed, 'acquitted.' He remembers the sins +only to breathe into the child's heart the assurance of pardon, and no +obstacle rises by reason of forgiven transgression between the sinning +man and the reconciled God. + +Now, all this preaching of Isaiah's is enlarged and confirmed, and to +some extent the _rationale_ of it is set before us in the great Gospel +truth of forgiveness through the blood of Jesus Christ. Unless we know +that truth, we may well stand amazed and questioning as to whether a +righteous God, administering a rigorous universe, can ever pardon sin. +And unless we know that by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, granted to our +spirits, our whole nature may be remade and moulded, we might well be +tempted to say, Ah! the Ethiopian cannot change his skin nor the leopard +his spots. But Jesus Christ can change more than skin, even the heart +and spirit, the inmost depths of the nature. + +Now, brother, my text speaks of this great blotting out as a past fact. +It is so in the divine mind with regard to each of us, because Christ's +great work has made reconciliation and atonement for all the sins of all +the world. And on the fact that it is past is based the exhortation, +'Return unto Me, for I have redeemed thee.' God does not say, 'Come back +and I will forgive'; He does not say, 'Return and I will blot out'; but +He says, 'Return, for I _have_ blotted out.' Though accomplished, the +forgiveness has to be appropriated by individual faith. The sins of the +world have been borne, and borne away, by the Lamb of God, but your sins +are not borne away unless your hand is laid on this head. + +If it is, then you do not need to say, 'What I have written is written, +and it cannot be blotted out.' But as in the old days a monk would take +some manuscript upon which filthy stories about heathen gods and foolish +fables were written, and erase these to write the legends of saints, or +perhaps the words of the Gospels themselves; so on our hearts, which +have been scribbled all over with obscenities and follies, He will write +His new best name of Love, and we may be epistles of Christ, written +with the Spirit of the living God. + + + + +HIDDEN AND REVEALED + +'Verily thou art a God that hidest Thyself, O God of Israel, the +Saviour.... I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth; I +said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye Me in vain: I the Lord speak +righteousness, I declare things that are right.'--ISAIAH xlv, 15,19. + + +The former of these verses expresses the thoughts of the prophet in +contemplating the close of a great work of God's power which issues in +the heathen's coming to Israel and acknowledging God. He adores the +depth of the divine counsels which, by devious ways and after long ages, +have led to this bright result. And as he thinks of all the long- +stretching preparations, all the apparently hostile forces which have +been truly subsidiary, all the generations during which these Egyptian +and Ethiopian tribes have been the enemies and oppressors of that Israel +whom they at last acknowledge for the dwelling-place of God, and enemies +of that Jehovah before whom they finally bow down, he feels that he has +no measuring-line to fathom the divine purposes, and bows his face to +the ground in reverent contemplation with that word upon his lips: +'Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thyself, O God of Israel, the +Saviour.' It is a parallel to the apostolic words, 'O the depths of the +riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His +judgments, and His ways past finding out.' + +But such thoughts are but a half truth, and may very easily become in +men's minds a whole error, and therefore they are followed by a +marvellous section in which the Lord Himself speaks, and of which the +whole burden is--the clearness and fulness with which God makes Himself +known to men. True it is that there are depths inaccessible in the +divine nature. True it is that there are mysteries unrevealed in the +method of the divine procedure, and especially in that of the relation +of heathen tribes to His gospel and His love. True it is that there are +mysteries opened in the very word of His grace. But notwithstanding all +this--it is also true that He makes Himself known to us all, that He +declares righteousness, that He calls us to seek Him, and that He wills +to be found and known by us. + +The collocation of these two passages may be taken, then, as +representing the two phases of the Divine Manifestation, the obscurity +which must ever be associated with all our finite knowledge of God, and +the clear sunlight in which blazes all that we need to know of Him. + +I. After all revelation, God is hidden. + +There is revelation of His Name in all His works. His action must be all +self-manifestation. But after all it is obscure and hidden. + +1. Nature hides while it reveals. + +Nature's revelation is unobtrusive. + +God is concealed behind second causes. + +God is concealed behind regular modes of working (laws). + +Nature's revelation is partial, disclosing only a fragment of the name. + +Nature's revelation is ambiguous. Dark shadows of death and pain in the +sensitive world, of ruin and convulsions, of shivered stars, seem to +contradict the faith that all is very good; so that it has been possible +for men to drop their plummet in the deep and say, 'I find no God,' and +for others to fall into Manichaeism or some form or other of dualism. + +2. Providence hides while it reveals. + +That is the sphere in which men are most familiar with the idea of +mystery. + +There is much of which we do not see the issue. The process is not +completed, and so the end is not visible. + +Even when we believe that 'to Him' and 'for good' are 'all things,' we +cannot tell how all will come circling round. We are like men looking +only at one small segment of an ellipse which is very eccentric. + +There is much of which we do not see the consistency with the divine +character. + +We are confronted with stumbling-blocks in the allotment of earthly +conditions; in the long ages and many tribes which are without knowledge +of God; in the sore sorrows, national and individual. + +We can array a formidable host. But it is to be remembered that +revelation actually increases these. It is just because we know so much +of God that we feel them so keenly. I suppose the mysteries of the +divine government trouble others outside the sphere of revelation but +little. The darkness is made visible by the light. + +3. Even in 'grace' God is hidden while revealed. + +The Infinite and Eternal cannot be grasped by man. + +The conception of infinity and eternity is given us by revelation, but +it is not comprehended so that its contents are fully known. The words +are known, but their full meaning is not, and no revelation can make +them, known to finite intelligences. + +God dwells in light inaccessible, which is darkness. + +Revelation opens abysses down which we cannot look. It raises and leaves +unsettled as many questions as it solves. + +The telescope resolves many nebulae, but only to bring more unresolvable +ones into the field of vision. + +Now all this is but one side of the truth. There is a tendency in some +minds to underrate what is plain because all is not plain. For some +minds the obscure has a fascination, apart altogether from its nature, +just because it is obscure. It is a noble emulation to press forward and +'still to be closing up what we know not with what we know.' But neither +in science nor in religion shall we make progress if we do not take heed +of the opposing errors of thinking that all is seen, and of thinking +that what we have is valueless because there are gaps in it. The +constellations are none the less bright nor immortal fires, though there +be waste places in heaven where nothing but opaque blackness is seen. In +these days it is especially needful to insist both on the incompleteness +of all our religious knowledge, and to say that-- + +II. Notwithstanding all obscurity, God has amply revealed Himself. + +Though God hides Himself, still there comes from heaven the voice--'I +have not spoken in secret,' Now these words contain these thoughts-- + +1. That whatever darkness there may be, there is none due to the manner +of the revelation. + +God has not spoken in secret, in a corner. There are no arbitrary +difficulties made or unnecessary darkness left in His revelation. _We_ +have no right to say that He has left difficulties to test our faith. +_He_ Himself has never said so. He deals with us in good faith, doing +all that can be done to enlighten, regard being had to still loftier +considerations, to the freedom of the human will, to the laws which He +has Himself imposed on our nature, and the purposes for which we are +here. It is very important to grasp this. We have been told as much as +_can_ be told. Contrast with such a revelation the cave-muttered oracles +of heathenism and their paltering double sense. Be sure that when God +speaks, He speaks clearly and to all, and that in Christianity there is +no esoteric teaching for a few initiated only, while the multitude are +put off with shows. + +2. That whatever obscurity there may be, there is none which hides the +divine invitation or Him from those who obey it. + +'I have never said ... seek ye Me in vain.' Much is obscure if +speculative completeness is looked for, but the moral relations of God +and man are not obscure. + +All which the heart needs is made known. His revelation is clearly His +seeking us, and His revelation is His gracious call to us to seek Him. +He is ever found by those who seek. They have not to press through +obscurities to find Him, but the desire to possess must precede +possession in spiritual matters. He is no hidden God, lurking in +obscurity and only to be found by painful search. They who 'seek' Him +know where to find Him, and seek because they know. + +3. That whatever may be obscure, the Revelation of righteousness is +clear. + +We have to face speculative difficulties in plenty, but the great fact +remains that in Revelation steady light is focussed on the moral +qualities of the divine Nature and especially on His righteousness. + +And the revelation of the divine righteousness reaches its greatest +brightness, as that of all the divine Nature does, in the Person and +work of Jesus. Very significantly the idea of God's righteousness is +fully developed in the immediately subsequent context. There we find +that attribute linked in close and harmonious conjunction with what +shallower thought is apt to regard as being in antagonism to it. He +declares Himself to be 'a just (righteous) God and a Saviour.' So then, +if we would rightly conceive of His righteousness, we must give it a +wider extension than that of retributive justice or cold, inflexible +aloofness from sinners. It impels God to be man's saviour. And with +similar enlarging of popular conceptions there follows: 'In the Lord is +righteousness and strength,' and therefore, 'In the Lord shall all the +seed of Israel be justified (declared and made righteous) and shall +glory'--then, the divine Righteousness is communicative. + +All these thoughts, germinal in the prophet's words, are set in fullest +light, and certified by the most heart-moving facts, in the Person and +work of Jesus Christ. He 'declares at this time His righteousness, that +He might Himself be righteous and the maker righteous of them that have +faith in Jesus.' Whatever is dark, this is clear, that 'Jehovah our +Righteousness' has come to us in His Son, in whom seeking Him we shall +never seek in vain, but 'be found in Him, not having a righteousness of +our own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith +in Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.' + +If the great purpose of revelation is to make us know that God loves us, +and has given us His Son that in Him we may know Him and possess His +Righteousness, difficulties and obscurities in its form or in its +substance take a very different aspect. What need we more than that +knowledge and possession? Be not robbed of them. + +Many things are not written in the book of the divine Revelation, +whether it be that of Nature, of human history, or of our own spirits, +or even of the Gospel, but these are written that we may believe that +Jesus is the Son of God, and believing, may have life in His name. + + + + +A RIGHTEOUSNESS NEAR AND A SWIFT SALVATION + +'Hearken unto Me, ye stout-hearted, that are far from righteousness: I +bring near My righteousness; it shall not be far off, and My salvation +shall not tarry.'--ISAIAH xlvi. 12,13. + + +God has promised that He will dwell with him that is humble and of a +contrite heart. Jesus has shed the oil of His benediction on the poor in +spirit. It is the men who form the exact antithesis to these characters +who are addressed here. The 'stout-hearted' are those who, being +untouched in conscience and ignorant of their sin, are self-reliant and +almost defiant before God. That temper is branded here, though, of +course, there is a sense in which a stout heart is a priceless +possession, but that sort of stoutness of heart is best secured by the +contrite of heart. Those who are far from righteousness are those who +are not only sinful in act, but do not desire to be otherwise, having no +approximation or drawing towards a nobler life, by aspiration or effort. + +To such men God speaks, as in the tone of a royal proclamation; and what +should we expect to hear pealing from His lips? Words of rebuke, +warning, condemnation? No; His voice is gentle and wooing, and does not +threaten blows, but proffers blessings: 'I will bring near My +righteousness. It shall not be far off,' though the stout-hearted maybe +'far from' it. Here we have a divine proclamation of a divine Love that +will not let us away from its presence; of a divine Work for us that is +finished without us; of an all-sufficient Gift to us. + +I. A divine proclamation of a divine Love that will not let us away from +its presence. + +There is a great contest between God and man: man seeking to withdraw +from God, and God following in patient, persistent love. + +1. In general terms God keeps near us, however far away we go from Him. + +Think of our forgetfulness of Him and His continual thought of us. Think +of our alienated hearts and His unchanging love. + +We cannot turn away His care, we cannot exhaust His compassion, we +cannot alienate His heart. All men everywhere are objects of these, as +in every corner of the world the sky is overhead, and all lands have +sunshine. + +What a picture of divine patience and placability that truth points for +us! It shows the Father coming after His prodigal son, and so surpasses +even the pearl of the parables. + +2. The special reference to Christ's work. + +That work is the exhibition in manhood and to men of a perfect +righteousness. + +It is the implanting in the corrupt world of a new beginning. It is the +clothing us with Christ's righteousness, for which we are forgiven and +in which we are sanctified. + +So Christ's work is God's coming to bring near His righteousness, and +now 'it is nigh thee in thy mouth and in thy heart.' + +II. A divine proclamation of a divine Work which is finished without us. + +The divine righteousness and its consequence are here represented as +being brought near while men are still 'stout-hearted.' We must feel the +emphasis laid on '_I_ will bring near _My_ righteousness,' and the +impression of merciful speed given by 'My salvation shall not tarry.' +The whole suggests such thoughts as these:-- + +The divine love is not drawn out by anything in us, but pours out on us, +even while we are far off and indifferent to it. His bringing near of +righteousness, and setting His salvation to run very swiftly side by +side with it, originates in Himself. It is the self-impelled and self- +fed flow of a fountain, and we need no pump or machinery to draw it +forth. + +The divine work is accomplished without man's co-operation. + +'It is finished,' was Christ's dying cry. But what is finished?-- +Bringing the righteousness near. What still remains to be done?--Making +it mine. And that is accomplished by faith. + +It is mine if by faith I claim it as mine, and knit myself with Him who +is righteousness and salvation for every man that they may be accessible +to and possessed by any man. + +A man may be far from righteousness though it is near him and all around +him. Like Gideon's fleece, he may be dry when all is wet, or like some +rock in a field, barren and sullen, while all around the corn is waving. + +III. The proclamation of an all-sufficient Gift. + +Righteousness, salvation, glory, are here brought together in +significant sequence. They are but several names for the same divine +gift, looked at from different angles. A diamond flashes varying +prismatic hues from its different facets. + +That encyclopaedical gift, which in regard to man considered as sinful +brings pardon and a new nature 'in righteousness and holiness of truth,' +brings deliverance from peril and from every form of evil and death, to +him considered as exposed to consequences of sin both physical and +moral, and a true though limited participation in the divine glory, even +now, with the hope of entering into the blaze of it hereafter, to him as +considered as made in the divine image and having lost it. + +And all this wonderful triple hope, rapturous and impossible as it seems +when we think of man as he is, and of each of ourselves as we each feel +ourselves to be, is for us a sober certainty and a fact sufficiently +accomplished, to give firm ground for our largest expectations if we +hold fast by Jesus who brings that all-sufficient gift of God within +reach of each of us. The divine patience and love follow us in all our +wild wanderings, praying us 'with much entreaty that we should receive +the gift.' Jesus, who is God's righteousness and love incarnate, +beseeches us to take Him, and in Him righteousness, salvation, and +glory. + + + + +A RIVER OF PEACE AND WAVES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS + +'Oh that thou hadst hearkened to My commandments! then had thy peace +been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea.'-- +ISAIAH xlviii. 18. + + +I. The Wonderful Thought of God here. + +This is an exclamation of disappointment; of thwarted love. The good +which He purposed has been missed by man's fault, and He regards the +faulty Israel with sorrow and pity as a would-be benefactor balked of a +kind intention might do. O Jerusalem! 'how often would I have gathered +thee.' 'If thou hadst known ... the things that belong unto thy peace!' + +II. Man's opposition to God's loving purpose for us. + +To have hearkened to His commandments would have enabled Him to let His +kindness have its way. + +It is not only our act contrary to God's Law, but the source of that act +in our antagonistic will, which fatally bars out the possibility of +God's intended good from us. It is 'not hearkening' which is the root of +not doing. + +That possibility of lifting up our puny wills against the all- +sovereign, Infinite Will is the mystery of mysteries. + +The fact that the mysterious possibility becomes an actuality in us is +still more mysterious. If we could solve those two mysteries, we should +be far on the way to solve all the mysteries of man's relation to God, +and God's to man. + +A will absolutely submitted to Him is His great ideal of human nature. +And that ideal we all can thwart, and alas, alas! we all do. It is the +deepest mystery; it is the blackest sin; it is the intensest folly. + +Sin is negative as well as positive. Not to hearken is as bad as to act +in dead opposition to. + +III. The lost good. + +The great purpose of the divine Commandment is to show us, for our own +sakes, the path that leads to all blessedness. + +Peace and Righteousness, or, in more modern words, all well-being and +all goodness, are the sure results of taking God's expressed Will as the +guide of life. + +These two are inseparable. Indeed they are one and the same fact of +human experience, looked at from two points of view. + +The force of the metaphor in both clauses is substantially the same. It +suggests in both--Abundance--Continuity--Uninterrupted Succession. But +regarded separately each has its own fair promise. 'As a river'-- +flowing softly, not stagnant--that suggests the calm and gentle flow of +a placid and untroubled stream refreshing and fertilising. 'As waves of +the sea,' these suggest greater force than 'river.' The image speaks of +a righteousness massive and having power and a resistless swing in it. +It is the more striking because the waves of the sea are the ordinary +emblem of rebellious power. But here they stand as emblem of the +strength of a submissive, not of a rebellious, will. In that obedience +human nature rises to a higher type of strength than it ever attains +while in opposition to the Source of all strength. + +Contrast--'Whose waters cast up mire and dirt.' + +IV. The lost good regained. + +God has yet a method to accomplish His loving desire. Even those who +have not hearkened may receive through Christ the good which they have +sinned away. In Him is peace; in Him is Righteousness, which comes from +faith. 'Hear, and your soul shall live.' + + + + +EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE + + +ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. + +ISAIAH AND JEREMIAH + +Isaiah, Chaps. XLIX to End. Jeremiah. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +FEEDING IN THE WAYS (Isaiah xlix. 9) + +THE MOUNTAIN ROAD (Isaiah xlix. 11) + +THE WRITING ON GOD'S HANDS (Isaiah xlix. 16) + +THE SERVANT'S WORDS TO THE WEARY (Isaiah l. 4) + +THE SERVANT'S OBEDIENCE (Isaiah l. 5) + +THE SERVANT'S VOLUNTARY SUFFERINGS (Isaiah l. 6) + +THE SERVANT'S INFLEXIBLE RESOLVE (Isaiah l. 7) + +THE SERVANT'S TRIUMPH (Isaiah l. 8, 9) + +A CALL TO FAITH (Isaiah l. 10) + +DYING FIRES (Isaiah l. 11) + +THE AWAKENING OF ZION (Isaiah lii. 1) + +A PARADOX OF SELLING AND BUYING (Isaiah lii. 3) + +CLEAN CARRIERS (Isaiah lii. 11) + +MARCHING ORDERS (Isaiah lii. 11, 12) + +THE ARM OF THE LORD (Isaiah liii. 1) + +THE SUFFERING SERVANT--I. (Isaiah liii. 2,3) + +THE SUFFERING SERVANT--II. (Isaiah liii. 4-6) + +THE SUFFERING SERVANT--III. (Isaiah liii. 7-9) + +THE SUFFERING SERVANT--IV. (Isaiah liii. 10) + +THE SUFFERING SERVANT--V. (Isaiah liii. 11) + +THE SUFFERING SERVANT--VI. (Isaiah liii. 12) + +THE PASSING AND THE PERMANENT (Isaiah liv. 10) + +THE CALL TO THE THIRSTY (Isaiah lv. 1-13) + +THE GREAT PROCLAMATION (Isaiah lv. 1) + +GOD'S WAYS AND MAN'S (Isaiah lv. 8, 9) + +CAN WE MAKE SURE OF TO-MORROW? (Isaiah lvi. 12) + +FLIMSY GARMENTS (Isaiah lix. 6; Rev. iii. 18) + +THE SUNLIT CHURCH (Isaiah lx. 1-3) + +WALLS AND GATES (Isaiah lx. 18) + +THE JOY-BRINGER (Isaiah lxi. 3) + +THE HEAVENLY WORKERS AND THE EARTHLY WATCHERS (Isaiah lxii. 1, 6, 7) + +MIGHTY TO SAVE (Isaiah lxiii. 1) + +THE WINEPRESS AND ITS TREADER (Isaiah lxiii. 2, 3) + +THE SYMPATHY OF GOD (Isaiah lxiii. 9) + +HOW TO MEET GOD (Isaiah lxiv. 5) + +'THE GOD OF THE AMEN' (Isaiah lxv. 16) + + +THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH + +GOD'S LAWSUIT (Jer. ii. 9) + +STIFF-NECKED IDOLATERS AND PLIABLE CHRISTIANS (Jer. ii. 11) + +FOUNTAIN AND CISTERNS (Jer. ii. 13) + +FORSAKING JEHOVAH (Jer. ii. 19) + +A COLLOQUY BETWEEN A PENITENT AND GOD (Jer. iii. 21, 22) + +A QUESTION FOR THE BEGINNING (Jer. v. 31) + +POSSESSING AND POSSESSED (Jer. x. 16, R.V.) + +CALMS AND CRISES (Jer. xii. 5, R.V.) + +AN IMPOSSIBILITY MADE POSSIBLE (Jer. xiii. 23; 2 Cor. v. 17; Rev. xxi. +5) + +TRIUMPHANT PRAYER (Jer. xiv. 7-9) + +SIN'S WRITING AND ITS ERASURE (Jer. xvii, 1; 2 Cor. iii. 3; Col. ii. 14) + +THE HEATH IN THE DESERT AND THE TREE BY THE RIVER (Jer. xvii. 6, 8) + +A SOUL GAZING ON GOD (Jer. xvii. 12) + +TWO LISTS OF NAMES (Jer. xvii. 13; Luke x. 20) + +YOKES OF WOOD AND OF IRON (Jer. xxviii. 13) + +WHAT THE STABLE CREATION TEACHES (Jer. xxxi. 36) + +WHAT THE IMMENSE CREATION TEACHES (Jer. xxxi. 37) + +A THREEFOLD DISEASE AND A TWOFOLD CURE (Jer. xxxiii. 8) + +THE RECHABITES (Jer. xxxv. 16) + +JEREMIAH'S ROLL BURNED AND REPRODUCED (Jer. xxxvi. 32) + +ZEDEKIAH (Jer. xxxvii. 1) + +THE WORLD'S WAGES TO A PROPHET (Jer. xxxvii. 11-21) + +THE LAST AGONY (Jer. xxxix. 1-10) + +EBEDMELECH THE ETHIOPIAN (Jer. xxxix. 18) + +GOD'S PATIENT PLEADINGS (Jer. xliv. 4) + +THE SWORD OF THE LORD (Jer. xlvii. 6, 7) + +THE KINSMAN-REDEEMER (Jer. 1. 34) + +'As SODOM' (Jer. lii. 1-11) + + + + +FEEDING IN THE WAYS + +'They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high +places.' ISAIAH xlix. 9. + + +This is part of the prophet's glowing description of the return of the +Captives, under the figure of a flock fed by a strong shepherd. We have +often seen, I suppose, a flock of sheep driven along a road, some of +them hastily trying to snatch a mouthful from the dusty grass by the +wayside. Little can they get there; they have to wait until they reach +some green pasture in which they can be folded. This flock shall 'feed +in the ways'; as they go they will find nourishment. That is not all; +the top of the mountains is not the place where grass grows. _There_ are +bare, savage cliffs, from which every particle of soil has been washed +by furious torrents, or the scanty vegetation has been burnt up by the +fierce 'sunbeams like swords.' There the wild deer and the ravens live, +the sheep feed down in the valleys. But '_their_ pasture shall be in all +high places.' The literal rendering is even more emphatic: 'Their +pasture shall be in all _bare heights_,' where a sudden verdure springs +to feed them according to their need. Whilst, then, this prophecy is +originally intended simply to suggest the abundant supplies that were to +be provided for the band of exiles as they came back from Babylon, there +lie in it great and blessed principles which belong to the Christian +pilgrimage, and the flock that follows Christ. + +They who follow Him, says my text, to begin with, shall find in the +dusty paths of common life, and in all the smallnesses and distractions +of daily duty, nourishment for their spirits. Do you remember what Jesus +said? 'My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His +work.' We, too, may have the same meat to eat which the world knows not +of, and He will give that hidden manna to the combatant as well as 'to +him that overcometh.' In the measure in which 'we follow the Lamb +whithersoever He goeth,' in that measure do we find--like the stores of +provisions that Arctic explorers come upon, _cached_ for them--food in +the wilderness, and nourishment for our highest life in our common work. +That is a great promise, and it is a great duty. + +It is a promise the fulfilment of which is plainly guaranteed by the +very nature of the case. Religion is meant to direct conduct, and the +smallest affairs of life are to come under its imperial control, and the +only way by which a man can get any good out of his Christianity is by +living it. It is when he sets to work on the principles of the Gospel +that the Gospel proves itself to be a reality in his blessed experience. +It is when he does the smallest duties from the great motives that these +great motives are strengthened by exercise, as every motive is. If you +wish to weaken the influence of any principle upon you, do not work it +out, and it will wither and die. If a man would grasp the fulness of +spiritual sustenance which lies in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, let him +go to work on the basis of the Gospel, and he 'shall feed in the ways,' +and common duties will minister strength to him instead of taking +strength from him. We can make the smallest daily incidents subserve our +growth and our spiritual strength, because, if we thus do them, they +will bring to us attestations of the reality of the faith by which we +act on them. For convincing a man that a lifebuoy is reliable there is +nothing like having had experience of its power to hold his head above +the waves when he has been cast into them. _Live_ your Christianity, and +it will attest itself. There will come, besides that, the blessed memory +of past times in which we trusted in the Lord and were lightened, we +obeyed God and found His promises true, we risked all for God and found +that we had all more abundantly. It is only an active Christian life +that is a nourished and growing Christian life. + +The food which God gives us is not only to be taken by faith, but it has +to be made ours more abundantly by work. Saint Augustine said in another +connection, 'Believe, and thou hast eaten.' Yes, that is blessedly true, +but it needs to be supplemented by 'they shall feed _in the ways_,' and +their work will bring them nourishment. + +But this is a great duty as well as a great promise. How many of us +Christian people have but little experience of getting nearer to God +because of our daily occupations? To by far the larger number of us, in +by far the greater space of time in our lives, our daily work is a +distraction, and tends to obscure the face of God to us and to shut us +out from many of the storehouses of sustenance by which a quiet, +contemplative faith is refreshed. Therefore we need times of special +prayer and remoteness from daily work; and there will be very little +realisation of the nourishing power of common duties unless there is +familiar to us also the entrance into the 'secret place of the Most +High,' where He feeds His children on the bread of life. + +We must not neglect either of these two ways by which our souls are fed, +and we must ever remember that the reason why so many Christian people +cannot set to their seal that this promise is true, lies mainly in this, +that the ways on which they go are either not the ways that the Shepherd +has walked in before them, or that they are trodden in forgetfulness of +Him and without looking to His guidance. The work that is to minister to +the Christian life must be work conformed to the Christian ideal, and if +we fling ourselves into our secular business, as it is called--if you go +to your counting-houses and shops, and I go to my desk and books, and +forget the Shepherd--then there is no grass by the wayside for such +sheep. But if we subject our wills to Him, and if in all that we do we +are trying to refer to Him and are working in dependence on Him, and for +Him, then the poorest work, the meanest, the most entirely secular, will +be a source of Christian nourishment and blessing. We have to settle for +ourselves whether we shall be distracted, torn asunder by pressure of +cares and responsibilities and activities, or whether, far below the +agitated surface which is ruffled by the winds, and borne along by the +tidal wave, there will be a great central depth, still but not +stagnant--whether we shall be fed, or starved in our Christian life, by +the pressure of our worldly tasks. The choice is before us. 'They shall +feed in the ways,' if the ways are Christ's ways, and He is at every +step their Shepherd. + +Further, my text suggests that for those who follow the Lamb there shall +be greenness and pasture on the bare heights. Strip that part of our +text of its metaphor, and it just comes to the blessed old thought, +which I hope many of us have known to be a true one, that the times of +sorrow are the times when a Christian may have the most of the presence +and strength of God. 'In the days of famine they shall be satisfied,' +and up among the most barren cliffs, where there is not a bite for any +four-footed creature, they shall find springing grass and watered +pastures. Our prophet puts the same thought, under a kindred though +somewhat different metaphor, in another place in this book, where he +says, 'I will open rivers in high places.' That is clean contrary to +nature. The rivers do not run on the mountain-tops, but down in the low +ground. But for us, as the darkness thickens, the pillar may glow the +brighter; as the gloom increases, the glory may grow; the less of +nutriment or refreshment earth affords, the more abundantly does God +spread His stores before us, if we are wise enough to take them. It is +an experience, I suppose, common to all devout men, that their times of +most rapid growth were their times of trouble. In nature winter stops +all vegetable life. In grace the growing time is the winter. They tell +us that up in the Arctic regions the reindeer will scratch away the +snow, and get at the succulent moss that lies beneath it. When that +Shepherd, Who Himself has known sorrows, leads us up into those barren +regions of perpetual cold and snow, He teaches us, too, how to brush it +away, and find what we need buried and kept safe and warm beneath the +white shroud. It is the prerogative of the Christian soul not to be +without trouble, but to turn the trouble into nourishment, and to feed +on the barest heights. + +May I turn these latter words of our text a somewhat different way, +attaching to them a meaning which does not belong to them, but by way of +accommodation? If Christian people want to have the bread of God +abundantly, they must climb. It is to those who live on the heights that +provision comes according to their need. If you would have your +Christian life starved, go down into the fertile valleys. Remember +Abraham and Lot, and the choice which each made. The one said: 'I want +cattle and wealth, and I am going down to Sodom. Never mind about the +vices of the inhabitants. There is money to be made there.' Abraham +said: 'I am going to stay up here on the heights, the breezy, barren +heights,' and God stayed beside him. If we go down we starve our souls. +If we desire them to be fat and flourishing, nourished with the hidden +manna, then we must go up. 'Their pasture shall be in all high places.' + +Before I finish, let me remind you of the application of the words of my +text, which we owe to the New Testament. The context runs, as you will +remember, 'they shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor +the sun smite them. For He that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even +by the springs of water shall He guide them.' And you remember the +beautiful variation and deepening of this promise in that great saying +which the Seer in the Apocalypse gives us, when he speaks of those 'who +follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth,' and are led 'by living +fountains of water,' where 'God shall wipe away all tears from their +eyes.' So we are entitled to believe that on the loftiest heights, far +above this valley of weeping, there shall be immortal food, and that on +the high places of the mountains of God there shall be pasture that +never withers. The prophet Ezekiel has a similar variation of my text, +and transfers it from the captives on their march homewards, to the +happy pilgrims who have reached home, when he says: 'I will bring them +unto their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel'--when +they have reached them at last after the weary march--' I will feed them +in a good pasture, and upon the mountains of Israel shall their fold be; +there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they +feed upon the mountains of Israel.' + + + + +THE MOUNTAIN ROAD + +'And I will make all My mountains a way, and My highways shall be +exalted.'--ISAIAH xlix. 11. + + +This grand prophecy is far too wide to be exhausted by the return of the +exiles. There gleamed through it the wider redemption and the true +return of the real captives. The previous promises all find their +fulfilment in the experiences of the soul on its journey back to God. +Here we have two characteristics of that journey. + +I. The Path through the mountains. + +'_My_ mountains.' That is the claim that all the world is His; and also +the revelation that He is the Lord of Providence. He makes our difficult +and steep places. Submission comes with that thought, and even 'for the +strength of the hills we bless Thee.' There are mountains which are not +His but ours, artificial difficulties of our own creating. + +1. Our way does lie over the mountains. There are difficulties. The +Christian course is like a Roman road which never turned aside, but went +straight up and on. So much the better. A keener air blows, bracing and +health-giving, up there. Mosquitoes and malaria keep to the lower +levels. + +2. There is always a path over the mountains. Some way opens when we get +close up, like a path through heather, which is not seen till reached. +We walk by faith. We foolishly forebode and fancy that we cannot live if +something happens, but there is no _cul de sac_ in our paths if God's +mountain-way is our way, nor does the faint track ever die out if our +faith is keen-sighted and docile. + +II. The Pasture on the mountains--lit. 'bare heights.' + +Pastures in the East are down in bottoms, not, like ours, upon the +hills. But this flock finds supplies on the barren hill-tops. + +Sustenance in Sorrow and Loss. + +1. Promise that whatever be our trials and losses we shall be taken care +of. Not, perhaps, as we should have liked, nor as abundantly fed as down +in the valleys, but still not left to starve. No carcases strewed on the +bleakest bit of road as one sees dead camels by the side of the tracks +in the desert. + +2. Promise of sustenance of a higher kind even in sorrow. The Alpine +flora is specially beautiful, though minute. The blessings of +affliction; the more intimate knowledge of His love, submission of will. +'Out of the eater came forth meat.' + +'Passing through the valley of weeping they make it a well'; the tears +shed in times of rightly borne sorrow are gathered into a reservoir from +which refreshment, patience, trust and strength may be drawn in later +days. + +But the perfect fulfilment of the promise lies beyond this life. 'On the +high mountains of Israel shall their fold be,' and they who have found +pasture on the barren heights of earthly sorrow shall 'summer high in +bliss upon the hills of God,' and shall at once both lie 'for ever in a +good fold,' and 'follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth,' and find +fountains of living water bursting forth for ever on these fertile +heights. + + + + +THE WRITING ON GOD'S HANDS + +'Behold! I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands; thy walls are +continually before Me.'--ISAIAH xlix. 16. + + +In the preceding context we have the infinitely tender and beautiful +words: 'Zion hath said, The Lord hath forsaken me. Can a woman forget +her sucking child? ... yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget +thee.' There is more than a mother's love in the Father's heart. But +wonderful in their revelation of God, and mighty to strengthen, calm, +and comfort, as these transcendent words are, those of my text, which +follow them, do not fall beneath their loftiness. They are a singularly +bold metaphor, drawn from the strange and half-savage custom, which +lingers still among sailors and others, of having beloved names or other +tokens of affection and remembrance indelibly inscribed on parts of the +body. Sometimes worshippers had the marks of the god thus set on their +flesh; here God writes on His hands the name of the city of His +worshippers. And it is not its name only, but its very likeness that He +stamps there, that He may ever look on it, as those who love bear with +them a picture of one dear face. The prophecy goes on: 'Thy walls are +continually before Me,' but in the prophet's time the walls were in +ruins, and yet they are present to the divine mind. + +I. Now, the first thought suggested by these great words is that here we +have set forth for our strength and peace a divine remembrance, tender +as--yea, more tender than--a mother's. + +When Israel came out of Egypt, the Passover was instituted as 'a +memorial unto all generations,' or, as the same idea is otherwise +expressed, 'it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand.' Here God +represents Himself as doing for Israel what He had bid Israel do for +Him. They were, as it were, to write the supreme act of deliverance in +the Exodus upon their hands, that it might never be forgotten. He writes +Zion on His hands for the same purpose. + +Now, of course, the text does not primarily refer to individuals, but to +the community, whether Zion is understood, as the prophet understood the +name, to be ancient Israel, or as the Christian Church. But the +recognition of that fact should not be allowed to rob us of the +preciousness of this text in its bearing on the individual. For God +remembers the community, not as an abstraction or a generalised +expression, but as the aggregate of all the individuals composing it. We +lose sight of the particulars when we generalise. We cannot see the +trees for the wood. We think of 'the Church,' and do not think of the +thousands of men and women who make it up. We cannot discern the +separate stars in the galaxy. But God's eye resolves what to us is a +nebula, and to Him every single glittering point of light hangs rounded +and separate in the heaven. Therefore this assurance of our text is to +be taken by every single soul that loves God, and trusts Him through +Jesus Christ, as belonging to it, as though there were not another +creature on earth but itself. + + 'The sun whose beams most glorious are, + Disdaineth no beholder.' + +Its light floods the world, yet seems to go straight into the eyeball +of every man that looks at it. And such is the divine love and +remembrance. There is no jostling nor confusion in the wide space of +the heart of God. They that go before shall not hinder them that come +after. The hungry crowd sat down in companies on the green grass, and +the first fifty, no doubt, were envied by the last of the hundred +fifties that made up the five thousand, and wondered whether the five +loaves and the two small fishes could go round, but the last fed full +as did the first. The great promise of our text belongs to me and thee, +and therefore belongs to us all. + +That remembrance which each man may take for himself--and we are poor +Christians if we do not live in its light--is infinitely tender. The +echo of the music of the previous words still haunts the verse, and the +remembrance promised in it is touched with more than a mother's love. +'I am poor and needy,' says the Psalmist, 'yet the Lord thinketh upon +me.' He might have said, 'I am poor and needy, therefore the Lord +thinketh upon me.' That remembrance is in full activity when things are +darkest with us. Israel said, 'My Lord hath forgotten me,' because at +the point of view taken in the second half of Isaiah, it was captive in +a far-off land. You and I sometimes are brought into circumstances in +which we are ready to think 'God has, somehow or other, left me, has +forgotten me.' Never! never! However mirk the night, however apparently +solitary the way, however mysterious and insoluble the difficulties of +our position, let us fall back on this, that the captive Israel was +remembered by God, and let us be sure that no circumstances of our +lives are so dark or mysterious as to warrant the faintest shadow of +suspicion creeping over the brightness of our confidence in this great +promise. His divine remembrance of each of His servants is certain. + +But do not let us forget that it was a very sinful Zion that God thus +remembered. It was because the nation had transgressed that they were +captives, but their very captivity was a proof that they were not +forgotten. The loving divine remembrance had to smite in order to prove +that it was active. Let us neither be puzzled by our sorrows nor made +less confident when we think of our sins. For there is no sin that is +strong enough to chill the divine love, or to erase us from the divine +remembrance. 'Captive Israel! captive because sinful, I have graven +_thee_ on the palms of My hands.' + +II. A second thought here is that the divine remembrance guides the +divine action. + +The palm of the hand is the seat of strength, the instrument of work; +and so, if Zion's name is written there, that means not only +remembrance, but remembrance which is at the helm, as it were, which is +moulding and directing all the work that is done by the hand that bears +the name inscribed upon it. The thought is identical with the one which +is suggested by part of the High Priest's official dress, although +there the thought has a different application. He bore the names of the +twelve tribes graven upon his shoulder, the seat of power, and upon his +breastplate that lay above the heart, the home of love. God holds out +the mighty Hand which works all things, and says to His children: +'Look, you are graven there'--at the very fountain-head, as it were, of +the divine activity. Which, being turned into plain English, is just +this, that for His Church as a whole, He does move amidst the affairs +of nations. You remember the grand words of one of the Psalms,--'He +reproved kings for their sakes, saying, Touch not Mine anointed, and do +My prophets no harm.' It is no fanatical reading of the history of +earthly politics and kingdoms, if we recognise that one of the most +prominent reasons for the divine activities in moulding the kingdoms, +setting up and casting down, is the advancement of the kingdom of +heaven and the building of the City of God. 'I have graven thee on the +palms of My hands'--and when the hands go to work, it is for the Zion +whose likeness they bear. + +But the same truth applies to us individually. 'All things work +together'; they would not do so, unless there was one dominant Will +which turned the chaos into a cosmos. 'All things work,' that is very +plain. The tremendous activities round us both in Nature and in history +are clear to us all. But if all things and events are co-operant, +working into each other, and for one end, like the wheels of a well- +constructed engine, then there must be an Engineer, and they work +together because He is directing them. Thus, because my name is graven +on the palms of the mighty Hand that doeth all things, therefore 'all +things work together for my good.' If we could but carry that quiet +conviction into all the mysteries, as they sometimes seem to be, of our +daily lives, and interpret everything in the light of that great +thought, how different all our days would be! How far above the petty +anxieties and cares and troubles that gnaw away so much of our strength +and joy; how serene, peaceful, lofty, submissive, would be our lives, +and how in the darkest darkness there would be a great light, not only +of hope for a distant future, but of confident assurance for the +present. 'I have graven thee on the palms of My hands '--do Thou, then, +as Thou wilt with me. + +III. A last thought here is that the divine remembrance works all +things, to realise a great ideal end, as yet unreached. + +'Thy walls are continually before Me.' When this prophecy was uttered +the Israelites were in captivity, and the city was a wilderness, 'the +holy and beautiful House'--as this very book says--'where the fathers +praised Thee was burned with fire,' the walls were broken down, rubbish +and solitude were there. Yet on the palms of God's hands were inscribed +the walls which were nowhere else! They were 'before Him,' though +Jerusalem was a ruin. What does that mean? It means that that divine +remembrance sees 'things that are not, as though they were.' In the +midst of the imperfect reality of the present condition of the Church +as a whole, and of us, its actual components, it sees the ideal, the +perfect vision of the perfect future, and 'all the wonder that shall +be.' Zion may be desolate, but 'before Him' stands what will one day +stand on the earth before all men, 'the new Jerusalem, coming down from +heaven,' having walls great and high, and its foundations garnished +with all manner of precious stones. 'Thy walls are before Me,' though +the ruins are there before men. + +So, brethren, the most radiant optimism is the only fitting attitude +for Christian people in looking into the future, either of the Church +as a whole, or of themselves as individual members of it. God's hand is +working for Zion and for me. It is guided by love that does not lose +the individual in the mass, nor ever forgets any of its children, and +it works towards the attainment of unattained perfection. 'This Man' +does not 'begin to build and' prove 'not able to finish.' + +So let us be sure that, if only we keep ourselves in the love, and +continue in the grace of God, He will not slack nor stay His hand on +which Zion is graven, until it has 'perfected that which concerneth +us,' and fulfilled to each of us that 'which He has spoken to us of.' + +I said at the beginning of these remarks that God did what He bids us +do. God bids us do what He does. His name should be on our hands; that +is to say, memory of Him, love of Him, regard to Him, confidence in Him +should mould and guide all our activity, and the aim that we shall be +builded up for a habitation of God through the Spirit should be the +conscious aim of our lives, as it is the aim which He has in view in +all His dealings with us. Our names on His hand; His name on our hands; +so shall we be blessed. + + + + +THE SERVANT'S WORDS TO THE WEARY + +'The Lord God hath given me the tongue of them that are taught, that I +should know how to sustain with words him that is weary; he wakeneth +morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as they that are +taught.'--ISAIAH l. 4. + + +In chapter xlix. 1-6, the beginning of the continuous section of which +these verses are part, a transition is made from Israel as collectively +the ideal servant of the Lord, to a personal Servant, whose office it +is 'to bring Jacob again to Him.' We see the ideal in the very act of +passing to its highest form, and that in which it is finally fulfilled +in history, namely, by the person Jesus. That Jesus was 'Thy Holy +Servant' was the earliest gospel preached by Peter and John before +people and rulers. It is not the most vital conception of our Lord's +nature and work. The prophet does not here pierce to the core, as in his +fifty-third chapter with its vision of the Suffering Servant, but this +is prelude to that, and the office assigned here to the Servant cannot +be fully discharged without that ascribed to Him there, as the prophet +begins to discern almost immediately. The text gives us a striking view +of the purpose of Messiah's mission and of His training and preparation +for it. + +I. The purpose of Christ's mission. + +There is a remarkable contrast between the stately prelude to the +section of the prophecy in chapter xlix., and the ideal in this text. +There the Servant calls the isles and the distant peoples to listen, and +declares that His mouth is 'like a sharp sword'; here all that is keen +and smiting in His word has softened into gentle whispers of comfort to +sustain the weary. + +A mission addressed to 'the weary' is addressed to every man, for who is +not 'weighed upon with sore distress,' or loaded with the burden and the +weight of tasks beyond his power or distasteful to his inclinations, or +monotonous to nausea, or prolonged to exhaustion, or toiled at with +little hope and less interest? Who is not weary of himself and of his +load? What but universal weariness does the universal secret desire for +rest betray? We are all 'pilgrims weary of time,' and some of us are +weary of even prosperity, and some of us are worn out with work, and +some of us buffeted to all but exhaustion by sorrow, and all of us long +for rest, though many of us do not know where to look for it. + +Jesus may have had this word in mind, when He called to Him all them +'that labour and are heavy laden.' At all events, the prophet's ideal +and the evangelists' story accurately correspond. Christ's words have +other characteristics, but are eminently words that sustain the weary +and comfort the down-hearted. Who can ever calculate the new strength +poured by them into fainting hearts and languid hands, the all but dead +hopes that they have reanimated, the sorrows they have comforted, the +wounds they have stanched? + +What a lesson here as to the noblest use of high endowments! What a +contrast to the use that so many of those to whom God has given 'the +tongue of them that are taught' make of their great gifts! Literature +yields but few examples of great writers who have faithfully employed +their powers for that purpose, which seems so humble and is so lofty, +the help of the weary, the comfort of the sad. Many pages in famous +books would be cancelled if all that had been written without +consideration for these classes were obliterated, as it will be one day. + +But Christ not only speaks by outward words, but has other ways of +lodging sustenance and comfort in souls than by vocables audible to the +ear or visible to the eye on the page. 'The words that I speak unto you, +they are spirit and they are life.' He spoke by His deeds on earth, and +in one and the same set of facts, He 'began to do and to teach,' the +doing being named first. He 'now speaketh from Heaven' by many an inward +whisper, by the communication of His own Spirit, on Whom this very +office of ministering sustenance and comfort is laid, and whose very +name of the Comforter means One who by his being with a man strengthens +him. + +II. The training and preparation of the Messiah for His mission. + +The Messiah is here represented as having the tongue of 'them that are +taught,' and as having it, because morning by morning He has been +wakened to hear God's lessons. He is thus God's scholar--a thought of +which an unreflecting orthodoxy has been shy, but which it is necessary +to admit unhesitatingly and ungrudgingly, if we would not reduce the +manhood of Jesus to a mere phantasm. He Himself has said, 'As the Father +taught Me, I speak these things.' With emphatic repetition, He was +continually making that assertion, as, for instance, 'I have not spoken +of Myself, but the Father which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment what I +should say, and what I should speak ... the things therefore which I +speak, even as the Father hath said unto Me, so I speak.' + +The Gospels tell us of the prayers of Jesus, and of rare occasions in +which a voice from heaven spoke to Him. But while these are palpable +instances of His communion with God, and precious tokens of His true +brotherhood with us in the indispensable characteristics of the life of +faith, they are but the salient points on which the light falls, and +behind them, all unknown by us, stretches an unbroken chain of like acts +of fellowship. In that subordination as of a scholar to teacher, both +His divine and His human nature concurred, the former in filial +submission, the latter in continual, truly human derivation and +reception. The man Jesus was taught and, like the boy Jesus, 'increased +in wisdom.' + +But while He learned as truly as we learn from God, and exercised the +same communion with the Father, the same submission to Him, which other +men have to exercise, and called 'us brethren, saying, I will put my +trust in Him,' the difference in degree between His close fellowship +with God the Father, and our broken and always partial fellowship, +between His completeness of reception of God's words and our imperfect +comprehension, between His perfect reproduction of the words He had +heard and our faint, and often mistaken echo of them, is so immense as +to amount to a difference in kind. His unity of will and being with the +Father ensured that all His words were God's. 'Never man spake like this +man.' The man who speaks to us once for all God's words must be more +than man. Other men, the highest, give us fragments of that mighty +voice; Jesus speaks its whole message, and nothing but its message. Of +that perfect reproduction He is calmly conscious, and claims to give it, +in words which are at once lowly and instinct with more than human +authority: 'All things that I have heard of My Father I have made known +unto you.' Who besides Him dare make such a claim? Who besides Him could +make it without being met by incredulous scorn? His utterance of the +Father's words was unmarred by defect on the one hand, and by additions +on the other. It was like pure water which tastes of no soil. His soul +was like an open vessel plunged in a stream, filled by the flow and +giving forth again its whole contents. + +That divine communication to Jesus was no mere impartation of +abstractions or 'truths,' still less of the poor words of man's speech, +but was the flowing into His spirit of the living Father by whom He +lived. And it was unbroken. 'Morning by morning' it was going on. The +line was continuous, whereas for the rest of us, at the best, it is a +series of points more or less contiguous, but with dark spaces between. +'God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him.' + +So, then, let us hold fast by Him, the Son in whom God has spoken to us, +and to all voices without and within that would woo us to listen, let us +answer with the only wise answer: 'To whom shall we go? Thou hast the +words of eternal life.' + + + + +THE SERVANT'S OBEDIENCE + +'I was not rebellious, neither turned away back'--ISAIAH l. 5. + + +I. The secret of Christ's life, filial obedience. + +The fact is attested by Scripture. By His own words: 'My meat is to do +the will of My Father'; 'For thus it becometh us to fulfil all +righteousness'; 'I came down from heaven not to do My own will.' By His +servant's words: 'Obedient unto death'; 'Made under the law'; 'He +learned obedience by the things which He suffered.' It is involved in +the belief of His righteous manhood. It is essential to true manhood. +The highest ideal for humanity is conscious dependence on God, and the +very definition of righteousness is conscious conformity to the Will of +God. If Christ had done the noblest acts and yet had not always had this +sense of being a servant, He would not have been pure and holy. + +It is not inconsistent with His true Divinity. We stand afar off, but we +can see this much. + +The completeness of that obedience. It was continuous and it was entire. + +The living heart of it: 'I delight to do Thy Will.' The Father's Will +was not a force without, but Christ's whole being was conformed to it, +and it was shrined within His heart and had become His choice and +delight. + +The expressions of His obedience were His perfect fulfilment of the +divine commands, and His perfect endurance of the divine appointments. + +Thus God's Will was the keynote, to which Christ's will struck the full +chord. + +II. The yet deeper mysteries which that perfect obedience discloses. + +1. A sinless human life must be more than human. The contrast with all +which we have known--the impossibility of retaining belief in the +perfect obedience of Jesus unless we have underlying it the belief in +His divinity. 'There is none good but one, that is God.' + +2. The sinless human life suffers not for itself but for us. The +combination of holiness and sorrow leads on to the mystery of atonement. +The sinlessness is indispensable to the doctrine of His sacrificial +death. + +III. The glorious gifts which flow from that perfect obedience. + +1. It gives us a living law to obey. + +2. It gives us a transforming power to receive. + +3. It gives us a perfect righteousness to trust to. + +This perfect obedience may be ours. Being ours, our lives will be +strong, free, peaceful. + +That obedience becomes ours by faith, which leads to love, and love to +the glad obedience of sons. + +THE SERVANT'S VOLUNTARY SUFFERINGS + +'I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that plucked off +the hair: I hid not My face from shame and spitting.'--ISAIAH l. 6. + +Such words are not to be dealt with coldly. Unless they be grasped by +the heart they are not grasped at all. We do not think of analysing in +the presence of a great sorrow. There can be no greater dishonour to the +name of Christ than an unemotional consideration of His sufferings for +us. The hindrances to a due consideration of these are manifold; some +arising from intellectual, and some from moral, causes. Most men have +difficulty in vivifying any historical event so as to feel its reality. +There is no nobler use of the historical imagination than to direct it +to that great life and death on which the salvation of the world +depends. + +The prophet here has advanced from the first general conception of the +Servant of the Lord as recipient of divine commission, and submissive to +the divine voice, to thoughts of the sufferings which He would meet with +on His path, and of how He bore them. + +I. The sufferings of the Servant. + +The minute particularity is very noteworthy, scourging, plucking the +beard, shame, all sorts of taunts and buffets on the face, and the last +indignity of spitting. Clearly, then, He is not only to suffer +persecution, but is to be treated with insult and to endure that strange +blending, so often seen, of grim infernal laughter with grim infernal +fury, the hyena's laugh and its ferocity. Wherever it occurs, it implies +not only fell hate and cruelty, but also contempt and a horrible delight +in triumphing over an enemy. It is found in all corrupt periods, and +especially in religious persecutions. Here it implies the rejection of +the Servant. + +The prophecy was literally fulfilled, but not in all its traits. This +may give a hint as to the general interpretation of prophecy and may +teach that external fulfilment only points to a deeper correspondence. +The most salient instance is in Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem riding on +an ass, which was but a finger-post to guide men's thoughts to His +fulfilling the ideal of the Messianic King. And yet, the minute +correspondences are worth noticing. What a strange, solemn glimpse they +give into that awful divine omniscience, and into the mystery of the +play of the vilest passions as being yet under control in their +extremest rage! + +We must note the remarkable prominence in the narratives of the Passion, +of signs of contempt and mockery; Judas' kiss, the purple robe, the +crown of thorns, 'wagging their heads,' 'let be, let Elias come,' etc. + +Think of the exquisite pain of this to Christ. That He was sinless and +full of love made it all the worse to bear. Not the physical pain, but +the consciousness that He was encompassed by such an atmosphere of evil, +was the sharpest pang. We should think with reverent sympathy of His +perfect discernment of the sinful malignant hearts from which the +sufferings came, of His pained and rejected love thrown back on itself, +of His clear sight of what their heartless infliction of tortures would +end in for the inflicters, of His true human feeling which shrank from +being the object of contempt and execration. + +II. His patient submission. + +'I gave,'--purely voluntary. That word originally expressed the patient +submission with which He endured at the moment, when the lash scored His +back, but it may be widened out to express Christ's perfect +voluntariness in all His passion. At any moment He could have abandoned +His work if His filial obedience and His love to men had let Him do so. +His would-be captors fell to the ground before one momentary flash of +His majesty, and they could have laid no hand on Him, if His will had +not consented to His capture. Fra Angelico has grasped the thought which +the prophet here uttered, and which the evangelists emphasise, that all +His suffering was voluntary, and that His love to us restrained His +power, and led Him to the slaughter, silent as a sheep before her +shearers. For he has pourtrayed the majestic figure seated in passive +endurance, with eyes blindfolded but yet wide open behind the bandage, +all-seeing, wistful, sad, and patient, while around are fragments of +rods, and smiting hands, and a cruel face blowing spittle on the +unshrinking cheeks. He seems to be saying: 'These things hast thou done, +and I kept silence.' 'Thou couldest have no power at all against Me +unless it were given thee.' + +III. His submission to suffering in obedience to the Father's Will. + +The context connects His opened ear and His not being rebellious with +His giving His back to the smiters. That involves the idea that these +indignities and insults were part of the divine counsel in reference to +Him. That same combination of ideas is strongly presented in the early +addresses of Peter, recorded in the first chapters of Acts, of which +this is a specimen: 'Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and +foreknowledge of God, ye with wicked hands have crucified and slain.' +The full significance of Christ's passion as that of the atoning +sacrifice was not yet clear to the apostle, any more than the Servant's +sufferings were to the prophet, but both prophet and apostle were +carried on by fuller experience and reflection on what they already saw +clearly, to discern the inwardness and depth of these. The one soon came +to see that 'by His stripes we are healed,' and the other finally wrote: +'Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree.' And +whoever deeply ponders the startling fact that 'it pleased the Lord to +bruise Him,' sinless and ever obedient as He was, will be borne, sooner +or later, into the full sunlight of the blessed belief that when Jesus +suffered and died, 'He died for all.' His sufferings were those of a +martyr for truth, who is willing to die rather than cease to witness for +it; but they were more. They were the sufferings of a lover of mankind +who will face the extremest wrong that can be inflicted, rather than +abandon His mission; but they were more. They were not merely the +penalty which He had to pay for faithfulness to His work; they were +themselves the crown and climax of His work. The Son of Man came, +indeed, 'not to be ministered to but to minister,' but that, taken +alone, is but a maimed view of what He came for, and we must +whole-heartedly go on to say as He said, 'and to give His life a ransom +for many,' if we would know the whole truth as to the sufferings of +Jesus. + +Again, since Christ suffers according to the will of God, it is clear +that all representations of the scope of His atoning death, which +represent it as moving the will of the Father to love and pardon, are +travesties of the truth and turn cause into effect. God does not love, +because Jesus died, but Jesus died because God loved. + +Further, it is to be noted that His sufferings are the great means by +which He sustains the weary. The word to which His ears were opened, +morning by morning, was the word to which He was docile when He gave His +back to the smiters. It is His passion, regarded as the sacrifice for a +world's sin, from which flow the most powerful stimulants to service and +tonics for weary souls, the tenderest comfortings for sorrow. He +sustains and comforts by the example of His life, but far more, and more +sweetly, more mightily, by that which flows to us through His death. His +sufferings are powerful to sustain, when thought of as our example, but +they are a tenfold stronger source of patience and strength, when laid +on our hearts as the price of our redemption. The Cross is, in all +senses of the expression, the tree of life. + +Wonder, reverence, love, gratitude, should well forth from our hearts, +when we think of these cruel sufferings, but the deepest fountains in +them will not be unsealed, unless we see in the suffering Servant the +atoning Son. + + + + +THE SERVANT'S INFLEXIBLE RESOLVE + +'For the Lord God will help Me; therefore shall I not be confounded: +therefore have I set My face like a flint.'--ISAIAH l. 7. + + +What a striking contrast between the tone of these words and of the +preceding! There all is gentleness, docility, still communion, +submission, patient endurance. Here all is energy and determination, +resistance and martial vigour. It is like the contrast between a priest +and a warrior. And that gentleness is the parent of this boldness. The +same Will which is all submission to God is all resistance in the face +of hostile men. The utmost lowliness and the most resolved resistance to +opposing forces are found in that prophetic image of the Servant of the +Lord--even as they are found in the highest degree and most perfectly in +Jesus Christ. + +The sequence in this context is worth noting. We had first Christ's +communion with God and communications from the Father; then the perfect +submission of His Will; then that submission expressed in His voluntary +sufferings; and now we have His immovable steadfastness of resistance to +the temptation, which lay in these sufferings, to depart from His +attitude of submission, and to abandon His work. + +The former verse led us up to the verge of the great mystery of His +sacrificial death. This gives us a glimpse into the depths of His human +life, and shows Him to us as our example in all holy heroism. + +I. The need which Christ felt to exercise firm resistance. + +The words of the text are found almost reproduced in Jeremiah i. and +Ezekiel iii. All prophets and servants of God have had thus to resist, +and it would be superfluous to show how resistance to opposing +influences is the condition of all noble life and of all true service. + +But was it so with Him? The more accurate translation of the second +clause of our text is to be noticed: 'Therefore I will not suffer Myself +to be overcome by the shame.' + +Then the shame had in it some tendency to divert Him from His course. +Christ's humanity felt natural human shrinking from pain and suffering. +It shrank from the contempt and mockery of those around Him, and did so +with especial sensitiveness because of His pure and sinless nature, His +yearning sympathy, the atmosphere of love in which He dwelt, His clear +sight of the sin, and His prevision of the consequent sorrow. If so, His +sufferings did appeal to His human nature and constituted a temptation. + +At the beginning the Tempter addressed himself to natural desires to +procure physical gratification (bread), and to the equally natural +desire to avoid suffering and pain, and to secure His kingdom by an +easier method ('All these will I give Thee, if--'). + +And the latter temptation attended Him all through His life, and was +most insistent at its close. The shadow of the cross stretched along His +path from its beginning. But it is to be remembered that he had not the +same need of _self_-control which we have, in that His Will was not +reluctant, and that no rebellious desires had escaped from its control +and needed to be reduced to submission. 'I was not rebellious.' 'The +spirit is willing but the flesh is weak' was true in the fullest extent +only of Him. So the context gives us His perfect submission of will, and +yet the need to harden His face toward externals from which, +instinctively and without breach of filial obedience, His sensitive +nature recoiled. The reality of the temptation, the limits of its reach, +His consciousness of it, and His immovable obedience and resistance, are +all expressed in the deep and wonderful words, 'If it be possible, let +this cup pass from Me, nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt.' + +II. The perfect inflexible resolve. + +'Face like a flint' seems to be quoted in Luke ix. 51; 'Steadily set His +face.' The whole story of the Gospels gives the one impression of a life +steadfast in its great resolve. There are no traces of His ever +faltering in His purpose, none of His ever suffering Himself to be +diverted from it, no parentheses and no digressions. There are no +blunders either. But what a contrast in this respect to all other lives! +Mark's Gospel, which is eminently the gospel of the Servant, is full of +energy and of this inflexible resolve, which speak in such sayings as 'I +must be about My Father's business'; 'I must work the works of My Father +while it is day.' That last journey, during which He 'steadfastly set +His face to go to Jerusalem,' is but a type of the whole. Christ's life +was a continuous or rather a continually repeated effort. + +This inflexible resolve is associated in Him with characteristics not +usually allied with it. The gentleness of Christ is so obvious in His +character that little needs to be said to point it out. To the influence +of His character more than to any other cause may be traced the change +in the perspective, so to speak, of Virtue, which characterises modern +notions of perfection as contrasted with antique ones. Contrast the +Greek and Roman type with the mediaeval ascetic, or with the +philanthropic type of modern times. Carlyle's ideal is retrograde and an +anachronism. Women and patient sufferers find example in Him. But we +have in Jesus Christ, too, the highest example of all the stronger and +robuster virtues, the more distinctly heroic, masculine; and that not +merely passive firmness of endurance such as an American Indian will +show in torments, but active firmness which presses on to its goal, and, +immovably resolute, will not be diverted by anything. In Him we see a +resolved Will and a gentle loving Heart in perfect accord. That is a +wonderful combination. We often find that such firmness is developed at +the expense of indifference to other people. It is like a war chariot, +or artillery train, that goes crashing across the field, though it be +over shrieking men and broken bones, and the wheels splash in blood. +Resolved firmness is often accompanied with self-absorption which makes +it gloomy, and with narrow limitations. Such men gather all their powers +together to secure a certain end, and do it by shutting the eyes of +their mind to everything but the one object, like the painter, who +blocks up his studio window to get a top light, or as a mad bull lowers +his head and blindly rushes on. + +There is none of all this in Christ's firmness. He was able at every +moment to give His whole sympathy to all who needed it, to take in all +that lay around Him, and His resolute concentration of Himself on His +work made Him none the less perfect in all which goes to make up +complete manhood. Not only was Christ's firmness that of a fixed Will +and a most loving Heart, like one of these 'rocking stones,' whose solid +mass can be set vibrating by a poising bird, but the fixed Will came +from the loving Heart. The very compassion and pity of His nature led to +that resolved continuance in His path of redeeming love, though +suffering and mockery waited for Him at each turn. + +And so He is the Joshua, the Warrior-King, as well as the Priest. That +Face, ever ready to kindle into pity, to melt into tenderness, to +express every shade of tender feeling, was 'set as a flint.' That Eye, +ever brimming with tears, was ever fixed on one goal. That Character is +the type of all strength and of all gentleness. + +III. The basis of Christ's fixed resolve in filial confidence. + +'The Lord God will help Me.' So Christ lived by faith. + +That faith led to this heroic resistance and immovable resolution. + +That confidence of divine help was based upon consciousness of +obedience. + +It is most blessed for us to have Him as our example of faith and of +brave opposition to all the antagonistic forces around us. But we need +more than an example. He will but rebuke our wavering purposes of +obedience, if He is no more than our pattern. Thank God, He is more, +even our Fountain of Power, from Whom we can draw life akin to, because +derived from, His own. In Him we can feel strength stealing into flaccid +limbs, and gain 'the wrestling thews that throw the world.' If we are +'in Christ' and on the path of duty, we too may be able to set our faces +as a flint, and to say truthfully: 'None of these things move me, +neither count I my life dear to myself, that I may finish my course with +joy.' And yet we may withal be gentle, and keep hearts 'open as day to +melting charity,' and have leisure and sympathy to spare for every +sorrow of others, and a hand to help and 'sustain him that is weary.' + + + + +THE SERVANT'S TRIUMPH + +'He is near that justifieth Me; who will contend with Me? let us stand +together: who is Mine adversary? let him come near to Me. 9. Behold, the +Lord God will help Me; who is he that shall condemn Me? lo, they all +shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.'--ISAIAH l. 8, +9. + + +We have reached the final words of this prophecy, and we hear in them a +tone of lofty confidence and triumph. While the former ones sounded +plaintive like soft flute music, this rings out clear like the note of a +trumpet summoning to battle. The Servant of the Lord seems here to be +eager for the conflict, not merely patient and enduring, not merely +setting His face like a flint, but confidently challenging His +adversaries, and daring them to the strife. + +As for the form of the words, the image underlying the whole is that of +a suit at law. It is noteworthy that since Isaiah xli. this metaphor has +run through the whole prophecy. The great controversy is God _versus_ +Idols. God appears at the bar of men, pleads His cause, calls His +witnesses (xliii. 9). 'Let them' (_i.e._ idols) 'bring forth their +witnesses that they may be justified.' + +Possibly the form of the words here is owing to the dominance of that +idea in the context, and implies nothing more than the general notion of +opposition and victory. But it is at least worth remembering that in the +life of Christ we have many instances in which the prophetic images were +literally fulfilled even though their meaning was mainly symbolical: as +_e.g._ the riding on the ass, the birth in Bethlehem, the silence before +accusers, 'a bone of Him shall not be broken,' and in this very contest, +'shame and spitting.' So here there may be included a reference to that +time when the hatred of opposition reached its highest point--in the +sufferings and death of our Lord. And it is at least a remarkable +coincidence that that highest point was reached in formal trials before +the ecclesiastical and civil authorities, for the purpose of convicting +Him, and that these processes as legal procedures broke down so +signally. + +Keeping up the metaphor, we mark here-- + +I. The Messiah's lofty challenge to His accusers. II. The Messiah's +expectation of divine vindication and acquittal. III. The Messiah's +confidence of ultimate triumph. + +I. Messiah's lofty challenge to His accusers. + +The 'justifying' which He expects may refer either to personal character +or to official functional faithfulness. I think it refers to both, and +that we have here, expressed in prophetic outline, not only the fact of +Christ's sinlessness, but the fact of His consciousness of sinlessness. + +The words are the strongest assertion of His absolute freedom from +anything that an adversary could lay hold of on which to found a charge, +and not merely so, but they also dare to assert that the unerring and +all-penetrating eye of the Judge of all will look into His heart, and +find nothing there but the mirrored image of His own perfection. I do +not need to dwell on the fact of Christ's sinlessness, that He is +perfect manhood without stain, without defect. I have had occasion to +touch upon that truth in a former sermon on 'I was not rebellious.' Here +we have to do not so much with sinlessness as with the consciousness of +sinlessness. + +Now note that consciousness on Christ's part. + +We have to reckon with the fact of it as expressed in His own words: 'I +do always the things that please Him. Which of you convinceth Me of +sin?' 'The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in Me.' + +In Him there is the absence of all trace of sense of sin. + +No prayer for forgiveness comes from His lips. + +No penitence, no acknowledgment of even weakness is heard from Him. Even +in His baptism, which for others was an acknowledgment of impurity, He +puts His submission to the rite, not on the ground of needing to be +washed from sin, but of 'fulfilling all righteousness.' + +Now, unless Christ was sinless, what do we say of these assertions? 'If +we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in +us'--are we to apply that canon to Him when He stands before us and +asks, 'Which of you convinceth Me of sin?' Surely it augurs small self- +knowledge or a low moral standard if, from the lips of a religious +teacher, there never comes one word to indicate that he has felt the +hold of evil on him. I make bold to say that if Christ were not sinless, +the Apostle Paul stood far above Him, with his 'of whom I am chief.' +What difference would there be between Him and the Pharisees who called +forth His bitterest words by this very absence in them of consciousness +of sin: 'If ye were blind ye would have no sin, but now ye say, We see, +therefore your sin remaineth.' + +Singularly enough the world has accepted Him at His own estimate, and +has felt that these lofty assertions of absolute perfection were borne +out by His life, and were consistent with the utmost lowliness of heart. + +As to the adversary's failure, I need only recall the close of His life, +which is representative of the whole impression made on the world by +Him. What a wonderful and singular concurrence of testimonies was borne +to His pure and blameless life! After months of hatred and watching, +even the rulers' lynx-eyed jealousy found nothing, and they had to fall +back upon false witnesses. 'Hearest thou not how many things they +witness against Thee?' He stood with unmoved silence, and the lies fell +down dead at His feet. Had He answered, they would have been preserved +and owed their immortality to the Gospels: He held His peace and they +vanished. All attempts failed so signally that at the last they were +fain, in well-simulated holy abhorrence, to base His condemnation on +what He had said in their presence. 'How think ye, ye have heard the +blasphemy?' So all that the adversary, raking through a life, could +find, was that one word. That was His sin; in all else He was pure. +Remember Pilate's acquittal: 'I find no fault in Him,' and his wife's +warning, 'Have thou nothing to do with that just Person.' Think of +Judas, 'I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.' +Listen to the penitent thief's low voice gasping out in his pangs and +almost collapse: 'This man hath done nothing amiss.' Listen to the +Centurion telling the impression made even on his rough nature: 'Truly +this was a righteous Man.' + +These are the answers to the Servant's challenge, wrung from the lips of +His adversaries; and they but represent the universal judgment of +humanity. + +There is one Man whose life has been without stain or spot, whose soul +has never been crossed by a breath of passion, nor dimmed by a speck of +sin, whose will has ever been filled with happy obedience, whose +conscience has been undulled by evil and untaught to speak in +condemnation, whose whole nature has been like some fair marble, pure in +hue, perfect in form, and unstained to the very core. There is one Man +who can front the most hostile scrutiny with the bold challenge, 'Which +of you convinceth Me of sin?' and His very haters have to answer, 'I +find no fault in Him,' while those that love Him rejoice to proclaim Him +'holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.' There is one Man +who can front the most rigid Law of Duty and say, 'I came not to destroy +but to fulfil,' and the stony tables seem to glow with tender light, as +of rocky cliffs in morning sunshine, attesting that He has indeed +fulfilled all righteousness. There is one Man who can stand before God +without repentance or confession, and whose claim 'I do always the +things that please Him,' the awful voice from the opening heavens +endorses, when it proclaims; 'This is My beloved Son in whom I am well +pleased.' The lowly Servant of God flings out His challenge to the +universe: 'Who will contend with Me?' and that gage has lain in the +lists for nineteen centuries unlifted. + +II. The Messiah's expectation of divine vindication and acquittal. + +Like many another man, Christ had to strengthen Himself against calumny +and slander by turning to God, and finding comfort in the belief that +there was One who would do Him right, and as throughout this context we +have had the true humanity of our Lord in great prominence, it is worth +while to dwell for a moment on that thought of His real sharing in the +pain of misconstruction and groundless charges, and of His too having to +say, as we have so often to say, 'Well, there is one who knows. Men may +condemn but God will acquit.' + +But there is something more than that here. The divine vindication and +acquittal is not a mere hidden thought and judgment in the mind of God. +It is a declaring and showing to be innocent, and that not by word but +by deed. That expectation seemed to be annihilated and made ludicrous by +His death. But the 'justifying' of which our text speaks takes place in +Christ's resurrection and ascension. + +'Manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit' (1 Timothy iii. 16). +'Declared to be the Son of God with power, ... by the resurrection from +the dead' (Rom. i. 4). + +His death seems the entire abandonment of this holy and sinless man. It +seems to demonstrate His claims to be madness, His hope to be futile, +His promises to be wind. No wonder that the sorrowing apostles wailed, +'We trusted that it had been He who should have redeemed Israel.' The +death of Christ, if it were but a martyr's death, and if we had to +believe that that frame had crumbled into dust, and that heart ceased +for ever to beat, would not only destroy the worth of all that He spoke, +but would be the saddest instance in all history of the irreversible +sway that death wields over all mankind, and would deepen the darkness +and sadden the gloom of the grave. True, there were not wanting even in +His dying hours mysterious indications, such as His promise to the +penitent thief. But these only make the disappointment the deeper, if +there was nothing more after His death. + +So Christ's justification is in His resurrection and ascension. + +III. The Messiah's confidence of ultimate triumph. + +In the last words of the text the adversaries are massed together. The +confidence that the Lord God will help and justify leads to the +conviction that all opposition to Him is futile and leads to +destruction. + +We see the historical fulfilment in the fate of the nation. 'His blood +be upon us and upon our children.' + +We have a truth applying universally that antagonism to Him is self- +destructive. + +Two forms of destruction are here named. There is a slow decay going on +in the opponents and their opposition, as a garment waxing old, and +there is a being fretted away by the imperceptible working of external +causes, as by gnawing moths. + +Applied to persons. To opposing systems. + +How many antagonists the Gospel has had, and one after another has been +antiquated, and their books are only known because fragments of them are +preserved in Christian writings. Paganism is gone from Europe, and its +idols are in our museums. Each generation has its own phase of +opposition, which lasts for a little while. The mists round the sun +melt, the clouds piled in the north, surging up to bury it beneath their +banks, are dissipated. The sea roars and smashes on the cliffs, but it +ebbs and calms. Some of us have seen more than one school of thought +which came to the assault of Christianity, with colours flying and drums +rattling, defeated utterly and forgotten, and so it will always be. One +may be sure that each enemy in turn will descend to the oblivion that +has already received so many, and can imagine these beaten foes rising +from their seats to welcome the newcomer with the sad greeting: 'Art +thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?' + +We are 'justified' in His 'justification.' + +The real connection between us and Christ by faith, makes our +justification to be involved in His, so that it is no mere accommodation +but a profound perception of the real relation between Christ and us, +when Paul, in Romans viii. 34, triumphantly claims the words of our text +for Christ's disciples, and rings out their challenge on behalf of all +believers: 'It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth?' + +Do you trust in Christ? Then you too can dare to say: 'The Lord God will +help me; who is he that shall condemn me?' + +'Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his +servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in +the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.'--ISAIAH l. 10. + +The persons addressed in this call to faith are 'those who fear the +Lord,' and 'obey the voice of His Servant.' In that collocation is +implied that these two things are necessarily connected, so that +obedience to Christ is the test of true religion, and the fear of the +Lord does not exist where the word of the Son is neglected or rejected. + +But besides that most fruitful and instructive juxtaposition, other +important thoughts come into view here. The fact that the call to faith +is addressed to those who are regarded as already fearing God suggests +the need for renewed and constantly repeated acts of confidence, at +every stage of the Christian life, and opens up the whole subject of the +growth and progress of individual religion, as secured by the continuous +exercise of faith. The call is addressed to all at every stage of +advancement. Of course it is addressed also to those who are disobedient +and rebellious. But that wider aspect of the merciful invitation does +not come into view here. + +But there is another clause in the description of the persons addressed, +'Who walketh in darkness and hath no light.' This is, no doubt, +primarily a reference to the great sorrow that filled, like a gloomy +thundercloud, the horizon of Jewish prophets, small and uninteresting as +it seems to us, namely, the captivity of Israel and their expulsion from +their land. The faithful remnant are not to escape their share in the +national calamity. But while it lasts, they are to wait patiently on the +Lord, and not to cast away their confidence, though all seems dark and +dreary. + +The exhortation thus regarded suggests the power and duty of faith even +in times of disaster and sorrow. But another meaning has often been +attached to these words, they have been lifted into another region, the +spiritual, and have been supposed to refer to a state of feeling not +unknown to devout hearts, in which the religious life is devoid of joy +and peace. That is a phase of Christian experience, which meets any one +who knows much of the workings of men's hearts, and of his own, when +faith is exercised with but little of the light of faith, and the fear +of the Lord is cherished with but scant joy in the Lord. Now if it be +remembered that such an application of the words is not their original +purpose, there can be no harm in using them so. Indeed we may say that, +as the words are perfectly general, they include a reference to all +darkness of life or soul, however produced, whether it come from the +night of sorrow falling on us from without, or from mists and gloom +rising like heavy vapours from our own hearts. So considered, the text +suggests the one remedy for all gloom and weakness in the spiritual +life. + +Thus, then, we have three different sets of circumstances in which faith +is enforced as the source of true strength and our all-embracing duty. +In outward sorrow and trial, trust; in inward darkness and sadness, +trust; in every stage of Christian progress, trust. Or + +I. Faith the light in the darkness of the world. II. Faith the light in +the darkness of the soul. III. Faith the light in every stage of +Christian progress. + + * * * * * + +I. Faith our light in the darkness of the world. + +The mystery and standing problem of the Old Testament is the coexistence +of goodness and sorrow, and the mystery still remains, and ever will +remain, a fact. It is partially alleviated if we remember that one main +purpose of all our sorrows is to lead us to this confidence. + +1. The call to faith is the true voice of all our sorrows. + +It seems easy to trust when all is bright, but really it is just as +hard, only we can more easily deceive ourselves, when physical well- +being makes us comfortable. We are less conscious of our own emptiness, +we mask our poverty from ourselves, we do not seem to need God so much. +But sorrow reveals our need to us. Other props are struck away, and it +is either collapse or Him. We learn the vanity, the transiency, of all +besides. + +Sorrow reveals God, as the pillar of cloud glowed brighter when the +evening fell. Sorrow is meant to awaken the powers that are apt to sleep +in prosperity. + +So the true voice of all our griefs is 'Come up hither.' They call us to +trust, as nightfall calls us to light up our lamps. The snow keeps the +hidden seeds warm; shepherds burn heather on the hillside that young +grass may spring. + +2. The call to faith echoes from the voice of the Servant. + +Jesus in His darkness rested on God, and in all His sorrows was yet +anointed with the oil of gladness. In every pang He has been before us. +The rack is sanctified because He has been stretched upon it. + +3. The substance of the call. + +It is to _trust_, not to anything more. No attempts to stifle tears are +required. There is no sin in sorrow. The emotions which we feel to God +in bright days are not appropriate at such times. There are seasons in +every life when all that we can say is, 'Truly this is a grief, and I +will bear it.' + +What then _is_ required? Assurance of God's loving will sending sorrow. +Assurance of God's strengthening presence in it, assurance of +deliverance from it. These, not more, are required; these are the +elements of the faith here called for. + +Such faith may co-exist with the keenest sense of loss. The true +attitude in sorrow may be gathered from Christ's at the grave of +Lazarus, contrasted with the excessive mourning of the sisters, and the +feigned grief of the Jews. + +There are times when the most that we can do is to trust even in the +great darkness, 'Though He slay me yet will I trust in Him.' Submissive +silence is sometimes the most eloquent confession of faith. 'I was dumb, +I opened not my mouth, because Thou didst it.' + +4. The blessed results of such faith. + +It is implied that we may find all that we need, and more, in God. Have +we to mourn friends? 'In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord +sitting on a throne.' Have we lost wealth? We have in Him a treasure +that moth or rust cannot touch. Are our hopes blasted? 'Happy is He ... +whose hope is in the Lord his God.' Is our health broken? 'I shall yet +praise Him, who is the health of my countenance.' 'The Lord is able to +give thee much more than these.' + +How can we face the troubles of life without Him? God calls us when in +darkness, and by the darkness, to trust in His name and stay ourselves +on Him. Happy are we if we answer 'Though the fig-tree shall not +blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines ... yet I will rejoice in +the Lord, and joy in the God of my salvation.' + +II. Faith, our light in the darkness of the soul. + +No doubt there may be such a thing as true fear of God in the soul along +with spiritual darkness, faith without the joy of faith. Now this +condition seems contradictory of the very nature of the Christian life. +For religion is union with God who is light, and if we walk in Him, we +are in the light. How then can such experience be? + +We must dismiss the notion of God's desertion of the trusting soul. He +is always the same; He has 'never said to the seed of Jacob, Seek ye Me +in vain.' But while putting aside that false explanation, we can see how +such darkness may be. If our religious life was in more vigorous +exercise, more pure, perfect and continuous, there would be no +separation of faith and the joy of faith. But we have not such +unruffled, perfect, uninterrupted faith, and hence there may be, and +often is, faith without much joy of faith. I would not say that such +experience is always the fruit of sin. But certainly we are not to blame +Him or to think of Him as breaking His promises, or departing from His +nature. No principles, be they ever so firmly held, ever so undoubtingly +received, ever so passionately embraced, exert their whole power equally +at all moments in a life. There come times of languor when they seem to +be mere words, dead commonplaces, as unlike their former selves as +sapless winter boughs to their summer pride of leafy beauty. The same +variation in our realising grasp affects the truths of the Gospel. +Sometimes they seem but words, with all the life and power sucked out of +them, pale shadows of themselves, or like the dried bed of a wady with +blazing, white stones, where flashing water used to leap, and all the +flowerets withered, which once bent their meek little heads to drink. No +facts are always equally capable of exciting their correspondent +emotions. Those which most closely affect our personal life, in which we +find our deepest joys, are not always present in our minds, and when +they are, do not always touch the springs of our feelings. No +possessions are always equally precious to us. The rich man is not +always conscious with equal satisfaction of his wealth. If, then, the +way from the mind to the emotions is not always equally open, there is a +reason why there may be faith without light of joy. If the thoughts are +not always equally concentrated on the things which produce joy, _there_ +is a reason why there may be the habit of fearing God, though there be +not the present vigorous exercise of faith, and consequently but little +light. + +Another reason may lie in the disturbing and saddening influence of +earthly cares and sorrows. There are all weathers in a year. And the +highest hope and nearest possible approach to joy is sometimes 'Unto the +upright there ariseth light in the darkness.' Our lives are sometimes +like an Arctic winter in which for many days is no sun. + +Another reason may be found in the very fact that we are apt to look +impatiently for peace and joy, and to be more exercised with these than +with that which produces them. + +Another may be errors or mistakes about God and His Gospel. + +Another may be absorption with our own sin instead of with Him. To all +these add temperament, education, habit, example, influence of body on +the mind, and of course also positive inconsistencies and a low tone of +Christian life. + +It is clear then that, if these be the causes of this state, the one +cure for it is to exercise our faith more energetically. + +Trust, do not look back. We are tempted to cast away our confidence and +to say: What profit shall I have if I pray unto Him? But it is on +looking onwards, not backwards, that safety lies. + +Trust, do not think about your sins. + +Trust, do not think so much about your joy. + +It is in the occupation of heart and mind with Jesus that joy and peace +come. To make them our direct aim is the way not to attain them. Though +now there seems a long wintry interval between seed time and harvest, +yet 'in due season we shall reap if we faint not.' + +'In the fourth watch of the night Jesus came unto them.' + +III. Faith our guiding light in every stage of Christian progress. + +Those who already 'fear God' are in the text exhorted to trust. + +In the most advanced Christian life there are temptations to abandon our +confidence. We never on earth come to such a point as that, without +effort, we are sure to continue in the way. True, habit is a wonderful +ally of goodness, and it is a great thing to have it on our side, but +all our lives long, there will be hindrances without and within which +need effort and self-repression. On earth there is no time when it is +safe for us to go unarmed. The force of gravitation acts however high we +climb. Not till heaven is reached will 'love' be 'its own security,' and +nature coincide with grace. And even in heaven faith 'abideth,' but +there it will be without effort. + +1. The most advanced Christian life needs a perpetual renewal and +repetition of past acts of faith. + +It cannot live on a past any more than the body can subsist on last +year's food. The past is like the deep portions of coral reefs, a mere +platform for the living present which shines on the surface of the sea, +and grows. We must gather manna daily. + +The life is continued by the same means as that by which it was begun. +There is no new duty or method for the most advanced Christian; he has +to do just what he has been doing for half a century. We cannot +transcend the creatural position, we are ever dependent. 'To hoar hairs +will I carry you.' The initial point is prolonged into a continuous +line. + +2. The most advanced and mature faith is capable of increase, in regard +to its knowledge of its object, and in intensity, constancy, power. At +first it may be a tremulous trust, afterwards it should become an +assured confidence. At first it may be but a dim recognition, as in a +glass darkly, of the great love which has redeemed us at a great price; +afterwards it should become the clear vision of the trusted Friend and +lifelong companion of our souls, who is all in all to us. At first it +may be an interrupted hold, afterwards it should become such a grasp as +the roots of a tree have on the soil. At first it may be a feeble power +ruling over our rebel selves, like some king beleaguered in his capital, +who has no sway beyond its walls, afterwards it should become a peaceful +sovereign who guides and sways all the powers of the soul and outgoings +of the life. At first it may be like a premature rose putting forth pale +petals on an almost leafless bough, afterwards the whole tree should be +blossomed over with fragrant flowers, the homes of light and sweetness. +The highest faith may be heightened, and the spirits before the throne +pray the prayer, 'Lord, increase our faith.' + +For us all, then, the merciful voice of the servant of the Lord calls to +His light. Our faith is our light in darkness, only as a window is the +light of a house, or the eye, of the body, because it admits and +discerns that true light. He calls us each from the darkness. Do not try +to make fires for yourselves, ineffectual and transient, but look to +Him, and you shall not walk in darkness, even amid the gloom of earth, +but shall have light in your darkness, till the time come when, in a +clearer heaven and a lighter air, 'Thy sun shall no more go down, +neither shall thy moon withdraw itself, for the Lord shall be thine +everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.' + + + + +DYING FIRES + +'Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that gird yourselves about with +firebrands: walk ye in the flame of your fire, and among the brands that +ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in +sorrow.'--ISAIAH l. 11. + + +The scene brought before us in these words is that of a company of +belated travellers in some desert, lighting a little fire that glimmers +ineffectual in the darkness of the eerie waste. They huddle round its +dying embers for a little warmth and company, and they hope it will +scare wolf and jackal, but their fuel is all burned, and they have to go +to sleep without its solace and security. The prophet's imaginative +picture is painted from life, and is a sad reality in the cases of all +who seek to warm themselves at any fire that they kindle for themselves, +apart from God. + +I. A sad, true picture of human life. + +It does not cover, nor is presented by the prophet as covering, all the +facts of experience. Every man has his share of sunshine, but still it +is true of all who are not living in dependence on and communion with +God, that they are but travellers in the dark. + +Scripture uses the image of darkness as symbolic of three sad facts of +our experience: ignorance, sin, sorrow. Are not all these the +characteristics of godless lives? + +As for ignorance--a godless man has no key to the awful problems that +front him. He knows not God, who is to him a dread, a name, a mystery. +He knows not himself, the depths of his nature, its possibilities for +good or evil, whence it cometh nor whither it goeth. He has no solution +for the riddle of the universe. It is to him a chaos, and darkness is +upon the face of the deep. + +As to sin, the darkness of ignorance is largely due to the darkness of +sin. In every heart comes sometimes the consciousness that it is thus +darkened by sin. The sense of sin is with all men more or less--much +perverted, often wrong in its judgments, feeble, easily silenced, but +for all that it is there--and it is great part of the cold obstruction +that shuts out the light. Sin weaves the pall that shrouds the world. + +As for darkness of sorrow--we must beware that we do not exaggerate. God +makes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and there is gladness in +every life, much that arises from fulfilled desires, from accomplished +purposes, from gratified affections. But when all this has been freely +admitted, still sadness crouches somewhere in all hearts, and over every +life the storm sometimes stoops. + +We need nothing beyond our own experience and the slightest knowledge of +other hearts to know how shallow and one-sided a view of life that is +which sees only the joy and forgets the sorrow, which ignores the night +and thinks only of the day; which, looking out on nature, is blind to +the pain and agony, the horror and the death, which are as real parts of +it as brightness and beauty, love and life. Every little valley that +lies in lovely loneliness has its scenes of desolation, and tempest has +broken over the fairest scenes. Every river has drowned its man. Over +every inch of blue sky the thunder cloud has rolled. Every summer has +its winter, every day its night, every life its death. All stars set, +all moons wane. 'Bare ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang' +come after every leafy June. + +Sorrow is as deeply embedded in the necessity and constitution of things +as joy. 'God hath set one over against another, and hath made all things +double.' + +II. The vain attempts at light. + +There is bitter irony in the prophet's description of the poor +flickering spot of light in the black waste and of its swift dying out. +The travellers without a watch-fire are defenceless from midnight +prowlers. How full of solemn truth about godless lives the vivid outline +picture is! + +Men try to free themselves from the miseries of ignorance, sin, and +sorrow. + +Think of the insufficiency of all such attempts, the feeble flicker +which glimmers for an hour, and then fuel fails and it goes out. Then +the travellers can journey no further, but 'lie down in sorrow,' and +without a watchfire they become a prey to all the beasts of the field. +It is a little picture taken from the life. + +It vividly paints how men _will_ try to free themselves from the +miseries of their condition, how insufficient all their attempts are, +how transient the relief, and how bitter and black the end. + +We may apply these thoughts to-- + +1. Men-made grounds of hope before God. + +2. Men-made attempts to read the mysteries. + +We do not say this of all human learning, but of that which, apart from +God's revelation, deals with the subjects of that revelation. + +3. Men-made efforts at self-reformation. + +4. Men-made attempts at alleviating sorrow. + +Scripture abounds in other metaphors for the same solemn spiritual facts +as are set before us in this picture of the dying watchfire and the sad +men watching its decline. Godless lives draw from broken cisterns out of +which the water runs. They build with untempered mortar. They lean on +broken reeds that wound the hand pressed on them. They spend money for +that which is not bread. But all these metaphors put together do not +tell all the vanity, disappointments, and final failure and ruin of such +a life. That last glimpse given in the text of the sorrowful sleeper +stretched by the black ashes, with darkness round and hopeless heaviness +within, points to an issue too awful to be dwelt on by a preacher, and +too awful not to be gravely considered by each of us for himself. + +III. The light from God. + +What would the dead fire and the ring of ashes on the sand matter when +morning dawned? Jesus is our Sun. He rises, and the spectres of the +night melt into thin air, and 'joy cometh in the morning.' He floods our +ignorance with knowledge of the Father whose name He declares, with +knowledge of ourselves, of the world, of our destiny and our duty, our +hopes and our home. He takes away the sin of the world. He gives the oil +of joy for mourning. For every human necessity He is enough. Follow Him +and your life's pilgrimage shall not be a midnight one, but accomplished +in sunshine. 'I am the light of the world; he that followeth Me shall +not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.' + + + + +THE AWAKENING OF ZION + +'Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the +ancient days, in the generations of old.'--ISAIAH li. 9. + +'Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion.'--ISAIAH lii. 1. + + +Both these verses are, I think, to be regarded as spoken by one voice, +that of the Servant of the Lord. His majestic figure, wrapped in a light +veil of obscurity, fills the eye in all these later prophecies of +Isaiah. It is sometimes clothed with divine power, sometimes girded with +the towel of human weakness, sometimes appearing like the collective +Israel, sometimes plainly a single person. + +We have no difficulty in solving the riddle of the prophecy by the light +of history. Our faith knows One who unites these diverse +characteristics, being God and man, being the Saviour of the body, which +is part of Himself and instinct with His life. If we may suppose that He +speaks in both verses of the text, then, in the one, as priest and +intercessor, He lifts the prayers of earth to heaven in His own holy +hands--and in the other, as messenger and Word of God, He brings the +answer and command of heaven to earth on His own authoritative +lips--thus setting forth the deep mystery of His person and double +office as mediator between man and God. But even if we put aside that +thought, the correspondence and relation of the two passages remain the +same. In any case they are intentionally parallel in form and connected +in substance. The latter is the answer to the former. The cry of Zion is +responded to by the call of God. The awaking of the arm of the Lord is +followed by the awaking of the Church. He puts on strength in clothing +us with His might, which becomes ours. + +The mere juxtaposition of these verses suggests the point of view from +which I wish to treat them on this occasion. I hope that the thoughts to +which they lead may help to further that quickened earnestness and +expectancy of blessing, without which Christian work is a toil and a +failure. + +We have here a common principle underlying both the clauses of our text, +to which I must first briefly ask attention, namely-- + +I. The occurrence in the Church's history of successive periods of +energy and of languor. + +It is freely admitted that such alternation is not the highest ideal of +growth, either in the individual or in the community. Our Lord's own +parables set forth a more excellent way--the way of uninterrupted +increase, whereof the type is the springing corn, which puts forth +'first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear,' +and passes through all the stages from the tender green spikelets that +gleam over the fields in the spring-tide to the yellow abundance of +autumn, in one unbroken season of genial months. So would our growth be +best, healthiest, happiest. So _might_ our growth be, if the mysterious +life in the seed met no checks. But, as a matter of fact, the Church has +not thus grown. Rather at the best, its emblem is to be looked for, not +in corn, but in the forest tree-the very rings in whose trunk tell of +recurring seasons when the sap has risen at the call of spring, and sunk +again before the frowns of winter. I have not to do now with the causes +of this. These will fall to be considered presently. Nor am I saying +that such a manner of growth is inevitable. I am only pointing out a +fact, capable of easy verification and familiar to us all. Our years +have had summer and winter. The evening and the morning have completed +all the days since the first. + +We all know it only too well. In our own hearts we have known such +times, when some cold clinging mist wrapped us round and hid all the +heaven of God's love and the starry lights of His truth; when the +visible was the only real, and He seemed far away and shadowy; when +there was neither confidence in our belief, nor heat in our love, nor +enthusiasm in our service; when the shackles of conventionalism bound +our souls, and the fetters of the frost imprisoned all their springs. +And we have seen a like palsy smite whole regions and ages of the Church +of God, so that even the sensation of impotence was dead like all the +rest, and the very tradition of spiritual power had faded away. I need +not point to the signal historical examples of such times in the past. +Remember England a hundred years ago--but what need to travel so far? +May I venture to draw my example from nearer home, and ask, have we not +been living in such an epoch? I beseech you, think whether the power +which the Gospel preached by us wields on ourselves, on our churches, on +the world, is what Christ meant it and fitted to exercise. Why, if we +hold our own in respect to the material growth of our population, it is +as much as we do. Where is the joyful buoyancy and expansive power with +which the Gospel burst into the world? It looks like some stream that +leaps from the hills, and at first hurries from cliff to cliff full of +light and music, but flows slower and more sluggish as it advances, and +at last almost stagnates in its flat marshes. Here we are with all our +machinery, our culture, money, organisations--and the net result of it +all at the year's end is but a poor handful of ears. 'Ye sow much and +bring home little.' Well may we take up the wail of the old Psalm, 'We +see not our signs. There is no more any prophet; neither is there any +among us that knoweth how long--arise, O Lord, plead Thine own cause.' + +If, then, there are such recurring seasons of languor, they must either +go on deepening till sleep becomes death, or they must be broken by a +new outburst of vigorous life. It would be better if we did not need the +latter. The uninterrupted growth would be best; but if that has not been +attained, then the ending of winter by spring, and the suppling of the +dry branches, and the resumption of the arrested growth, is the next +best, and the only alternative to rotting away. + +And it is by such times that the Kingdom of Christ always has grown. Its +history has been one of successive impulses gradually exhausted, as by +friction and gravity, and mercifully repeated just at the moment when it +was ceasing to advance and had begun to slide backwards. And in such a +manner of progress, the Church's history has been in full analogy with +that of all other forms of human association and activity. It is not in +religion alone that there are 'revivals,' to use the word of which some +people have such a dread. You see analogous phenomena in the field of +literature, arts, social and political life. In them all, there come +times of awakened interest in long-neglected principles. Truths which +for many years had been left to burn unheeded, save by a faithful few +watchers of the beacon, flame up all at once as the guiding pillars of a +nation's march, and a whole people strike their tents and follow where +they lead. A mysterious quickening thrills through society. A contagion +of enthusiasm spreads like fire, fusing all hearts in one. The air is +electric with change. Some great advance is secured at a stride; and +before and after that supreme effort are years of comparative +quiescence; those before being times of preparation, those after being +times of fruition and exhaustion--but slow and languid compared with the +joyous energy of that moment. One day may be as a thousand years in the +history of a people, and a nation may be born in a day. + +So also is the history of the Church. And thank God it is so, for if it +had not been for the dawning of these times of refreshing, the steady +operation of the Church's worldliness would have killed it long ago. + +Surely, dear brethren, we ought to desire such a merciful interruption +of the sad continuity of our languor and decay. The surest sign of its +coming would be a widespread desire and expectation of its coming, +joined with a penitent consciousness of our heavy and sinful slumber. +For we believe in a God who never sends mouths but He sends meat to fill +them, and in whose merciful providence every desire is a prophecy of its +own fruition. This attitude of quickened anticipation, diffusing itself +silently through many hearts, is like the light air that springs up +before sunrise, or like the solemn hush that holds all nature listening +before the voice of the Lord in the thunder. + +And another sign of its approach is the extremity of the need. 'If +winter come, can spring be far behind?' For He who is always with Zion +strikes in with His help when the want is at its sorest. His 'right +early' is often the latest moment before destruction. And though we are +all apt to exaggerate the urgency of the hour and the severity of _our_ +conflict, it certainly does seem that, whether we regard the languor of +the Church or the strength of our adversaries, succour delayed a little +longer would be succour too late. 'The tumult of those that rise up +against Thee increaseth continually. It is time for Thee to work.' + +The juxtaposition of these passages suggests for us-- + +II. The twofold explanation of these variations. + +That bold metaphor of God's sleeping and waking is often found in +Scripture, and generally expresses the contrast between the long years +of patient forbearance, during which evil things and evil men go on +their rebellious road unchecked but by Love, and the dread moment when +some throne of iniquity, some Babylon cemented by blood, is smitten to +the dust. Such is the original application of the expression here. But +the contrast may fairly be widened beyond that specific form of it, and +taken to express any apparent variations in the forth-putting of His +power. The prophet carefully avoids seeming to suggest that there are +changes in God Himself. It is not He but His arm, that is to say. His +active energy, that is invoked to awake. The captive Church prays that +the dormant might which could so easily shiver her prison-house would +flame forth into action. + +We may, then, see here implied the cause of these alternations, of which +we have been speaking, on its divine side, and then, in the +corresponding verse addressed to the Church, the cause on the human +side. + +As to the former, it is true that God's arm sometimes slumbers, and is +not clothed with power. There are, as a fact, apparent variations in the +energy with which He works in the Church and in the world. And they are +real variations, not merely apparent. But we have to distinguish between +the power, and what Paul calls 'the might of the power.' The one is +final, constant, unchangeable. It does not necessarily follow that the +other is. The rate of operation, so to speak, and the amount of energy +actually brought into play may vary, though the force remains the same. + +It is clear from experience that there are these variations; and the +only question with which we are concerned is, are they mere arbitrary +jets and spurts of a divine power, sometimes gushing out in full flood, +sometimes trickling in painful drops, at the unknown will of the unseen +hand which controls the flow? Is the 'law of the Spirit of life' at all +revealed to us; or are the reasons occult, if there be any reasons at +all other than a mere will that it shall be so? Surely, whilst we never +can know all the depths of His counsels and all the solemn concourse of +reasons which, to speak in man's language, determine the energy of His +manifested power, He has left us in no doubt that this is the weightiest +part of the law which it follows--the might with which God works on the +world through His Church varies according to the Church's receptiveness +and faithfulness. + +Our second text tells us that if God's arm seems to slumber and really +does so, it is because Zion sleeps. In itself that immortal energy knows +no variableness. 'He fainteth not, neither is weary.' 'The Lord's arm is +not shortened that He cannot save.' 'He that keepeth Israel shall +neither slumber nor sleep.' But He works through us; and we have the +solemn and awful power of checking the might which would flow through +us; of restraining and limiting the Holy One of Israel. It avails +nothing that the ocean stretches shoreless to the horizon; a jar can +hold only a jarful. The receiver's capacity determines the amount +received, and the receiver's desire determines his capacity. The law has +ever been, 'according to your faith be it unto you.' God gives as much +as we will, as much as we can hold, as much as we use, and far more than +we deserve. As long as we will bring our vessels the golden oil will +flow, and after the last is filled, there yet remains more that we might +have had, if we could have held it, and might have held if we would. 'Ye +are not straitened in Me, ye are straitened in yourselves.' + +So, dear brethren, if we have to lament times of torpor and small +success, let us be honest with ourselves, and recognise that all the +blame lies with us. If God's arm seems to slumber, it is because we are +asleep. His power is invariable, and the Gospel which is committed to +our trust has lost none of its ancient power, whatsoever men may say. If +there be variations, they cannot be traced to the divine element in the +Church, which in itself is constant, but altogether to the human, which +shifts and fluctuates, as we only too sadly know. The light in the +beacon-tower is steady, and the same; but the beam it throws across the +waters sometimes fades to a speck, and sometimes flames out clear and +far across the heaving waves, according to the position of the glasses +and shades around it. The sun pours out heat as profusely and as long at +midwinter as on midsummer-day, and all the difference between the frost +and darkness and glowing brightness and flowering life, is simply owing +to the earth's place in its orbit and the angle at which the unalterable +rays fall upon it. The changes are in the terrestrial sphere; the +heavenly is fixed for ever the same. + +May I not venture to point an earnest and solemn appeal with these +truths? Has there not been poured over us the spirit of slumber? Does it +not seem as if an opium sky had been raining soporifics on our heads? We +have had but little experience of the might of God amongst us of late +years, and we need not wonder at it. There is no occasion to look far +for the reason. We have only to regard the low ebb to which religious +life has been reduced amongst us to have it all and more than all +accounted for. I fully admit that there has been plenty of activity, +perhaps more than the amount of real life warrants, not a little +liberality, and many virtues. But how languid and torpid the true +Christian life has been! how little enthusiasm! how little depth of +communion with God! how little unworldly elevation of soul! how little +glow of love! An improvement in social position and circumstances, a +freer blending with the national life, a full share of civic and +political honours, a higher culture in our pulpits, fine chapels, and +applauding congregations--are but poor substitutes for what many of us +have lost in racing after them. We have the departed prophets' mantle, +the outward resemblance to the fathers who have gone, but their fiery +zeal has passed to heaven with them; and softer, weaker men, we stand +timidly on the river's brink, invoking the Lord God of Elijah, and too +often the flood that obeyed them has no ear for our feebler voice. + +I speak to many who are in some sort representatives of the churches +throughout the land, and they can tell whether my words are on the whole +true or overstrained. We who labour in our great cities, what say we? If +one of the number may speak for the rest, we have to acknowledge that +commercial prosperity and business cares, the eagerness after pleasure +and the exigencies of political strife, diffused doubt and widespread +artistic and literary culture, are eating the very life out of thousands +in our churches, and lowering their fervour till, like molten iron +cooling in the air, what was once all glowing with ruddy heat is crusted +over with foul black scoriae ever encroaching on the tiny central +warmth. You from rural churches, what say you? Have you not to speak of +deepening torpor settling down on quiet corners, of the passing away of +grey heads which leave no successors, of growing difficulties and +lessened power to meet them, that make you sometimes all but despair? + +I am not flinging indiscriminate censures. I know that there are lights +as well as shades in the picture. I am not flinging censures at all. But +I am giving voice to the confessions of many hearts, that our +consciousness of our blame may be deepened, and we may hasten back to +that dear Lord whom we have left to serve alone, as His first disciples +left Him once to agonise alone under the gnarled olives in Gethsemane, +while they lay sleeping in the moonlight. Listen to His gentle rebuke, +full of pain and surprised love, 'What, could ye not watch with Me one +hour?' Listen to His warning call, loving as the kiss with which a +mother wakes her child, 'Arise, let us be going'--and let us shake the +spirit of slumber from our limbs, and serve Him as those unsleeping +spirits do, who rest not day nor night from vision and work and praise. + +III. The beginning of all awaking is the Church's earnest cry to God. + +It is with us as with infants, the first sign of whose awaking is a cry. +The mother's quick ear hears it through all the household noises, and +the poor little troubled life that woke to a scared consciousness of +loneliness and darkness, is taken up into tender arms, and comforted and +calmed. So, when we dimly perceive how torpid we have been, and start to +find that we have lost our Father's hand, the first instinct of that +waking, which must needs be partly painful, is to call to Him, whose ear +hears our feeble cry amid the sound of praise like the voice of many +waters, that billows round His throne, and whose folding arms keep us +'as one whom his mother comforteth.' The beginning of all true awaking +must needs be prayer. + +For every such stirring of quickened religious life must needs have in +it bitter penitence and pain at the discovery flashed upon us of the +wretched deadness of our past--and, as we gaze like some wakened +sleepwalker into the abyss where another step might have smashed us to +atoms, a shuddering terror seizes us that must cry, 'Hold Thou me up, +and I shall be safe.' And every such stirring of quickened life will +have in it, too, desire for more of His grace, and confidence in His +sure bestowal of it, which cannot but breathe itself in prayer. + +Nor is Zion's cry to God only the beginning and sign of all true +awaking: it is also the condition and indispensable precursor of all +perfecting of recovery from spiritual languor. + +I have already pointed out the relation between the waking of God and +the waking of His Church, from which that necessarily follows. God's +power flows into our weakness in the measure and on condition of our +desires. We are sometimes told that we err in praying for the outpouring +of His Holy Spirit, because ever since Pentecost His Church has had the +gift. The objection alleges an unquestioned fact, but the conclusion +drawn from it rests on an altogether false conception of the manner of +that abiding gift. The Spirit of God, and the power which comes from +Him, are not given as a purse of money might be put into a man's hand +once and for all, but they are given in a continuous impartation and +communication and are received and retained moment by moment, according +to the energy of our desires and the faithfulness of our use. As well +might we say, Why should I ask for natural life, I received it half a +century ago? Yes, and at every moment of that half-century I have +continued to live, not because of a past gift, but because at each +moment God is breathing into my nostrils the breath of life. So is it +with the life which comes from His Spirit. It is maintained by constant +efflux from the fountain of Life, by constant impartation of His +quickening breath. And as He must continually impart, so must we +continually receive, else we perish. Therefore, brethren, the first step +towards awaking, and the condition of all true revival in our own souls +and in our churches, is this earnest cry, 'Awake, awake, put on +strength, O arm of the Lord. + +Thank God for the outpouring of a long unwonted spirit of prayer in many +places. It is like the melting of the snows in the high Alps, at once +the sign of spring and the cause of filling the stony river beds with +flashing waters, that bring verdure and growth wherever they come. The +winter has been long and hard. We have all to confess that we have been +restraining prayer before God. Our work has been done with but little +sense of our need of His blessing, with but little ardour of desire for +His power. We have prayed lazily, scarcely believing that answers would +come; we have not watched for the reply, but have been like some +heartless marksman who draws his bow and does not care to look whether +his arrow strikes the target. These mechanical words, these conventional +petitions, these syllables winged by no real desire, inspired by no +faith, these expressions of devotion, far too wide for their real +contents, which rattle in them like a dried kernel in a nut, are these +prayers? Is there any wonder that they have been dispersed in empty air, +and that we have been put to shame before our enemies? Brethren in the +ministry, do we need to be surprised at our fruitless work, when we +think of our prayerless studies and of our faithless prayers? Let _us_ +remember that solemn word, 'The pastors have become brutish, and have +not sought the Lord, therefore they shall not prosper, and all their +flocks shall be scattered.' And let us all, brethren, betake ourselves, +with penitence and lowly consciousness of our sore need, to prayer, +earnest and importunate, believing and persistent, like this +heaven-piercing cry which captive Israel sent up from her weary bondage. + +Look at the passionate earnestness of it--expressed in the short, sharp +cry, thrice repeated, as from one in mortal need; and see to it that our +drowsy prayers be like it. Look at the grand confidence with which it +founds itself on the past, recounting the mighty deeds of ancient days, +and looking back, not for despair but for joyful confidence, to the +generations of old; and let our faint-hearted faith be quickened by the +example, to expect great things of God. The age of miracles is not gone. +The mightiest manifestations of God's power in the spread of the Gospel +in the past remain as patterns for His future. We have not to look back +as from low-lying plains to the blue peaks on the horizon, across which +the Church's path once lay, and sigh over the changed conditions of the +journey. The highest watermark that the river in flood has ever reached +will be reached and overpassed again, though to-day the waters may seem +to have hopelessly subsided. Greater triumphs and deliverances shall +crown the future than have signalised the past. Let our faithful prayer +base itself on the prophecies of history and on the unchangeableness of +God. + +Think, brethren, of the prayers of Christ. Even He, whose spirit needed +not to be purged from stains or calmed from excitement, who was ever in +His Father's house whilst He was about His Father's business, blending +in one, action and contemplation, had need to pray. The moments of His +life thus marked are very significant. When He began His ministry, the +close of the first day of toil and wonders saw Him, far from gratitude +and from want, in a desert place in prayer. When He would send forth His +apostles, that great step in advance, in which lay the germ of so much, +was preceded by solitary prayer. When the fickle crowd desired to make +Him the centre of political revolution, He passed from their hands and +beat back that earliest attempt to secularise His work, by prayer. When +the seventy brought the first tidings of mighty works done in His name, +He showed us how to repel the dangers of success, in that He thanked the +Lord of heaven and earth who had revealed these things to babes. When He +stood by the grave of Lazarus, the voice that waked the dead was +preceded by the voice of prayer, as it ever must be. When He had said +all that He could say to His disciples, He crowned all with His +wonderful prayer for Himself, for them, and for us all. When the horror +of great darkness fell upon His soul, the growing agony is marked by His +more fervent prayer, so wondrously compact of shrinking fear and filial +submission. When the cross was hid in the darkness of eclipse, the only +words from the gloom were words of prayer. When, Godlike, He dismissed +His spirit, manlike He commended it to His Father, and sent the prayer +from His dying lips before Him to herald His coming into the unseen +world. One instance remains, even more to our present purpose than all +these--'It came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, +the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape +like a dove upon Him.' Mighty mystery! In Him, too, the Son's desire is +connected with the Father's gift, and the unmeasured possession of the +Spirit was an answer to _His_ prayer. + +Then, brethren, let us lift our voices and our hearts. That which +ascends as prayer descends as blessing, like the vapour that is drawn up +by the kiss of the sun to fall in freshening rain. 'Call upon Me, and I +will answer thee, and show thee great and hidden things which thou +knowest not.' + +IV. The answering call from God to Zion. + +Our truest prayers are but the echo of God's promises. God's best +answers are the echo of our prayers. As in two mirrors set opposite to +each other, the same image is repeated over and over again, the +reflection of a reflection, so here, within the prayer, gleams an +earlier promise, within the answer is mirrored the prayer. + +And in that reverberation, and giving back to us our petition +transformed into a command, we are not to see a dismissal of it as if we +had misapprehended our true want. It is not tantamount to, Do not ask me +to put on my strength, but array yourselves in your own. The very +opposite interpretation is the true one. The prayer of Zion is heard and +answered. God awakes, and clothes Himself with might. Then, as some +warrior king, himself roused from sleep and girded with flashing steel, +bids the clarion sound through the grey twilight to summon the prostrate +ranks that lie round his tent, so the sign of God's awaking and the +first act of His conquering might is this trumpet call--'The night is +far spent, the day is at hand, let us put off the works of +darkness,'--the night gear that was fit for slumber--'and put on the +armour of light,' the mail of purity that gleams and glitters even in +the dim dawn. God's awaking is our awaking. He puts on strength by +making us strong; for His arm works through us, clothing itself, as it +were, with our arm of flesh, and perfecting itself even in our weakness. + +Nor is it to be forgotten that this, like all God's commands, carries in +its heart a promise. That earliest word of God's is the type of all His +latter behests: 'Let there be light,' and the mighty syllables were +creative and self-fulfilling. So ever, with Him, to enjoin and to bestow +are one and the same, and His command is His conveyance of power. He +rouses us by His summons, He clothes us with power in the very act of +bidding us put it on. So He answers the Church's cry by stimulating us +to quickened zeal, and making us more conscious of, and confident in, +the strength which, in answer to our cry, He pours into our limbs. + +But the main point which I would insist on in what remains of this +sermon, is the practical discipline which this divine summons requires +from us. + +And first, let us remember that the chief means of quickened life and +strength is deepened communion with Christ. + +As we have been saying, our strength is ours by continual derivation +from Him. It has no independent existence, any more than a sunbeam could +have, severed from the sun. It is ours only in the sense that it flows +through us, as a river through the land which it enriches. It is His +whilst it is ours, it is ours when we know it to be His. Then, clearly, +the first thing to do must be to keep the channels free by which it +flows into our souls, and to maintain the connection with the great +Fountainhead unimpaired. Put a dam across the stream, and the effect +will be like the drying up of Jordan before Israel: 'the waters that +were above rose up upon an heap, and the waters that were beneath failed +and were cut off,' and the foul oozy bed was disclosed to the light of +day. It is only by constant contact with Christ that we have any +strength to put on. + +That communion with Him is no mere idle or passive attitude, but the +active employment of our whole nature with His truth, and with Him whom +the truth reveals. The understanding must be brought into contact with +the principles of His word, the heart must touch and beat against His +heart, the will meekly lay its hand in His, the conscience draw at once +its anodyne and its stimulus from His sacrifice, the passions know His +finger on the reins, and follow, led in the silken leash of love. Then, +if I may so say, Elisha's miracle will be repeated in nobler form, and +from Himself, the Life thus touching all our being, life will flow into +our deadness. 'He put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his +eyes, and his hands upon his hands, and he stretched himself upon the +child, and the flesh of the child waxed warm.' So, dear brethren, all +our practical duty is summed up in that one word, the measure of our +obedience to which is the measure of all our strength-'Abide in Me, and +I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in +the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in Me.' + +Again, this summons calls us to the faithful use of the power which, on +condition of that communion, we have. + +There is no doubt a temptation, in all times like the present, to look +for some new and extraordinary forms of blessing, and to substitute such +expectation for present work with our present strength. There is nothing +new to look for. There is no need to wait for anything more than we +possess. Remember the homely old proverb, 'You never know what you can +do till you try,' and though we are conscious of much unfitness, and +would sometimes gladly wait till our limbs are stronger, let us brace +ourselves for the work, assured that in it strength will be given to us +that equals our desire. There is a wonderful power in honest work to +develop latent energies and reveal a man to himself. I suppose, in most +cases, no one is half so much surprised at a great man's greatest deeds +as he is himself. They say that there is dormant electric energy enough +in a few raindrops to make a thunderstorm, and there is dormant +spiritual force enough in the weakest of us to flash into beneficent +light, and peal notes of awaking into many a deaf ear. The effort to +serve your Lord will reveal to you strength that you know not. And it +will increase the strength which it brings into play, as the used +muscles grow like whipcord, and the practised fingers become deft at +their task, and every faculty employed is increased, and every gift +wrapped in a napkin melts like ice folded in a cloth, according to that +solemn law, 'To him that hath shall be given, and from him that hath not +shall be taken away even that which he hath.' + +Then be sure that to its last particle you are using the strength you +have, ere you complain of not having enough for your tasks. Take heed of +the vagrant expectations that wait for they know not what, and the +apparent prayers that are really substitutes for possible service. 'Why +liest thou on thy face? Speak unto the children of Israel that they go +forward.' + +The Church's resources are sufficient for the Church's work, if the +resources are used. We are tempted to doubt it, by reason of our +experience of failure and our consciousness of weakness. We are more +than ever tempted to doubt it to-day, when so many wise men are telling +us that our Christ is a phantom, our God a stream of tendency, our +Gospel a decaying error, our hope for the world a dream, and our work in +the world done. We stand before our Master with doubtful hearts, and, as +we look along the ranks sitting there on the green grass, and then at +the poor provisions which make all our store, we are sometimes tempted +almost to think that He errs when He says with that strange calmness of +His, 'They need not depart, give ye them to eat.' But go out among the +crowds and give confidently what you have, and you will find that you +have enough and to spare. If ever our stores seem inadequate, it is +because they are reckoned up by sense, which takes cognizance of the +visible, instead of by faith which beholds the real. Certainly five +loaves and two small fishes are not enough, but are not five loaves and +two small fishes and a miracle-working hand behind them, enough? It is +poor calculation that leaves out Christ from the estimate of our forces. +The weakest man and Jesus to back him are more than all antagonism, more +than sufficient for all duty. Be not seduced into doubt of your power, +or of your success, by others' sneers, or by your own faint-heartedness. +The confidence of ability is ability. 'Screw your courage to the +sticking place,' and you will _not_ fail--and see to it that you use the +resources you have, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 'Put +on _thy_ strength, O Zion.' + +So, dear brethren, to gather all up in a sentence, let us confidently +look for times of blessing, penitently acknowledge that our own +faithlessness has hindered the arm of the Lord, earnestly beseech Him to +come in His rejoicing strength, and, drawing ever fresh power from +constant communion with our dear Lord, use it to its last drop for Him. +Then, like the mortal leader of Israel, as he pondered doubtingly with +sunken eyes on the hard task before his untrained host, we shall look up +and be aware of the presence of the sworded angel, the immortal Captain +of the host of the Lord, standing ready to save, 'putting on +righteousness as a breastplate, an helmet of salvation on His head, and +clad with zeal as a cloak.' From His lips, which give what they command, +comes the call, 'Take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be +able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.' +Hearkening to His voice, the city of the strong ones shall be made an +heap before our wondering ranks, and the land shall lie open to our +conquering march. + +Wheresoever _we_ lift up the cry, 'Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm +of the Lord,' there follows, swift as the thunderclap on the lightning +flash, the rousing summons, 'Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion; +put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem!' Wheresoever it is obeyed +there will follow in due time the joyful chorus, as in this context, +'Sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem; the Lord hath made bare +His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the +earth have seen the salvation of our God.' + + + + +A PARADOX OF SELLING AND BUYING + +'Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without +money.'--ISAIAH iii. 3. + + +THE first reference of these words is of course to the Captivity. They +come in the midst of a grand prophecy of freedom, all full of leaping +gladness and buoyant hope. The Seer speaks to the captives; they had +'sold themselves for nought.' What had they gained by their departure +from God?--bondage. What had they won in exchange for their freedom?-- +only the hard service of Babylon. As Deuteronomy puts it: 'Because thou +servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness... by reason of the +abundance of all things, therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies...in +want of all things.' A wise exchange! a good market they had brought +their goods to! In striking ironical parallel the prophet goes on to say +that so should they be redeemed. They had got nothing by bondage, they +should give nothing for liberty. This text has its highest application +in regard to our captivity and our redemption. + +I. The reality of the captivity. + +The true idea of bondage is that of coercion of will and conscience, the +dominance and tyranny of what has no right to rule. So men are really in +bondage when they think themselves most free. The only real slavery is +that in which we are tied and bound by our own passions and lusts. 'He +that committeth sin is the slave of sin.' He thinks himself master of +himself and his actions, and boasts that he has broken away from the +restraints of obedience, but really he has only exchanged masters. What +a Master to reject--and what a master to prefer! + +II. The voluntariness of the captivity. + +'Ye have sold _yourselves_,' and become authors of your own bondage. No +sin is forced upon any man, and no one is to blame for it but himself. +The many excuses which people make to themselves are hollow. Now-a-days +we hear a great deal of heredity, how a man is what his ancestors have +made him, and of organisation, how a man is what his body makes him, and +of environment, how a man is what his surroundings make him. There is +much truth in all that, and men's guilt is much diminished by +circumstances, training, and temperament. The amount of responsibility +is not for us to settle, in regard to others, or even in regard to +ourselves. But all that does not touch the fact that we ourselves have +sold ourselves. No false brethren have sold us as they did Joseph. + +The strong tendency of human nature is always to throw the blame on some +one else; God or the devil, the flesh or the world, it does not matter +which. But it remains true that every man sinning is 'drawn away of _his +own_ lust and enticed.' + +After all, conscience witnesses to the truth, and by that mysterious +sense of guilt and gnawing of remorse which is quite different from the +sense of mistake, tears to tatters the sophistries. Nothing is more +truly my own than my sin. + +III. The profitlessness of the captivity. + +'For nought'; that is a picturesque way of putting the truth that all +sinful life fails to satisfy a man. The meaning of one of the Hebrew +words for sin is 'missing the mark.' It is a blunder as well as a crime. +It is trying to draw water from broken cisterns. It is 'as when a hungry +man dreameth and behold he eateth, but he awaketh and his soul is +empty.' Sin buys men with fairy money, which looks like gold, but in the +morning is found to be but a handful of yellow and faded leaves. 'Why do +ye spend your money for that which is not bread?' It cannot but be so, +for only God can satisfy a man, and only in doing His will are we sure +of sowing seed which will yield us bread enough and to spare, and +nothing but bread. In all other harvests, tares mingle and they yield +poisoned flour. We never get what we aim at when we do wrong, for what +we aim at is not the mere physical or other satisfaction which the +temptation offers us, but rest of soul--and that we do _not_ get. And we +are sure to get something that we did not aim at or look for--a wounded +conscience, a worsened nature, often hurts to health or reputation, and +other consequent ills, that were carefully kept out of sight, while we +were being seduced by the siren voice. The old story of the traitress, +who bargained to let the enemies into the city, if they would give her +'what they wore on their left arms,' meaning bracelets, and was crushed +to death under their shields heaped on her, is repeated in the +experience of every man who listens to the 'juggling fiends, who keep +the word of promise to the ear, but break it to the hope.' The truth of +this is attested by a cloud of witnesses. Conscience and experience +answer the question, 'What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye +are now ashamed?' Wasted lives answer; tyrannous evil habits answer; +diseased bodies, blighted reputations, bitter memories answer. + +IV. The unbought freedom. + +'Ye shall be redeemed without money.' You gained nothing by your +bondage; you need give nothing for your emancipation. The original +reference is, of course, to the great act of divine power which set +these literal captives free, not for price nor reward. As in the Exodus +from Egypt, so in that from Babylon, no ransom was paid, but a nation of +bondsmen was set at liberty without war or compensation. That was a +strange thing in history. The paradox of buying back without buying is a +symbol of the Christian redemption. + +(1) A price has been paid. + +'Ye were redeemed not with corruptible things as silver and gold, but +with the precious blood of Christ.' The New Testament idea of +redemption, no doubt, has its roots in the Old Testament provisions for +the Goel or kinsman redeemer, who was to procure the freedom of a +kinsman. But whatever figurative elements may enter into it, its core is +the ethical truth that Christ's death is the means by which the bonds of +sin are broken. There is much in the many-sided applications and powers +of that Death which we do not know, but this is clear, that by it the +power of sin is destroyed and the guilt of sin taken away. + +(2) That price has been paid for all. + +We have therefore nothing to pay. A slave cannot redeem himself, for all +that he has is his master's already. So, no efforts of ours can set +ourselves free from the 'cords of our sins.' Men try to bring something +of their own. 'I do my best and God will have mercy.' We will bring our +own penitence, efforts, good works, or rely on Church ordinances, or +anything rather than sue _in forma pauperis_. How hard it is to get men +to see that 'It is finished,' and to come and rest only on the mere +mercy of God. + +How do we ally ourselves with that completed work? By simple faith, of +which an essential is the recognition that we have nothing and can do +nothing. + +Suppose an Israelite in Babylon who did not choose to avail himself of +the offered freedom; he must die in bondage. So must we if we refuse to +have eternal life as the gift of God. The prophet's paradoxical +invitation, 'He that hath no money, come ye, buy...without money,' is +easily solved. The price is to give up ourselves and forsake all self- +willed striving after self-purchased freedom which is but subtler +bondage. 'If the Son make you free, ye shall be free indeed.' If not, +then are ye slaves indeed, having 'sold yourselves for nought,' and +declined to be 'redeemed without money.' + + + + +CLEAN CARRIERS + +'Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord.'--ISAIAH lii. 11. + + +The context points to a great deliverance. It is a good example of the +prophetical habit of casting prophecies of the future into the mould of +the past. The features of the Exodus are repeated, but some of them are +set aside. This deliverance, whatever it be, is to be after the pattern +of that old story, but with very significant differences. Then, the +departing Israelites had spoiled the Egyptians and come out, laden with +silver and gold which had been poured into their hands; now there is to +be no bringing out of anything which was tainted with the foulness of +the land of captivity. Then the priests had borne the sacred vessels for +sacrifice, now they are to exercise the same holy function, and for its +discharge purity is demanded. Then, they had gone out in haste; now, +there is to be no precipitate flight, but calmly, as those who are +guided by God for their leader, and shielded from all pursuit by God as +their rearward, the men of this new Exodus are to take their march from +the new Egypt. + +No doubt the nearest fulfilment is to be found in the Return from +Babylon, and the narrative in Ezra may be taken as a remarkable parallel +to the prophecy here. But the restriction to Babylon must seem +impossible to any reader who interprets aright the significance of the +context, and observes that our text follows the grand words of verse 10, +and precedes the Messianic prophecy of verse 13 and of ch. liii. To such +a reader the principle will not be doubtful according to which Egypt and +Babylon are transparencies through which mightier forms shine, and a +more wonderful and world-wide making bare of the arm of the Lord is +seen. Christ's great redemption is the highest interpretation of these +words; and the trumpet-call of our text is addressed to all who have +become partakers of it. + +So Paul quotes the text in 2 Cor. vi. 17, blending with it other words +which are gathered from more than one passage of Scripture. We may then +take the whole as giving the laws of the new Exodus, and also as +shadowing certain great peculiarities connected with it, by which it +surpasses all the former deliverances. + +I. The Pilgrims of this new Exodus. + +A true Christian is a pilgrim, not only because he, like all men, is +passing through a life which is transient, but because he is consciously +detached from the Visible and Present, as a consequence of his conscious +attachment to the Unseen and Eternal. What is said in Hebrews of Abraham +is true of all inheritors of his faith: 'dwelling in tabernacles, for he +looked for the city.' + +II. The priests. + +Priests and Levites bore the sacred vessels. All Christians are priests. +The only true priesthood is Christ's, ours is derived from Him. In that +universal priesthood of believers are included the privileges and +obligations of + +a. Access to God--Communion. + +b. Offering spiritual sacrifices. Service and self-surrender. + +c. Mediation with men. + +Proclamation. Intercession. Thus follows + +d. Bearing the holy vessels. A sacred deposit is entrusted to them--the +honour and name of God; the treasure of the Gospel. + +III. The separation that becomes pilgrims. + +'Come out and be ye separate.' The very meaning of our Christian +profession is separation. There is ludicrous inconsistency in saying +that we are Christians and not being pilgrims. Of course, the separation +is not to be worked out by mere external asceticism or withdrawal from +the world. That has been so thoroughly preached and practised of late +years that we much need the other side to be put. There should be some +plain difference between the life of Christians and that of men whose +portion is in this life. They should differ in the aspect under which +all outward things are regarded. + +To a Christian they are to be means to an end, and ever to be felt to be +evanescent. They should differ in the motive for action, which should, +for a Christian, ever be the love of God. They should differ in that a +Christian abstains from much which non-Christians feel free to do, and +often has to say, 'So did not I, because of the fear of the Lord.' He +who marches light marches quickly and marches far; to bring the +treasures of Egypt along with us, is apt to retard our steps. + +IV. The purity that becomes priests. + +The Levites would cleanse themselves before taking up the holy vessels. +And for us, clean hands and a pure heart are essential. There is no +communion with God without these; a small speck of dust in the eye +blinds us. There is no sacrificial service without them. No efficient +work among men can be done without them. One main cause of the weakness +of our Christian testimony is the imperfection of character in the +witnesses, which is more powerful than all talk and often neutralises +much effort. Keen eyes are watching us. + +The consciousness of our own impurity should send us to Jesus, with the +prayer and the confidence, 'Cleanse me and I shall be clean.' 'The blood +of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.' 'He hath loosed us from our +sins and made us kings and priests to God.' + + + + +MARCHING ORDERS + +'Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go +ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the +Lord. 12. For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the +Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your +reward.'--ISAIAH iii. 11, 12. + + +These ringing notes are parts of a highly poetic picture of that great +deliverance which inspired this prophet's most exalted strains. It is +described with constant allusion to the first Exodus, but also with +significant differences. Now no doubt the actual historical return of +the Jews from the Babylonish captivity is the object that fills the +foreground of this vision, but it by no means exhausts its significance. +The restriction of the prophecy to that more immediate fulfilment may +well seem impossible when we note that my text follows the grand promise +that 'all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God,' and +immediately precedes the Messianic prophecy of the fifty-third chapter. +Egypt was transparent, and through it shone Babylon; Babylon was +transparent, and through it shone Christ's redemption. That was the real +and highest fulfilment of the prophet's anticipations, and the +trumpet-calls of my text are addressed to all who have a share in it. We +have, then, here, under highly metaphorical forms, the grand ideal of +the Christian life; and I desire to note briefly its various features. + +I. First, then, we have it set forth as a march of warrior priests. + +Note that phrase--'Ye that bear the vessels of the Lord.' The returning +exiles as a whole are so addressed, but the significance of the +expression, and the precise metaphor which it is meant to convey, may be +questionable. The word rendered 'vessel' is a wide expression, meaning +any kind of equipment, and in other places of the Old Testament the +whole phrase rendered here, 'ye that bear the vessels,' is translated +'armour-bearers.' Such an image would be quite congruous with the +context here, in which warlike figures abound. And if so, the picture +would be that of an army on the march, each man carrying some of the +weapons of the great Captain and Leader. But perhaps the other +explanation is more likely, which regards 'the vessels of the Lord' as +being an allusion to the sacrificial and other implements of worship, +which, in the first Exodus, the Levites carried on the march. And if +that be the meaning, as seems more congruous with the command of purity +which is deduced from the function of bearing the vessels, then the +figure here, of course, is that of a company of priests. I venture to +throw the two ideas together, and to say that we may here find an ideal +of the Christian community as being a great company of warrior-priests +on the march, guarding a sacred deposit which has been committed to +their charge. + +Look, then, at that combination in the true Christian character of the +two apparently opposite ideas of warrior and priest. It suggests that +all the life is to be conflict, and that all the conflict is to be +worship; that everywhere, in the thick of the fight, we may still bear +the remembrance of the 'secret place of the most High.' It suggests, +too, that the warfare is worship, that the offices of the priest and of +the warrior are one and the same thing, and both consist in their +mediating between man and God, bringing God in His Gospel to men, and +bringing men through their faith to God. The combination suggests, +likewise, how, in the true Christian character, there ought ever to be +blended, in strange harmony, the virtues of the soldier and the +qualities of the priest; compassion for the ignorant and them that are +out of the way, with courage; meekness with strength; a quiet, placable +heart hating strife, joined to a spirit that cheerily fronts every +danger and is eager for the conflict in which evil is the foe and God +the helper. The old Crusaders went to battle with the Cross on their +hearts, and on their shoulders, and on the hilts of their swords; and +we, too, in all our warfare, have to remember that its weapons are not +carnal but spiritual, and that only then do we fight as the Captain of +our salvation fought, when our arms are meekness and pity, and our +warfare is waged in gentleness and love. + +Note, further, that in this phrase we have the old, old metaphor of life +as a march, but so modified as to lose all its melancholy and weariness +and to become an elevating hope. The idea which runs through all poetry, +of life as a journey, suggests effort, monotonous change, a uniform law +of variety and transiency, struggle and weariness, but the Christian +thought of life, while preserving the idea of change, modifies it into +the blessed thought of progress. Life, if it is as Christ meant it to +be, is a journey in the sense that it is a continuous effort, not +unsuccessful, toward a clearly discerned goal, our eternal home. The +Christian march is a march from slavery to freedom, and from a foreign +land to our native soil. + +Again, this metaphor suggests that this company of marching priests have +in charge a sacred deposit. Paul speaks of the 'glorious Gospel which +was committed to my trust.' 'That good thing which was committed unto +thee by the Holy Ghost, keep.' The history of the return from Babylon in +the Book of Ezra presents a remarkable parallel to the language of my +text, for there we are told how, in the preparation for the march, the +leader entrusted the sacred vessels of the temple, which the liberality +of the heathen king had returned to him, to a group of Levites and +priests, weighing them at the beginning, and bidding them keep them safe +until they were weighed again in the courts of the Lord's house in +Jerusalem. + +And, in like manner, to us Christians is given the charge of God's great +weapons of warfare, with which He contends with the wickedness of the +world--viz. that great message of salvation through, and in, the Cross +of Jesus Christ. And there are committed to us, further, to guard +sedulously, and to keep bright and untarnished and undiminished in +weight and worth, the precious treasures of the Christian life of +communion with Him. And we may give another application to the figure +and think of the solemn trust which is put into our hands, in the gift +of our own selves, which we ourselves can either waste, and stain, and +lose, or can guard and polish into vessels 'meet for the Master's use.' + +Gathering, then, these ideas together, we take this as the ideal of the +Christian community--a company of priests on the march, with a sacred +deposit committed to their trust. If we reflected more on such a +conception of the Christian life, we should more earnestly hearken to, +and more sedulously discharge, the commands that are built thereon. To +these commands I now turn. + +II. Note the separation that befits the marching company. + +'Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing, go +ye out of the midst of her.' In the historical fulfilment of my text, +separation from Babylon was the preliminary of the march. Our task is +not so simple; our separation from Babylon must be the constant +accompaniment of our march. And day by day it has to be repeated, if we +would lift a foot in advance upon the road. There is still a Babylon. +The order in the midst of which we live is not organised on the +fundamental laws of Christ's Kingdom. And wherever there are men who +seek to order their lives as Christ would have them to be ordered, the +first necessity for them is, 'Come out from amongst them, and be ye +separate, saith the Lord.' There is no need in this day to warn +Christian people against an exaggerated interpretation of these +commandments. I almost wish there were more need. We have been told so +often, in late years, of how Christian men ought to mingle with all the +affairs of life, and count nothing that is human foreign to themselves, +that it seems to me there is vast need for a little emphasis being put +on the other side of the truth, and for separation being insisted upon. +Wherever there is a real grasp of Jesus Christ for a man's own personal +Saviour, and a true submission to Him as the Pattern and Guide of life, +a broad line of demarcation between that man and the irreligious life +round him will draw itself. If the heart have its tendrils twined round +the Cross, it will have detached them from the world around. Separation +by reason of an entirely different conception of life, separation +because the present does not look to you as it looks to the men who see +only it, separation because you and they have not only a different ideal +and theory of life, but are living from different motives and for +different ends and by different powers, will be the inevitable result of +any real union with Jesus Christ. If I am joined to Him I am separated +from the world; and detachment from it is the simple and necessary +result of any real attachment to Him. There will always be a gulf in +feeling, in purpose, in view, and therefore there will often have to be +separation outward things. 'So did not I because of the fear of the +Lord' will have to be said over and over again by any real and honest +follower of the Master. + +This separation will not only be the result of union with Jesus Christ, +but it is the condition of all progress in our union with Him. We must +be unmoored before we can advance. Many a caravan has broken down in +African exploration for no other reason than because it was too well +provided with equipments, and so collapsed of its own weight. Therefore, +our prophet in the context says, 'Touch no unclean thing.' _There_ is +one of the differences between the new Exodus and the old. When Israel +came out of Egypt they spoiled the Egyptians, and came away laden with +gold and jewels; but it is dangerous work bringing anything away from +Babylon with us. Its treasure has to be left if we would march close +behind our Lord and Master. We must touch 'no unclean thing,' because +our hands are to be filled with the 'vessels of the Lord.' I am +preaching no impossible asceticism, no misanthropical withdrawal from +the duties of life, and the obligations that we owe to society. God's +world is a good one; man's world is a bad one. It is man's world that we +have to leave, but the lofties, sanctity requires no abstention from +anything that God has ordained. + +Now, dear friends, I venture to think that this message is one that we +all dreadfully need to-day. There are a great many Christians, so- +called, in this generation, who seem to think that the main object they +should have in view is to obliterate the distinction between themselves +and the world of ungodly men, and in occupation and amusements to be as +like people that have no religion as they possibly can manage. So they +get credit for being 'liberal' Christians, and praise from quarters +whose praise is censure, and whose approval ought to make a Christian +man very uncomfortable. Better by far the narrowest Puritanism--I was +going to say better by far monkish austerities--than a Christianity +which knows no self-denial, which is perfectly at home in an irreligious +atmosphere, and which resents the exhortation to separation, because it +would fain keep the things that it is bidden to drop. God's reiteration +of the text through Paul to the Church in luxurious, corrupt, wealthy +Corinth is a gospel for this day for English Christians, 'Come out from +among them, and I will receive you.' + +III. Further, note the purity which becomes the bearers of the vessels +of the Lord. + +'Be ye clean.' The priest's hands must be pure, which figure, being +translated, is that transparent purity of conduct and character is +demanded from all Christian men who profess to bear God's sacred +deposit. You cannot carry it unless your hands are clean, for all the +gifts that God gives us glide from our grasp if our hands be stained. +Monkish legends tell of sacred pictures and vessels which, when an +impure touch was laid upon them, refused to be lifted from their place, +and grew there, as rooted, in spite of all efforts to move them. Whoever +seeks to hold the gifts of God in His Gospel in dirty hands will fail +miserably in the attempt; and all the joy and peace of communion, the +assurance of God's love, and the calm hope of immortal life will vanish +as a soap bubble, grasped by a child, turns into a drop of foul water on +its palm, if we try to hold them in foul hands. Be clean, or you cannot +bear the vessels of the Lord. + +And further, remember that no priestly service nor any successful +warfare for Jesus Christ is possible, except on the same condition. One +sin, as well as one sinner, destroys much good, and a little +inconsistency on the part of us professing Christians neutralises all +the efforts that we may ever try to put forth for Him. Logic requires +that God's vessels should be carried with clean hands. God requires it, +men require it, and have a right to require it. The mightiest witness +for Him is the witness of a pure life, and if we go about the world +professing to be His messengers, and carrying His epistle in our dirty +fingers, the soiled thumb-mark upon it will prevent men from caring for +the message; and the Word will be despised because of the unworthiness +of its bearers. 'Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord.' + +IV. Lastly, notice the leisurely confidence which should mark the march +that is guarded by God. 'Ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by +flight, for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be +your reward.' + +This is partly an analogy and partly a contrast with the story of the +first Exodus. The unusual word translated 'with haste' is employed in +the Pentateuch to describe the hurry and bustle, not altogether due to +the urgency of the Egyptians, but partly also to the terror of Israel, +with which that first flight was conducted. And, says my text, in this +new coming out of bondage there shall be no need for tremor or +perturbation, lending wings to any man's feet; but, with quiet +deliberation, like that with which Peter was brought out of his dungeon, +because God knew that He could bring him out safely, the new Exodus +shall be carried on. + +'He that believeth shall not make haste.' Why should he? There is no +need for a Christian man ever to be flurried, or to lose his self- +command, or ever to be in an undignified and unheroic hurry. His march +should be unceasing, swift, but calm and equable, as the motions of the +planets, unhasting and unresting. + +There is a very good reason why we need not be in any haste due to +alarm. For, as in the first Exodus, the guiding pillar led the march, +and sometimes, when there were foes behind, as at the Red Sea, shifted +its place to the rear, so 'the Lord will go before you, and the God of +Israel will be your rereward.' He besets us behind and before, going in +front to be our Guide, and in the rear for our protection, gathering up +the stragglers, so that there shall not be 'a hoof left behind,' and +putting a wall of iron between us and the swarms of hovering enemies +that hang on our march. Thus encircled by God, we shall be safe. Christ +fulfils what the prophet pledged God to do; for He goes before us, the +Pattern, the Captain of our salvation, the Forerunner, 'the Breaker is +gone up before them '; and He comes behind us to guard us from evil; for +He is 'the _Alpha_ and _Omega_, the beginning and the ending, the +Almighty.' + +Dear brethren, life for us all must be a weary pilgrimage. We cannot +alter that. It is the lot of every son of man. But we have the power of +either making it a dreary, solitary tramp over an undefended desert, to +end in the great darkness, or else of making it a march in which the +twin sisters Joy and Peace shall lead us forth, and go out with us, and +the other pair of angel-forms, 'Goodness and Mercy,' shall follow us all +the days of our lives. We may make it a journey with Jesus for Guide and +Companion, to Jesus as our Home. 'The ransomed of the Lord shall return, +and come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads.' + + + + +THE ARM OF THE LORD + +'To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?'---ISAIAH liii 1. + + +In the second Isaiah there are numerous references to 'the arm of the +Lord.' It is a natural symbol of the active energy of Jehovah, and is +analogous to the other symbol of 'the Face of Jehovah,' which is also +found in this book, in so far as it emphasises the notion of power in +manifestation, though 'the Face' has a wider range and may be explained +as equivalent to that part of the divine Nature which is turned to men. +The latter symbol will then be substantially parallel with 'the Name.' +But there are traces of a tendency to conceive of 'the arm of the Lord' +as personified, for instance, where we read (ch. lxiii. 12) that Jehovah +'caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses.' Moses was +not the true leader, but was himself led and sustained by the divine +Power, dimly conceived as a person, ever by his side to sustain and +direct. There seems to be a similar imperfect consciousness of +personification in the words of the text, especially when taken in their +close connection with the immediately following prophecy of the +suffering servant. It would be doing violence to the gradual development +of Revelation, like tearing asunder the just-opening petals of a rose, +to read into this question of the sad prophet full-blown Christian +truth, but it would be missing a clear anticipation of that truth to +fail to recognise the forecasting of it that _is_ here. + +I. We have here a prophetic forecast that the arm of the Lord is a +person. + +The strict monotheism of the Old Testament does not preclude some very +remarkable phenomena in its modes of conception and speech as to the +divine Nature. We hear of the 'angel of His face,' and again of 'the +angel in whom is His Name.' We hear of 'the angel' to whom divine +worship is addressed and who speaks, as we may say, in a divine dialect +and does divine acts. We meet, too, with the personification of Wisdom +in the Book of Proverbs, to which are ascribed characteristics and are +attributed acts scarcely distinguishable from divine, and eminently +associated in the creative work. Our text points in the same direction +as these representations. They all tend in the direction of preparing +for the full Christian truth of the personal 'Power of God.' What was +shown by glimpses 'at sundry times and in divers manners,' with many +gaps in the showing and much left all unshown, is perfectly revealed in +the Son. The New Testament, by its teaching as to 'the Eternal Word,' +endorses, clears, and expands all these earlier dimmer adumbrations. +That Word is the agent of the divine energy, and the conception of power +as being exercised by the Word is even loftier than that of it as put +forth by 'the arm,' by as much as intelligent and intelligible utterance +is more spiritual and higher than force of muscle. The apostolic +designation of Jesus as 'the power of God and the wisdom of God' blends +the two ideas of these two symbols. The conception of Jesus Christ as +the arm of the Lord, when united with that of the Eternal Word, points +to a threefold sphere and manner of His operations, as the personal +manifestation of the active power of God. In the beginning, the arm of +the Lord stretched out the heavens as a tent to dwell in, and without +Him 'was not anything made that was made.' In His Incarnation, He +carried into execution all God's purposes and fulfilled His whole will. +From His throne He wields divine power, and rules the universe. 'The +help that is done on earth, He doeth it all Himself,' and He works in +the midst of humanity that redeeming work which none but He can effect. + +II. We have here a prophetic paradox that the mightiest revelation of +the arm of the Lord is in weakness. + +The words of the text stand in closest connection with the great picture +of the Suffering Servant which follows, and the pathetic figure +portrayed there is the revealing of the arm of the Lord. The close +bringing together of the ideas of majesty and power and of humiliation, +suffering, and weakness, would be a paradox to the first hearers of the +prophecy. Its solution lies in the historical manifestation of Jesus. +Looking on Him, we see that the growing up of that root out of a dry +ground was the revelation of the great power of God. In Jesus' lowly +humanity God's power is made perfect in man's weakness, in another and +not less true sense than that in which the apostle spoke. There we see +divine power in its noblest form, in its grandest operation, in its +widest sweep, in its loftiest purpose. That humble man, lowly and poor, +despised and rejected in life, hanging faint and pallid on the Roman +cross, and dying in the dark, seems a strange manifestation of the +'glory' of God, but the Cross is indeed His throne, and sublime as are +the other forms in which Omnipotence clothes itself, this is, to human +eyes and hearts, the highest of them all. In Jesus the arm of the Lord +is revealed in its grandest operation. Creation and the continual +sustaining of a universe are great, but redemption is greater. It is +infinitely more to say, 'He giveth power to the faint,' than to say, +'For that He is strong in might, not one faileth,' and to principalities +and powers in heavenly places who have gazed on the grand operations of +divine power for ages, new lessons of what it can effect are taught by +the redemption of sinful men. The divine power that is enshrined in +Jesus' weakness is power in its widest sweep, for it is to every one +that believeth, and in its loftiest purpose, for it is 'unto salvation.' + +III. We have here a prophetic lament that the power revealed to all is +unseen by many. + +The text is a wail over darkened eyes, blind at noonday. The prophet's +radiant anticipations of the Servant's exaltation, and of God's holy arm +being made bare in the eyes of all nations, are clouded over by the +thought of the incredulity of the multitude to 'our report.' Jehovah had +indeed 'made bare His arm,' as a warrior throws back his loose robe, +when he would strike. But what was the use of that, if dull eyes would +not look? The 'report' had been loudly proclaimed, but what was the use +of that, if ears were obstinately stopped? Alas, alas! nothing that God +can do secures that men shall see what He shows, or listen to what He +speaks. The mystery of mysteries is that men can, the tragedy of +tragedies is that they will, make any possible revelation of none +effect, so far as they are concerned. + +The Arm is revealed, but only by those who have 'believed our report' +does the prophet deem it to be actually beheld. Faith is the individual +condition on which the perfected revelation becomes a revelation to me. +The 'salvation of our God' is shown in splendour to 'all the ends of the +earth,' but only they who exercise faith in Jesus, who is the power of +God, will see that far-shining light. If we are not of those who +'believe the report,' we shall, notwithstanding that 'He hath made bare +His holy arm,' be of those who grope at noonday as in the dark. + + + + +THE SUFFERING SERVANT-I + +'For He grew up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry +ground He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no +beauty that we should desire Him. 3. He was despised, and rejected of +men, a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and as one from whom +men hide their face He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.'--ISAIAH +liii, 2, 3. + + +To hold fast the fulfilment of this prophecy of the Suffering Servant in +Jesus it is not necessary to deny its reference to Israel. Just as +offices, institutions, and persons in it were prophetic, and by their +failures to realise to the full their own _role_, no less than by their +partial presentation of it, pointed onwards to Him, in whom their idea +would finally take form and substance, so this great picture of God's +Servant, which was but imperfectly reproduced even by the Israel within +Israel, stood on the prophet's page a fair though sad dream, with +nothing corresponding to it in the region of reality and history, till +He came and lived and suffered. + +If we venture to make it the theme of a short series of sermons, our +object is simply to endeavour to bring out clearly the features of the +wonderful portrait. If they are fully apprehended, it seems to us that +the question of who is the original of the picture answers itself. We +must note that the whole is introduced by a 'For,' that is to say, that +it is all explanatory of the unbelief and blindness to the revealed arm +of the Lord, which the prophet has just been lamenting. This close +connection with the preceding words accounts for the striking way in +which the description of the person of the Servant is here blended with, +or interrupted by, that of the manner in which he was treated. + +I. The Servant's lowly origin and growth. + +'He _grew_,'--not '_shall_ grow.' The whole is cast into the form of +history, and to begin the description with a future tense is not only an +error in grammar but gratuitously introduces an incongruity. The word +rendered 'tender plant' means a sucker, and 'root' probably would more +properly be taken as a shoot from a root, the tree having been felled, +and nothing left but the stump. There is here, then, at the outset, an +unmistakable reference to the prophecy in ch. xi. 1, which is Messianic +prophecy, and therefore there is a presumption that this too has a +Messianic reference. In the original passage the stump or 'stock' is +explained as being the humiliated house of David, and it is only +following the indications supplied by the fact of the second Isaiah's +quotation of the first, if we take the implication in his words to be +the same. Royal descent, but from a royal house fallen on evil days, is +the plain meaning here. + +And the eclipse of its glory is further brought out in that not only +does the shoot spring from a tree, all whose leafy honours have long +been lopped away, but which is 'in a dry ground.' Surely we do not force +a profounder meaning than is legitimate into this feature of the picture +when we think of the Carpenter's Son 'of the house and lineage of +David,' of the Son of God 'who was found in fashion as a man,' of Him +who was born in a stable, and grew up in a tiny village hidden away +among the hills of Galilee, who, as it were, stole into the world 'not +with observation,' and opened out, as He grew, the wondrous blossom of a +perfect humanity such as had never before been evolved from any root, +nor grown on the most sedulously cultured plant. Is this part of the +prophet's ideal realised in any of the other suggested realisations of +it? + +But there is still another point in regard to the origin and growth of +the lowly shoot from the felled stump--it is 'before Him.' Then the +unnoticed growth is noticed by Jehovah, and, though cared for by no +others, is cared for, tended, and guarded, by Him. + +II. The Servant's unattractive form. + +Naturally a shoot springing in a dry ground would show but little beauty +of foliage or flower. It would be starved and colourless beside the +gaudy growths in fertile, well-watered gardens. But that +unattractiveness is not absolute or real; it is only 'that _we_ should +desire Him.' We are but poor judges of true 'form or comeliness,' and +what is lustrous with perfect beauty in God's eyes may be, and generally +is, plain and dowdy in men's. Our tastes are debased. Flaunting +vulgarities and self-assertive ugliness captivate vulgar eyes, to which +the serene beauties of mere goodness seem insipid. Cockatoos charm +savages to whom the iridescent neck of a dove has no charms. Surely this +part of the description fits Jesus as it does no other. The entire +absence of outward show, or of all that pleases the spoiled tastes of +sinful men, need not be dwelt on. No doubt the world has slowly come to +recognise in Him the moral ideal, a perfect man, but He has been +educating it for nineteen hundred years to get it up to that point, and +the educational process is very far from complete. The real desire of +most men is for something much more pungent and dashing than Jesus' meek +wisdom and stainless purity, which breed in them ennui rather than +longing. 'Not this man but Barabbas,' was the approximate realisation of +the Jewish ideal then; not this man but--some type or other of a less +oppressive perfection, and that calls for less effort to imitate it, is +the world's real cry still. Pilate's scornfully wondering question: Art +_Thou_--such a poor-looking creature--the King of the Jews? is very much +of a piece with the world's question still: Art Thou the perfect +instance of manhood? Art Thou the highest revelation of God? + +III. The Servant's reception by men. + +The two preceding characteristics naturally result in this third. For +lowliness of condition and lack of qualities appealing to men's false +ideals will certainly lead to being 'despised and rejected.' The latter +expression is probably better taken, as in the margin of the Rev. Ver. +as 'forsaken.' But whichever meaning is adopted, what an Iliad of woes +is condensed into these two words! 'The spurns that patient merit of the +unworthy takes,' the loneliness of one who, in all the crowd descries +none to trust--these are the wages that the world ever gives to its +noblest, who live but to help it and be misunderstood by it, and as +these are the wages of all who with self-devotion would serve God by +serving the world for its good, they were paid in largest measure to +'_the_ Servant of the Lord.' His claims were ridiculed, His words of +wisdom thrown back on Himself; none were so poor but could afford to +despise Him as lower than they, His love was repulsed, surely He drank +the bitterest cup of contempt. All His life He walked in the solitude of +uncomprehended aims, and at His hour of extremest need appealed in vain +for a little solace of companionship, and was deserted by those whom He +trusted most. His was a lifelong martyrdom inflicted by men. His was a +lifelong solitude which was most utter at the last. And He brought it +all on Himself because He _would_ be God's Servant in being men's +Saviour. + +IV. The Servant's sorrow of heart. + +The remarkable expression 'acquainted with grief' seems to carry an +allusion to the previous clause, in which men are spoken of as despising +and rejecting the Servant. They left Him alone, and His only companion +was 'grief'--a grim associate to walk at a man's side all his days! It +is to be noted that the word rendered 'grief' is literally sickness. +That description of mental or spiritual sorrows under the imagery of +bodily sicknesses is intensified in the subsequent terrible picture of +Him as one from whom men hide their faces with disgust at His hideous +appearance, caused by disease. Possibly the meaning may rather be that +He hides His face, as lepers had to do. + +Now probably the 'sorrows' touched on at this point are to be +distinguished from those which subsequently are spoken of in terms of +such poignancy as laid on the Servant by God. Here the prophet is +thinking rather of those which fell on Him by reason of men's rejection +and desertion. We shall not rightly estimate the sorrowfulness of +Christ's sorrows, unless we bring to our meditations on them the other +thought of His joys. How great these were we can judge, when we remember +that He told the disciples that by His joy remaining in them their joy +would be full. As much joy then as human nature was capable of from +perfect purity, filial obedience, trust, and unbroken communion with +God, so much was Jesus' permanent experience. The golden cup of His pure +nature was ever full to the brim with the richest wine of joy. And that +constant experience of gladness in the Father and in Himself made more +painful the sorrows which He encountered, like a biting wind shrieking +round Him, whenever He passed out from fellowship with God in the +stillness of His soul into the contemptuous and hostile world. His +spirit carrying with it the still atmosphere of the Holy Place, would +feel more keenly than any other would have done the jarring tumult of +the crowds, and would know a sharper pain when met with greetings in +which was no kindness. Jesus was sinless, His sympathy with all sorrow +was thereby rendered abnormally keen, and He made others' griefs His own +with an identification born of a sympathy which the most compassionate +cannot attain. The greater the love, the greater the sorrow of the +loving heart when its love is spurned. The intenser the yearning for +companionship, the sharper the pang when it is repulsed. The more one +longs to bless, the more one suffers when his blessings are flung off. +Jesus was the most sensitive, the most sympathetic, the most loving soul +that ever dwelt in flesh. He saw, as none other has ever seen, man's +miseries. He experienced, as none else has ever experienced, man's +ingratitude, and, therefore, though God, even His God, 'anointed Him +with the oil of gladness above His fellows,' He was 'a Man of Sorrows,' +and grief was His companion during all His life's course. + + + + +THE SUFFERING SERVANT-II + +'Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did +esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5. But He was +wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the +chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are +healed. 6. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one +to his own way; and the Lord hath laid (made to light) on Him the +iniquity of us all.'--ISAIAH liii. 4-6. + + +The note struck lightly in the close of the preceding paragraph becomes +dominant here. One notes the accumulation of expressions for suffering, +crowded into these verses--griefs, sorrows, wounded, bruised, smitten, +chastisement, stripes. One notes that the cause of all this multiform +infliction is given with like emphasis of reiteration--our griefs, our +sorrows, and that these afflictions are invested with a still more +tragic and mysterious aspect, by being traced to our transgressions, our +iniquities. Finally, the deepest word of all is spoken when the whole +mystery of the servant's sufferings is referred to Jehovah's making the +universal iniquity to lie, like a crushing burden, on Him. + +I. The Burdened Servant. + +It is to be kept in view that the 'griefs' which the servant is here +described as bearing are literally 'sicknesses,' and that, similarly, +the 'sorrows' may be diseases. Matthew in his quotation of the verse +(viii. 17) takes the words to refer to bodily ailments, and finds their +'fulfilment' in Christ's miracles of healing. And that interpretation is +part of the whole truth, for Hebrew thought drew no such sharp line of +distinction between diseases of the body and those of the soul as we are +accustomed to draw. All sickness was taken to be the consequence of sin, +and the intimate connection between the two was, as it were, set forth +for all forms of bodily disease by the elaborate treatment prescribed +for leprosy, as pre-eminently fitted to stand as type of the whole. But +the fulfilment through the miracles is but a parable of the deeper +fulfilment in regard to the more virulent and deadly diseases of the +soul. Sin is the sickness, as it is also the grief, which most afflicts +humanity. Of the two words expressing the Servant's taking their burden +on His shoulders, the former implies not only the taking of it but the +bearing of it away, and the latter emphasises the weight of the load. + +Following Matthew's lead, we may regard Christ's miracles of healing as +one form of His fulfilment of the prophecy, in which the principles that +shape all the forms are at work, and which, therefore, may stand as a +kind of pictorial illustration of the way in which He bears and bears +away the heavier burden of sin. And one point which comes out clearly is +that, in these acts of healing, He felt the weight of the affliction +that He took away. Even in that region, the condition of ability to +remove it, was identifying Himself with the sorrow. Did He not 'sigh and +look up' in silent appeal to heaven before He could say, Ephphatha? Did +He not groan in Himself before He sent the voice into the tomb which the +dead heard? His miracles were not easy, though He had all power, for He +felt all that the sufferers felt, by the identifying power of the +unparalleled sympathy of a pure nature. In that region His pain on +account of the sufferers stood in vital relation with His power to end +their sufferings. The load must gall His shoulders, ere He could bear it +away from theirs. + +But the same principles as apply to these deeds of mercy done on +diseases apply to all His deeds of deliverance from sorrow and from sin. +In Him is set forth in highest fashion the condition of all brotherly +help and alleviation. Whoever would lighten a brother's load must stoop +his own shoulders to carry it. And whilst there is an element in our +Lord's sufferings, as the text passes on to say, which is not explained +by the analogy with what is required from all human succourers and +healers, the extent to which the lower experience of such corresponds +with His unique work should always be made prominent in our devout +meditations. + +II. The Servant's sufferings in their reason, their intensity, and their +issue. + +The same measure that was meted out to Job by his so-called friends was +measured to the servant, and at the Impulse of the same heartless +doctrinal prepossession. He must have been had to suffer so much; that +is the rough and ready verdict of the self-righteous. With crashing +emphasis, that complacent explanation of the Servant's sufferings and +their own prosperity is shivered to atoms, by the statement of the true +reason for both the one and the other. You thought that He was afflicted +because He was bad and you were spared because you were good--no, He was +afflicted because _you_ were bad, and you were spared because He was +afflicted. + +The reason for the Servant's sufferings was 'our transgressions.' More +is suggested now than sympathetic identification with others' sorrows. +This is an actual bearing of the consequences of sins which He had not +committed, and that not merely as an innocent man may be overwhelmed by +the flood of evil which has been let loose by others' sins to sweep over +the earth. The blow that wounds Him is struck directly and solely at +Him. He is not entangled in a widespread calamity, but is the only +victim. It is pre-supposed that all transgression leads to wounds and +bruises; but the transgressions are done by us, and the wounds and +bruises fall on Him. Can the idea of vicarious suffering be more plainly +set forth? + +The intensity of the Servant's sufferings is brought home to our hearts +by the accumulation of epithets, to which reference has already been +made. He was 'wounded' as one who is pierced by a sharp sword; 'bruised' +as one who is stoned to death; beaten and with livid weales on His +flesh. A background of unnamed persecutors is dimly seen. The +description moves altogether in the region of physical violence, and +that violence is more than symbol. + +It is no mere coincidence that the story of the Passion reproduces so +many of the details of the prophecy, for, although the fulfilment of the +latter does not depend on such coincidences, they are not to be passed +by as of no importance. Former generations made too much of the physical +sufferings of Jesus; is not this generation in danger of making too +little of them? + +The issue of the Servant's sufferings is presented in a startling +paradox. His bruises and weales are the causes of our being healed. His +chastisement brings our peace. Surely it is very hard work, and needs +much forcing of words and much determination not to see what is set +forth in as plain light as can be conceived, to strike the idea of +atonement out of this prophecy. It says as emphatically as words can +say, that we have by our sins deserved stripes, that the Servant bears +the stripes which we have deserved, and that therefore we do not bear +them. + +III. The deepest ground of the Servant's sufferings. + +The sad picture of humanity painted in that simile of a scattered flock +lays stress on the universality of transgression, on its divisive +effect, on the solitude of sin, and on its essential characteristic as +being self-willed rejection of control. But the isolation caused by +transgression is blessedly counteracted by the concentration of the sin +of all on the Servant. Men fighting for their own hand, and living at +their own pleasure, are working to the disruption of all sweet bonds of +fellowship. But God, in knitting together all the black burdens into +one, and loading the Servant with that tremendous weight, is preparing +for the establishment of a more blessed unity, in experience of the +healing brought about by His sufferings. + +Can one man's 'iniquity,' as distinguished from the consequences of +iniquity, be made to press upon any other? It is a familiar and not very +profound objection to the Christian Atonement that guilt cannot be +transferred. True, but in the first place, Christ's nature stands in +vital relations to every man, of such intimacy that what is impossible +between two of us is not impossible between Christ and any one of us; +and, secondly, much in His life, and still more in His passion, is +unintelligible unless the black mass of the world's sin was heaped upon +Him, to His own consciousness. In that dread cry, wrung from Him as He +hung there in the dark, the consciousnesses of possessing God and of +having lost Him are blended inextricably and inexplicably. The only +approach to an explanation of it is that then the world's sin was felt +by Him, in all its terrible mass and blackness, coming between Him and +God, even as our own sins come, separating us from God. That grim burden +not only came on Him, but was _laid_ on Him by God. The same idea is +expressed by the prophet in that awful representation and by Jesus in +that as awful cry, 'Why hast Thou _forsaken_ Me?' + +The prophet constructs no theory of Atonement. But no language could be +chosen that would more plainly set forth the fact of Atonement. And it +is to be observed that, so far as this prophecy is concerned, the +Servant's sole form of service is to suffer. He is not a teacher, an +example, or a benefactor, in any of the other ways in which men need +help. His work is to bear our griefs and be bruised for our healing. + +'He was oppressed, yet He humbled Himself and opened not His mouth; as a +lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before her +shearers is dumb; yea, He opened not His mouth. 8. By oppression and +judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who among them +considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living? for the +transgression of my people was He stricken. 9. And they made His grave +with the wicked, and with the rich in His death; although He had done no +violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth'--ISAIAH liii, 7-9. R. V. + +In this section of the prophecy we pass from contemplating the +sufferings inflicted on the Servant to the attitude of Himself and of +His contemporaries towards these, His patience and their blindness. To +these is added a remarkable reference to His burial, which strikes one +at first sight as interrupting the continuity of the prophecy, but on +fuller consideration assumes great significance. + +I. The unresisting endurance of the Servant. + +The Revised Version's rendering of the first clause is preferable to +that of the Authorised Version. 'Afflicted' would be little better than +tautology, but 'humbled Himself' strikes the keynote of the verse, which +dwells not on the Servant's afflictions, but on His bearing under them. +Similarly, the pathetic imagery of the lamb led and the sheep dumb gives +the same double representation, first of the indignities, and next of +His demeanour in enduring them, as is conveyed in 'He was oppressed, yet +He humbled Himself.' Unremonstrating, unresisting endurance, then, is +the point emphasised in the lovely metaphor. + +We recall the fact that this emphatically reduplicated phrase 'opened +not His mouth' was verbally fulfilled in our Lord's silence before each +of the three authorities to whom He was presented, before the Jewish +rulers, before Pilate, and before Herod. Only when adjured by the living +God and when silence would have been tantamount to withdrawal of His +claims, did He speak before the Sanhedrin. Only when silence would have +been taken as disowning His Kingship, did He speak before Pilate. And +Herod, who had no right to question Him, received no answer at all. +Jesus' lips were opened in witness but never in complaint or +remonstrance. No doubt, the prophecy would have been as really fulfilled +though there had been no such majestic silences, for its substance is +patient endurance, not mere abstinence from speech. Still, as with other +events in His life, the verbal correspondence with prophetic details may +help, and be meant to help, to bring out more clearly, for purblind +eyes, the true fulfilment. So we may meditate on the wonder and the +beauty of that picture which the evangelists draw, and which the world +has recognised, with whatever differences as to its interpretation, as +the most perfect, pathetic, and majestic picture of meek endurance that +has ever been painted. + +But we gather only the most superficial of its lessons, if that is all +that we find to say about it. For the main point for us to lay to heart +is not merely the fact of that silent submission, but the motive which +led to it. He opened not His mouth, because He willingly embraced the +Cross, and He willingly embraced the Cross because He loved the Father +and would do His will, because He loved the world and would be its +Saviour, + +That touching imagery of the dumb lamb has manifold felicities and +significances beyond serving to figure meekness. And we are not forcing +unintended meanings into a mere piece of poetic imagination when we note +how remarkably the metaphor links on to that of strayed sheep in the +preceding verse, or when we venture to recall John Baptist's first +proclamation of the Lamb of God, and Peter's quotation of this very +prophecy, and the continual recurrence in the Apocalypse of the name of +The Lamb as _the_ title of honour of 'Him who sitteth on the throne.' A +kind of nimbus or aureole shines round the humble figure as drawn by the +prophet. + +II. The misunderstood end of the Servant's life. + +The difficult expressions of verse 8 are rendered in the Revised Version +with clearness and so as to yield a profound meaning. We may note that +here, for the first time, is spoken out that end to which all the +preceding description of sufferings has been leading up, and yet it is +spoken with a kind of solemn reticence, very impressive. The Servant is +'taken away,' 'cut off,' 'stricken.' Not yet is the grim word 'death' +plainly uttered; that comes in the next verse, only after the Servant's +death is supposed to be past. The three words suggest, at all events, +though in half-veiled language, violence and suddenness in the Servant's +fate. Who were the agents who took Him, cut Him off and struck Him, is +left in impressive obscurity. But the fact that His death was a judicial +murder is set in clear light. Whether we read 'By' or 'From--oppression +and judgment He was taken away,' the forms of law are represented as +wrested to bring about flagrant injustice. And, if it were my object now +to defend the Messianic interpretation, one might ask where any facts +corresponding to this element in the picture are to be found in regard +to either the national Israel, or the Israel within the nation. + +That unjust death by illegal violence under the mask of law was, +further, wholly misunderstood by 'His generation.' We need not do more +than remark in a sentence how that feature corresponds with the facts in +regard to Jesus, and ask whether it does so on any other theory of +'fulfilment.' Neither friends nor foes had even the faintest conception +of what the death of Jesus was or was to effect. And it is worth while +to dwell for a moment on this, because we are often told that there is +no trace of the doctrine of an atoning sacrifice in the Gospels, and the +inference is drawn that it was an afterthought of the apostles, and +therefore to be set aside as an excrescence on Christianity according to +Christ. The silence of Jesus on that subject is exaggerated; but +certainly no thought of His being the Sacrifice for the sins of the +world was in the minds of the sad watchers by the Cross, nor for many a +day thereafter. Is it not worth noting that precisely such a blindness +to the meaning of His death had been prophesied eight hundred years +before? + +But the reason why this feature is introduced seems mainly to be to +underscore the lesson, that those who exercised the violence which +hurried the Servant from the land of the living were blind instruments +of a higher power. And may we not also see in it a suggestion of the +great solitude of sorrow in which the Servant was to die, even as He had +lived in it? Misapprehended and despised He lived, misapprehended He +died. Jesus was the loneliest man that ever breathed human breath. He +gave up His breath in a more awful solitude than ever isolated any other +dying man. Utterly solitary, He died that none of us need ever face +death alone. + +III. The Servant's Grave. + +Following on the mystery of the uncomprehended death comes the enigma of +the burial. The words are an enigma, but they seem meaningless on any +hypothesis but the Messianic one. As they stand, they assert that +unnamed persons gave Him a grave with the wicked, as they would do by +putting Him to death under strained forms of law, and that then, +somehow, the criminal destined to be buried with other criminals in a +dishonoured grave was laid in a tomb with the rich. It seems a +singularly minute trait to find place in such a prophecy. The remarks +already made as to similar minute correspondences in details of the +prophecy with purely external facts in Christ's life need not be +repeated now. One does not see that it is a self-evident axiom needing +only to be enunciated in order to be accepted, that such minute +prophecies are beneath the dignity of revelation. It might rather seem +that, as one element in prophecy, they are eminently valuable. The +smaller the detail, the more remarkable the prevision and the more +striking the fulfilment. For a keen-sighted man may forecast tendencies +and go far to anticipate events on the large scale, but only God can +foresee trifles. The difficulty in which this prediction of the +Servant's grave being 'with the rich' places those who reject the +Messianic reference of the prophecy to our Lord may be measured by the +desperate attempts to evade it by suggesting other readings, or by +making 'rich' to be synonymous with 'wicked.' The words as they stand +have a clear and worthy meaning on one interpretation, and we even +venture to say, on one interpretation only, namely, that they refer to +the reverent laying of the body of the Lord in the new tomb belonging to +'a certain rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph.' + +If in the latter clause of verse 9 we render 'Because' rather than +'Although,' we get the thought that the burial was a sign that the +Servant, slain as a criminal, yet was not a criminal. The criminals were +either left unburied or disgraced by promiscuous interment in an unclean +place. But that body reverently bedewed with tears, wrapped in fine +linen clean and white, softly laid down by loving hands, watched by love +stronger than death, lay in fitting repose as the corpse of a King till +He came forth as a Conqueror. So once more the dominant note is struck, +and this part of the prophecy closes with the emphatic repetition of the +sinlessness of the Suffering Servant, which makes His sufferings a deep +and bewildering mystery, unless they were endured because of 'our +transgressions.' + + + + +THE SUFFERING SERVANT--IV + +'It pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief: when Thou +shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall +prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His +hand.'--ISAIAH liii. 10. + + +We have seen a distinct progress of thought in the preceding verses. +There was first the outline of the sorrows and rejection of the Servant; +second, the profound explanation of these as being for us; third, the +sufferings, death and burial of the Servant. + +We have followed Him to the grave. What more can there be to be said? +Whether the Servant of the Lord be an individual or a collective or an +ideal, surely all fitness of metaphor, all reality of fact would require +that His work should be represented as ending with His life, and that +what might follow His burial should be the influence of His memory, the +continued operation of the principles He had set agoing and so on, but +nothing more. + +Now observe that, however we may explain the fact, this is the fact to +be explained, that there is a whole section, this closing one, devoted +to the celebration of His work after His death and burial, and, still +more remarkable, that the prophecy says nothing about His activity on +the world till _after_ death. In all the former portion there is not a +syllable about His doing anything, only about His suffering; and then +when He is dead He begins to work. That is the subject of these last +three verses, and it would be proper to take them all for our +consideration now, but fur two reasons, one, because of their great +fulness and importance, and one because, as you will observe, the two +latter verses are a direct address of God's concerning the Servant. The +prophetic words, spoken as in his own person, end with verse 10, and, +catching up their representations, expanding, defining, glorifying them, +comes the solemn thunder of the voice of God. I now deal only with the +prophet's vision of the work of the Servant of the Lord. + +One other preliminary remark is that the work of the Servant after death +is described in these verses with constant and very emphatic reference +to His previous sufferings. The closeness of connection between these +two is thus thrown into great prominence. + +I. The mystery of God's treatment of the sinless Servant. + +The first clause is to be read in immediate connection with the +preceding verse. The Servant was of absolute sinlessness, and yet the +Divine Hand crushed and bruised Him. Certainly, if we think of the +vehemence of prophetic rebukes, and of the standing doctrine of the Old +Testament that Israel was punished for its sin, we shall be slow to +believe that this picture of the Sinless One, smitten for the sins of +others, can have reference to the nation in any of its parts, or to any +one man. However other poetry may lament over innocent sufferers, the +Old Testament always takes the ground: 'Our iniquities, like the wind, +have carried us away.' But mark that here, however understood, the +prophet paints a figure so sinless that God's bruising Him is an +outstanding wonder and riddle, only to be solved by regarding these +bruises as the stripes by which our sins were healed, and by noting that +'the pleasure of the Lord' is carried on through Him, after and through +His death. What conceivable application have such representations except +to Jesus? We note, then, here:-- + +1. The solemn truth that His sufferings were divinely inflicted. That is +a truth complementary to the other views in the prophecy, according to +which these sufferings are variously regarded as either inflicted by men +('By oppression and judgment He was taken away') or drawn on Him by His +own sacrificial act ('His soul shall make an offering for sin'). It was +the divine counsel that used men as its instruments, though they were +none the less guilty. The hands that 'crucified and slew' were no less +'the hands of lawless men,' because it was 'the determinate counsel and +foreknowledge of God' that 'delivered Him up.' + +But a still deeper thought is in these words. For we can scarcely avoid +seeing in them a glimpse into that dim region of eclipse and agony of +soul from which, as from a cave of darkness, issued that last cry: +'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani?' The bruises inflicted by the God, who +made to meet on Him the iniquities of us all, were infinitely more +severe than the weales of the soldiers' rods, or the wounds of the nails +that pierced His hands and feet. + +2. The staggering mystery of His sinlessness and sufferings. + +The world has been full from of old of stories of goodness tortured and +evil exalted, which have drawn tears and softened hearts, but which have +also bewildered men who would fain believe in a righteous Governor and +loving Father. But none of these have cast so black a shadow of +suspicion on the government of the world by a good God as does the fate +of Jesus, unless it is read in the light of this prophecy. Standing at +the cross, faith in God's goodness and providence can scarcely survive, +unless it rises to be faith in the atoning sacrifice of Him who was +wounded there for our transgressions. + +II. The Servant's work in His sufferings. + +The margin of the Revised Version gives the best rendering--'His soul +shall make an offering for sin.' The word employed for 'offering' means +a trespass offering, and carries us at once back to the sacrificial +system. The trespass offering was distinguished from other offerings. +The central idea of it seems to have been to represent sin or guilt as +_debt_, and the sacrifice as making compensation. We must keep in view +the variety of ideas embodied in His sacrifice, and how all correspond +to realities in our wants and spiritual experience. + +Now there are three points here:-- + +a. The representation that Christ's death is a sacrifice. Clearly +connecting with whole Mosaic system--and that in the sense of a trespass +offering. Christ seems to quote this verse in John x. 15, when He speaks +of laying down His life, and when He declares that He came to 'give His +life a _ransom_ for many.' At any rate here is the great word, +sacrifice, proclaimed for the first time in connection with Messiah. +Here the prophet interprets the meaning of all the types and shadows of +the law. + +That sacrificial system bore witness to deep wants of men's souls, and +prophesied of One in whom these were all met and satisfied. + +b. His voluntary surrender. + +He is sacrifice, but He is Priest also. His soul makes the offering, and +His soul is the offering and offers itself in concurrence with the +Divine Will. It is difficult and necessary to keep that double aspect in +view, and never to think of Jesus as an unwilling Victim, nor of God as +angry and needing to be appeased by blood. + +c. The thought that the true meaning of His sufferings is only reached +when we contemplate the effects that have flowed from them. The pleasure +of the Lord in bruising Him is a mystery until we see how pleasure of +the Lord prospers in the hand of the Crucified. + +III. The work of the Servant after death. + +Surely this paradox, so baldly stated, is meant to be an enigma to +startle and to rouse curiosity. This dead Servant is to see of the +travail of His soul, and to prolong His days. All the interpretations of +this chapter which refuse to see Jesus in it shiver on this rock. What a +contrast there is between platitudes about the spirit of the nation +rising transformed from its grave of captivity (which was only very +partially the case), and the historical fulfilment in Jesus Christ! +Here, at any rate, hundreds of years before His Resurrection, is a word +that seems to point to such a fact, and to me it appears that all fair +interpretation is on the side of the Messianic reference. + +Note the singularity of special points. + +a. Having died, the Servant sees His offspring. + +The sacrifice of Christ is the great power which draws men to Him, and +moves to repentance, faith, love. His death was the communication of +life. Nowhere else in the world's history is the teacher's death the +beginning of His gathering of pupils, and not only has the dead Servant +children, but He _sees_ them. That representation is expressive of the +mutual intercourse, strange and deep, whereby we feel that He is truly +with us, 'Jesus Christ, whom having not seen we love.' + +b. Having died, the Servant prolongs His days. + +He lives a continuous life, without an end, for ever. The best +commentary is the word which John heard, as he felt the hand of the +Christ laid on his prostrate form: 'I became dead, and lo, I am alive +for evermore.' + +c. Having died, the Servant carries into effect the divine purposes. + +'Prosper' implies progressive advancement. Christ's Sacrifice carried +out the divine pleasure, and by His Sacrifice the divine pleasure is +further carried out. + +If Christ is the means of carrying out the divine purpose, consider what +this implies of divinity in His nature, of correspondence between His +will and the divine. + +But Jesus not only carries into effect the divine purpose as a +consequence of a past act, but by His present energy this dead man is a +living power in the world today. Is He not? + +The sole explanation of the vitality of Christianity, and the sole +reason which makes its message a gospel to any soul, is Christ's death +for the world and present life in the world. + + + + +THE SUFFERING SERVANT--V + +'He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied: by His +knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many; and He shall bear +their iniquities'--ISAIAH liii. 11. + + +These are all but the closing words of this great prophecy, and are the +fitting crown of all that has gone before. We have been listening to the +voice of a member of the race to whom the Servant of the Lord belonged, +whether we limit that to the Jewish people or include in it all +humanity. That voice has been confessing for the speaker and his +brethren their common misapprehensions of the Servant, their blindness +to the meaning of His sufferings and the mystery of His death. It has +been proclaiming the true significance of these as now he had learned +them, and has in verse 10 touched the mystery of the reward and triumph +of the Servant. + +That note of His glory and coronation is caught up in the two closing +verses, which, in substance, are the continuation of the idea of verse +10. But this identity of substance makes the variety of form the more +emphatic. Observe the '_My_ Servant' of verse 11, and the '_I_ will +divide' of verse 12. These oblige us to take this as the voice of God. +The confession and belief of earth is hushed, that the recognition and +the reward of the Servant may be declared from heaven. An added +solemnity is thus given to the words, and the prophecy comes round again +to the keynote on which it started in chapter lii, 13, '_My_ Servant.' +Notice, too, how the same characteristic is here as in verse 10--that +the recapitulation of the sufferings is almost equally prominent with +the description of the reward. The two are so woven together that no +power can part them. We may take these two verses as setting forth +mainly two things--the divine promise that the Servant shall give +righteousness to many, and the divine promise that the Servant shall +conquer many for Himself. + +As to the exposition, 'of' here is probably casual, not partitive, as +the Authorised Version has it; 'travail' is not to be understood in the +sense of childbirth, but of toil and suffering; 'soul' is equivalent to +_life_. This fruit of His soul's travail is further defined in the words +which follow. The great result which will be beheld by Him and will fill +and content His heart is that 'by His knowledge He shall justify many.' +'By _His_ knowledge' certainly means, by the knowledge of Him on the +part of others. The phrase might be taken either objectively or +subjectively, but it seems to me that only the former yields an adequate +sense. 'My righteous servant' is scarcely emphatic enough. The words in +the original stand in an unusual order, which might be represented by +'the righteous one, My servant,' and is intended to put emphasis on the +Servant's righteousness, as well as to suggest the connection between +His righteousness and His 'justifying,' in virtue of His being +righteous. 'Justify' is an unusual form, and means to procure for, or +impart righteousness to. '_The_ many' has stress on the article, and is +the antithesis not to _all_, but to _few_. We might render it 'the +masses,' an indefinite expression, which if not declaring universality, +approaches very near to it, as in Romans v. 19 and Matthew xxvi. 28. 'He +shall bear,' a future referring to the Servant in a state of exaltation, +and pointing to His continuous work after death. This bearing is the +root of our righteousness. + +We may put the thoughts here in a definite order. + +I. The great work which the Servant carries on. + +It consists in giving or imparting righteousness. It seems to me that it +is out of place to be too narrow here in interpreting so as to draw +distinctions between righteousness imparted and righteousness bestowed. +We should rather take the general idea of _making righteous_, making, in +fact, like Himself. Note that this is the work which is Christ's +characteristic one. All thoughts of His blessings to the world which +omit that are imperfect. + +II. The preparation for that making of us righteous. + +The roots of our being made righteous by the righteous Servant are found +in His bearing our sins. His sin-bearing work is basis of our +righteousness. Christ justifies men by giving to them His own +righteousness, and taking in turn their sins on Himself that He may +expiate them. + +Not only 'did He bear our sins in His own body on the tree,' but He +_will_ bear them in His exaltation to the Throne, and only because He +continuously and eternally does so are we justified on earth and shall +we be sanctified in heaven. + +III. The condition on which He imparts righteousness. + +'His knowledge,' which is to be taken in the profound Biblical sense as +including not only understanding but experience also. + +Parallels are found in 'This is life eternal to know Thee' (John xvii. +3), and in 'That I may know Him' (Phil. iii. 10). So this prophecy comes +very near to the New Testament proclamation of righteousness by faith. + +IV. The grand sweep of the Servant's work. + +'The many' is indefinite, and its very indefiniteness approximates it to +universality. A shadowy vision of a great multitude that no man can +number stretches out, as to the horizon, before the prophet. How many +they are he knows not. He knows that they are numerous enough to +'satisfy' the Servant for all His sufferings. He knows, too, that there +is no limit to the happy crowd except that which is set by the necessary +condition of joining the bands of 'the justified'--namely, 'the +knowledge of Him.' They who receive the benefits which the Servant has +died and will live to bring cannot be few; they may be all. If any are +shut out, they are self-excluded. + +V. The Servant's satisfaction. + +It may be that the word employed means 'full,' rather than 'content,' +but the latter idea can scarcely be altogether absent from it. We have, +then, the great hope that the Servant, gazing on the results of His +sufferings, will be content, content to have borne them, content with +what they have effected. + +'The glory dies not and the grief is past.' + +And the 'grief' has had for fruit not only 'glory' gathering round the +thorn-pierced head, but reflected glory shining on the brows of 'the +many,' whom He has justified and sanctified by their experience of Him +and His power. The creative week ended with the 'rest' of the Creator, +not because His energy was tired and needed repose, but because He had +fully carried out His purpose, and saw the perfected idea embodied in a +creation that was 'very good.' The redemptive work ends with the +Servant's satisfied contemplation of the many whom He has made like +Himself, His better creation. + + + + +THE SUFFERING SERVANT--VI + +'Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall +divide the spoil with the strong; because He hath poured out His soul +unto death: and was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the +sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.'--ISAIAH +liii. 12. + + +The first clause of this verse is somewhat difficult. There are two ways +of understanding it. One is that adopted in A. V., according to which +the suffering Servant is represented as equal to the greatest +conquerors. He is to be as gloriously successful in His victory as they +have been in theirs. But there are two very strong objections to this +rendering-first, that it takes 'the many' in the sense of _mighty_, thus +obscuring the identity of the expression here and in the previous verse +and in the end of this verse; and secondly, that it gives a very feeble +and frigid ending to the prophecy. It does not seem a worthy close +simply to say that the Servant is to be like a Cyrus or a Nebuchadnezzar +in His conquests. + +The other rendering, though there are some difficulties, is to be +preferred. According to it 'the many' and 'the strong' are themselves +the prey or spoil. The words might be read, 'I will apportion to Him the +many, and He shall apportion to Himself the strong ones.' + +This retains the same meaning of 'many' for the same expression +throughout the context, and is a worthy ending to the prophecy. The +force of the clause is then to represent the suffering Servant as a +conqueror, leading back from His conquests a long train of captives, a +rich booty. + +Notice some points about this closing metaphor. + +Mark its singular contrast to the tone of the rest of the prophecy. Note +the lowliness, the suffering, the minor key of it all, and then, all at +once, the leap up to rapture and triumph. The special form of the +metaphor strikes one as singular. Nothing in the preceding context even +remotely suggests it. Even the previous clause about 'making the many +righteous' does not do much to prepare the way for it. Whatever be our +explanation of the words, it must be one that does full justice to this +metaphor, and presents some conquering power or person, whose victories +are brilliant and real enough to be worthy to stand at the close of such +a prophecy. We must keep in mind, too, what has been remarked on the two +previous verses, that this victorious campaign and growing conquest is +achieved after the Servant is dead. That is a paradox. And note that the +strength of language representing His activity can scarcely be +reconciled with the idea that it is only the post-mortem influence of +His life which is meant. + +Note, too, the singular blending of God's power and the Servant's own +activity in the winning of this extended sovereignty. Side by side the +two are put. The same verb is used in order to emphasise the intended +parallel. 'I will divide,' 'He shall divide.' I will give Him--He shall +conquer for Himself. Remember the intense vehemence with which the Old +Testament guards the absolute supremacy of divine power, and how +strongly it always puts the thought that God is everything and man +nothing. Look at the contrast of the tone when a human conqueror, whose +conquests are the result of God's providence, is addressed (xlv. 1-3). +There is an entire suppression of his personality, not a word about his +bravery, his military genius, or anything in him. It is all _I, I, I_. +Remember how, in chapter x., one of the sins for which the Assyrian is +to be destroyed is precisely that he thought of his victories as due to +his own strength and wisdom. So he is indignantly reminded that he is +only 'a staff in Mine hand,' the axe with which God hewed the nations, +whereas here the voice of God Himself speaks, and gives a strange place +beside Himself to the will and power of this Conqueror. This feature of +the prophecy should be accounted for in any satisfactory interpretation. + +Note, too, the wide sweep of the Servant's dominion, which carries us +back to the beginning of this prophecy in chapter lii. 15, where we hear +of the Servant as 'sprinkling' (or startling') many nations, and the +'kings' is parallel with the 'strong' in this verse. No bounds are +assigned to the Servant's conquests, which are, if not declared to be +universal, at least indefinitely extended and striding on to world-wide +empire. + +These points are plainly here. I do not dilate upon them. But I ask +whether any of the interpretations of these words, except one, gives +adequate force to them? Is there anything in the history of the restored +exiles which corresponds to this picture? Even if you admit the violent +hypothesis that there was a better part of the nation, so good that the +national sorrows had no chastisement for them, and the other violent +hypothesis that the devoutest among the exiles suffered most, and the +other that the death and burial and resurrection of the Servant only +mean the reformation wrought on Israel by captivity. What is there in +the history of Israel which can be pointed at as the conquest of the +world? Was the nation that bore the yokes of a Ptolemy, an Antiochus, a +Herod, a Caesar, the fulfiller of this dream of world-conquest? There +is only one thing which can be called the Jew conquering the world. It +is that which, as I believe, is meant here, viz. Christ's conquest. +Apart from that, I know of nothing which would not be ludicrously +disproportionate if it were alleged as fulfilment of this glowing +prophecy. + +This prophetic picture is at least four hundred years before Christ, by +the admission of those who bring it lowest down, in their eagerness to +get rid of prophecy. The life of Christ does correspond to it, in such a +way that, clause by clause, it reads as if it were quite as much a +history of Jesus as a prophecy of the Servant. This certainly is an +extraordinary coincidence if it be not a prophecy. And there is really +no argument against the Messianic interpretation, except dogmatic +prejudice--'there cannot be prophecy.' + +No straining is needed in order to fit this great prophetic picture of +the world-Conqueror to Jesus. Even that, at first sight incongruous, +picture of a victor leading long lines of captives, such as we see on +Assyrian slabs and Egyptian paintings, is historically true of Him who +'leads captivity captive,' and is, through the ages, winning ever fresh +victories, and leading His enemies, turned into lovers, in His triumphal +progress. He, and He only, really owns men. His slaves have made real +self-surrenders to Him. Other conquerors may imprison or load with irons +or deport to other lands, but they are only lords of bodies. Jesus' +chains are silken, and bind hearts that are proud of their bonds. He +carries off His free prisoners 'from the power of darkness' into His +kingdom of light. His slaves rejoice to say, 'I am not my own,' and he +only truly possesses himself who has given himself away to the +Conquering Christ. For all these centuries He has been conquering +hearts, enthralling and thereby liberating wills, making Himself the +life of lives. There is nothing else the least like the bond between +Jesus and millions who never saw him. Who among all the leaders of +thought or religious teachers has been able to impress his personality +on others and to dominate them in the fashion that Jesus has done and is +doing to-day? How has He done this thing, which no other man has been +able in the least to do? What is His charm, the secret of His power? The +prophet has no doubt what it is, and unfolds it to us with a significant +'For.' We turn, then, to the prophetic explanation of that worldwide +empire and note-- + +II. The foundation of the Servant's dominion. + +That explanation is given in four clauses which fall into two pairs. +They remarkably revert to the thought of the Servant's sufferings, but +in how different a tone these are now spoken of, when they are no longer +regarded as the results of man's blind failure to see His beauty, or as +inflicted by the mysterious 'pleasure of Jehovah,' but as the causes of +His triumph! Echoes of both the two first clauses are heard from the +lips of Jesus. As He passed beneath the tremulous shadow of the olives +of Gethsemane, He appealed for the companionship of the three, by an all +but solitary revelation of His weakness and sorrow, 'My soul is +exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; abide ye here and watch with Me.' +And even more distinctly did He lay His hand on this prophecy when He +ended all His words in the upper room with 'This which is written must +be fulfilled in Me, And He was reckoned with "transgressors."' May we +not claim Jesus as endorsing the Messianic interpretation of this +prophecy? He gazed on the portrait painted ages before that night of +sorrow, and saw in it His own likeness, and said, That is meant for Me. +Some of us feel that, _kenosis_ or no _kenosis_, He is the best judge of +who is the original of the prophet's portrait. + +The two final clauses are separated from the preceding by the emphatic +introduction of the pronominal nominative, and cohere closely as +gathering up for the last time all the description of the Servant, and +as laying broad and firm the basis of His dominion, in the two great +facts which sum up His office and between them stretch over the past and +the future. 'He bare the sin of many, and maketh intercession for the +transgressors.' The former of these two clauses brings up the pathetic +picture of the scapegoat who 'bore upon him all their iniquities into a +solitary land.' The Servant conquers hearts because He bears upon Him +the grim burden which a mightier hand than Aaron's has made to meet on +His head, and because He bears it away. The ancient ceremony, and the +prophet's transference of the words describing it to his picture of the +Servant who was to be King, floated before John the Baptist, when he +pointed his brown, thin finger at Jesus and cried: 'Behold the Lamb of +God, which taketh away the sin of the world.' The goat had borne the +sins of one nation; the prophet had extended the Servant's ministry +indefinitely, so as to include unnumbered 'many'; John spoke the +universal word, 'the world.' So the circles widened. + +But it is not enough to bear away sins. We need continuous help in the +present. Our daily struggles, our ever-felt weakness, all the ills that +flesh is heir to, cry aloud for a mightier than we to be at our sides. +So on the Servant's bearing the sins of the many there follows a +continuous act of priestly intercession, in which, not merely by prayer, +but by meritorious and prevailing intervention, He makes His own the +cause of the many whose sins He has borne. + +On these two acts His dominion rests. Sacrifice and Intercession are the +foundations of His throne. + +The empire of men's hearts falls to Him because of what He has done and +is doing for them. He who is to possess us absolutely must give Himself +to us utterly. The empire falls to Him who supplies men's deepest need. +He who can take away men's sins rules. He who can effectually undertake +men's cause will be their King. + +If Jesus is or does anything less or else, He will not rule men for +ever. If He is but a Teacher and a Guide, oblivion, which shrouds all, +will sooner or later wrap Him in its misty folds. That His name should +so long have resisted its influence is due altogether to men having +believed Him to be something else. He will exercise an everlasting +dominion only if He have brought in an everlasting righteousness. He +will sit King for ever, if and only if He is a priest for ever. All +other rule is transient. + +A remarkable characteristic of this entire prophecy is the frequent +repetition of expressions conveying the idea of sufferings borne for +others. In one form or another that thought occurs, as we reckon, eleven +times, and it is especially frequent in the last verses of the chapter. +Why this perpetual harking back to that one aspect? It is to be further +noticed that throughout there is no hint of any other kind of work which +this Servant had to do. He fulfils His service to God and man by being +bruised for men's iniquities. He came not to be ministered unto but to +minister, and the chief form of His ministry was that He gave His life a +ransom for the many. He came not to preach a gospel, but to die that +there might be a gospel to preach. The Cross is the centre of His work, +and by it He becomes the Centre of the world. + +Look once more at the sorrowful, august figure that rose before the +prophet's eye--with its strange blending of sinlessness and sorrow, +God's approval and God's chastisement, rejection and rule, death and +life, abject humiliation and absolute dominion. Listen to the last +echoes of the prophet's voice as it dies on our ear--'He bore the sins +of the many.' And then hearken how eight hundred years after another +voice takes up the echoes--but instead of pointing away down the +centuries, points to One at his side, and cries, 'Behold the Lamb of +God, which taketh away the sin of the world.' Look at that life, that +death, that grave, that resurrection, that growing dominion, that +inexhaustible intercession--and say, 'Of whom speaketh the prophet +this?' + +May we all be able to answer with clear confidence, 'These things saith +Esaias when he saw _His_ glory and spake of _Him_.' May we all take up +the ancient confession: 'Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our +sorrows.... He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for +our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His +stripes we are healed.' + + + + +THE PASSING AND THE PERMANENT + +'For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but My +kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of My +peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.'--ISAIAH liv, +10.-- + + +There is something of music in the very sound of these words. The +stately march of the grand English translation lends itself with +wonderful beauty to the melody of Isaiah's words. But the thought that +lies below them, sweeping as it does through the whole creation, and +parting all things into the transient and eternal, the mortal and +immortal, is still greater than the music of the words. These are +removed; this abides. And the thing in God which abides is all-gentle +tenderness, that strange love mightier than all the powers of Deity +beside, permanent with the permanence of His changeless heart. The +mountains shall depart, the emblems of eternity shall crumble and change +and pass, and the hills be removed; but this immortal, impalpable, and, +in some men's minds, fantastic and unreal something, 'My loving kindness +and the covenant of My peace,' shall outlast them all. And this great +promise is stamped with the sign manual of Heaven, being spoken by the +Lord that hath mercy on thee.' + +So then, dear friends, I think I shall most reverentially deal with +these words if I handle them in the simplest possible way, and think, +first of all, of that great antithesis that is set before us here--what +passes and what abides; and, secondly, draw two or three plain, homely +lessons and applications from the thoughts thus suggested. + +I. First, then, we have to deal with the contrast between the apparently +enduring which passes, and that which truly abides. + +'The mountains depart, the hills remove, My loving-kindness shall not +depart, neither shall the covenant of My peace be removed.' Let me then +say a word or two about that first thought--'the mountains shall +depart.' There they tower over the plains, looking down upon the flat +valley beneath as they did when the prophet spoke. The eternal +buttresses of the hills stand to the eyes of the fleeting generations as +emblems of permanence, and yet winter storms and summer heats, and the +slow processes of decay which we call the gnawing of time, are ever +working upon them, and changing their forms, and at last they shall +pass. Modern science, whilst it has all but incalculably enlarged our +conceptions of the duration of the material universe, emphasises, as +faith alone never could, the thought of the ultimate perishing of this +material world. For geology tells us that 'where rears the cliff there +rolled the sea,' that through the cycles of the shifting history of the +world there have been elevations and depressions so that the ancient +hills in many places are the newest of all things, and the world's form +has changed many and many a time since first it circled as a planet. And +researches into the ultimate constitution of matter have taught us to +think of solids and liquids and gases, as being an infinite multitude of +atoms all in rapid motion with inconceivable velocity, and have shown us +the very atoms in the act of breaking up. So that the old guess of the +infancy of physical science which divined that 'all things are in a +state of flux' is confirmed by its last utterances. Science prophesies +too, and bids us expect that the earth shall one day become, like some +of the stars, a burnt out mass of uniform temperature, incapable of +change or of sustaining life, and shall end by falling into the +diminished sun, and so the old word will be fulfilled that 'the earth +and the works that are therein shall be burnt up.' None should be able +to utter the words of my text, 'The mountains shall depart and the hills +be removed,' with such emphasis of certitude as the present students of +physical science. + +But our text does not stop there. It brings into view the transiency of +the transient, in order to throw into greater relief and prominence the +perpetuity of the abiding. If we had nothing abiding beyond this +perishable material universe, it would indeed be misery to exist. Life +would be not only insignificant but wretched, and a ghastly irony, a +meaningless, aimless ripple on the surface of that silent, shoreless +sea. The great 'But' of this text lifts the oppression from humanity +with which the one-sided truth of the passing of all the Visible loads +it. + +And so turn for a moment to the other side of this great text. There +stands out above all that is mortal, which, although it counts its +existence by millenniums, is but for an instant, visible to the eye of +faith, the Great Spirit who moves all the material universe, Himself +unmoved, and lives undiminished by creation, and undiminished if +creation were swept out of existence. Let that which may pass, pass; let +that which can perish, perish; let the mountains crumble and the hills +melt away; beyond the smoke and conflagration, and rising high above +destruction and chaos, stands the calm throne of God, with a loving +Heart upon it, with a council of peace and purpose of mercy for you and +for me, the creatures of a day indeed, but who are to live when the days +shall cease to be. 'My kindness!' What a wonderful word that is, so far +above all the cold delusion of so-called theism! 'My kindness!' the +tender-heartedness of an infinite love, the abounding favour of the +Father of my spirit, His gentle goodness bending down to me, His +tenderness round about me, eternal love that never can die; the thing +that lasts in the universe is His kindness, which continues from +everlasting to everlasting. What a revelation of God! Oh, dear friends, +if only our hearts could open to the full acceptance of that thought, +sorrow and care and anxiety, and every other form of trouble, would fade +away and we should be at rest. The infinite, undying, imperishable love +of God is mine. Older than the mountains, deeper than their roots, wider +than the heavens, and stronger than all my sin, is the love that grasps +me and keeps me and will not let me go, and lavishes its tenderness upon +me, and beseeches me, and pleads with me, and woos me, and rebukes me, +and corrects me when I need, and sent His Son to die for me. 'My +kindness shall not depart from thee.' + +But even that great conception does not exhaust the encouragement which +the prophet has to give to souls weighed upon with the transiency of the +material. He speaks of 'the covenant of My peace.' We are to think of +this great, tender, changeless love of God, which underlies all things +and towers above all things, which overlaps them all and fills eternity, +as being placed, so to speak, under the guarantee of a solemn +obligation. God's covenant is a great thought of Scripture which we far +too little apprehend in the depth and power of its meaning. His covenant +with you and me, poor creatures, is this, 'I promise that My love shall +never leave thee.' He makes Himself a constitutional monarch, so to +speak, giving us a plighted word to which we can appeal and go to Him +and say, 'There, that is the charter given by Thyself, given irrevocably +for ever, and I hold Thee to it. Fulfil it, O Thou God of Truth.' + +'My covenant of peace.' Dear friends, the prophet spoke a deeper thing +than he knew when he uttered these words. Let me remind you of the large +meaning which the New Testament puts into them. 'Now the God of Peace +that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the Great Shepherd of +the Sheep, through the blood of the everlasting Covenant, make us +perfect in every good work, to do His will.' God has bound Himself by +His promise to give you and me the peace that belongs to His own nature, +and that covenant is sealed to us in the blood of Jesus Christ upon the +Cross, and so we sinful men, with all the burden of our evil upon us, +with all our sins known to us, with all our manifest failings and +infirmities, can turn to Him and say, 'Thou hast pledged Thyself to +forgive and accept, and that covenant is made sure to me because Thy Son +hath died, and I come and ask Thee to fulfil it.' And be sure of this, +that no poor creature upon earth, however lame his hand, who puts out +that hand to grasp that peaceful covenant--that new covenant in the +blood of Christ--can plead in vain. + +My brother, have you done that? Have you entered into this covenant of +peace with God--peace in believing, peace by the blood of Christ, peace +that fills a new heart, peace that rules amidst all the perturbations +and disappointments of life? Then you may be sure that that covenant +will stand for evermore, though the mountains depart and the hills be +removed. + +II. Now turn with me to a few practical lessons which we may gather from +these great contrasts here, between the perishable mortal and the +immortal divine love. + +Surely the first plain one is a warning against fastening our love, our +hope, or our trust on these transient things. + +What folly it is for a man to risk his peace and the strength and the +joy of his life upon things that crumble and change, when all the while +there is lying before him open for his entrance, and wooing him to come +into the eternal home of his spirit, this covenant! Here are we, from +day to day, plunged into these passing vanities, and always tempted to +think that they are the true abiding things, and it needs great +discipline and watchfulness to live the better life. There is nothing +that will help us to do it like a firm grasp of the love of God in Jesus +Christ. Then we can hold these mortal joys with a loose hand, knowing +that they are only for a little time, and feeling that they are passing +whilst we look at them, and are changing like the scenery in the sky on +a summer's night, with its cliffs and hills in the clouds, even while we +gaze. Where there was a mountain a moment ago up there, there is now a +depression, and the world and everything in it lasts very little longer +than these. It is only a film on the surface of the great sea of +eternity--there is no reality about it. It is but a dream--a vision, +slipping, slipping, slipping away, and you and I slipping along with it. +How foolishly, how obstinately, we all cling to it, though even the very +grasp of our hands tends to make it pass away, as the children coming in +from the fields with their store of buttercups and daisies in their hot +hands, which by their very clutch hasten the withering. And that is just +our position. We have them for a brief moment, and they all perish in +the using. Oh, brother, have you set your heart on that which is not, +when all the while there, longing to bless and love us, stands the +Eternal God, with His unchanging love and faithful covenant of His +perpetual peace? Surely it were wiser--wiser, to put it on the lowest +ground--to seek the things that are above, and, knowing as we do that +the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, so make our portion +the kindness which shall not depart, and seek our share in the peace +that shall not pass away. + +But there is another lesson to be put in the same simple fashion. Surely +we ought to use thoughts like these of my text in order to stay the soul +in seasons which come to every one sometimes, when we are made painfully +conscious of the transiency of this Present. Meditative hours come to us +all--moments when perhaps some strain of music gives us back childhood's +days; when perhaps some perfume of a flower reminds us of long-vanished +gardens and hands that have crumbled into dust; when some touch of a +sunset sky, or some word of a book, or some providence of our lives, +comes upon the heart and mind, reminding us how everything is passing. +You have all had these thoughts. Some of us stifle them--they are not +pleasant to many of us; some of us brood over them unwholesomely, and +that is not wise; but the best use of them is to bear us onward into the +peaceful region where we clasp to our troubled hearts that which cannot +go. If any of us are making experience to-day of earthly change, if any +of us have hearts heavy with earthly losses, if any of us are bending +under the weight of that awful law, that everything becomes part and +parcel of that dreadful past, if any of us are looking at our empty +hands and saying, 'They have taken away my god and what have I more?' +let us listen to the better voice that says, 'My kindness shall not +depart from thee, and so, whatever goes, thou canst not be desolate if +thou hast Me.' + +And then, still further, let me remind you that this same thought may +avail to give to us hopes of years as immortal as itself. We do not +belong to the mountains and hills that shall depart, or to the order of +things to which they belong. There is coming a very solemn day, I +believe, not by any mere processes of natural decay as I take it, but by +the action of God Himself, the Judge that 'day of the Lord that shall +come as a thief in the night'--when the mountains shall depart, and the +hills be removed, and the throne of judgment shall be set, and you and I +will be there. My brother, lay your hand on that covenant of peace which +is made for us all in Christ Jesus the Lord, and then 'calm as the +summer's ocean we shall be, and all the wreck of nature' cannot disturb +us, for we shall abide unshaken as the throne of God. The mountains may +pass, the hills be removed, but herein is our love made perfect, that we +may have boldness in the day of 'judgment,' for that kindness shall not +depart from us, and God's gentle tenderness is eternal as Himself. Then +we shall not depart from it either, and we are immortal as the +tenderness that encloses us. God's endless love must have undying +creatures on whom to pour itself out, and if to-day I possess--as we all +may possess in however feeble a measure--some sips and prelibations of +that great flood of love that is in God, I can look unblanched right +into the eyes of death and say, 'Thou hast no power at all over me, I am +eternal because the God that loves me is so, and since He hath loved me +with an everlasting love, His loving-kindness shall not depart from me. +Therefore, seeing that all these things shall be dissolved, I know that +I have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the +heavens, and because He lives I shall live also.' The hope that is built +upon the eternal love of God in Christ is the true guarantee to me of +immortal existence, and this hope is ours if, and only if, we come into +the covenant--the covenant of peace. God says, 'I will love thee, I will +bless thee, I will keep thee, I will pardon thee, I will save thee, I +will glorify thee, and there is My bond on that Cross, the new covenant +in His blood.' Close with the covenant that God is ready to make with +you, and then 'life and death, principalities and powers, things present +and things to come, height and depth, and every other creature shall be +impotent to separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus +our Lord.' + +'Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath +no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without +money and without price. 2. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which +is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken +diligently unto Me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul +delight itself in fatness. 3. Incline your ear, and come unto Me, hear, +and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with +you, even the sure mercies of David. 4. Behold, I have given him for a +witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. 5. Behold, +thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew +not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God, and for the +Holy One of Israel; for He hath glorified thee. 6. Seek ye the Lord +while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near: 7. Let the +wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let +him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our +God, for He will abundantly pardon. 8. For My thoughts are not your +thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. 9. For as the +heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, +and My thoughts than your thoughts. 10. For as the rain cometh down, and +the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, +and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, +and bread to the eater: 11. So shall My word be that goeth forth out of +My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that +which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. 12. +For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains +and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the +trees of the field shall clap their hands. 13. Instead of the thorn +shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the +myrtle tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting +sign that shall not be cut off.'--ISAIAH lv. 1-13. + +The call to partake of the blessings of the Messianic salvation worthily +follows the great prophecy of the suffering Servant. No doubt the +immediate application of this chapter is to the exiled nation, who in it +are summoned from their vain attempts to find satisfaction in the +material prosperity realised in exile, and to make the only true +blessedness their own by obedience to God's voice. But if ever the +prophet spoke to the world he does so here. It is no unwarranted +spiritualising of his invitation which hears in it the voice which +invites all mankind to share the blessings of the gospel feast. + +The glorious words need little exposition. What we have to do is to see +that they do not fall on our ears in vain. They may be roughly divided +into two sections--the invitation to the feast, with the promises to the +obedient Israel (verses 1-5), and the summons to the necessary +preparation for the feast, namely, repentance, with the reason for its +necessity, and the encouragements to it in the might of God's faithful +promises (verses 6-13). + +I. Whose voice sounds so beseechingly and welcoming in this great call, +which rings out to all thirsty souls? If we note the 'Me' and 'I' which +follow, we shall hear God Himself thus taking the office of summoner to +His own feast. By whatever media the gospel call reaches us, it is in +reality God's own voice to our hearts, and that makes the responsibility +of hearing more tremendous, and the folly of refusing more inexcusable. + +Who are invited? There are but two conditions expressed in verse 1, and +these are fulfilled in every soul. All are summoned who are thirsty and +penniless. If we have in our souls desires that all the broken cisterns +of earth can never slake-and we all have these-and if we have nothing by +which we can procure what will still the gnawing hunger and burning +thirst of our souls--and none of us has--then we are included in the +call. Universal as are the craving for blessedness and the powerlessness +to satisfy it, are the adaptation and destination of the gospel. + +What is offered? Water, wine, milk--all the beverages of a simple +civilisation, differing in their operation, but all precious to a +thirsty palate. Water revives, wine gladdens and inspirits, milk +nourishes. All that any man needs or desires is to be found in Christ. +We shall not understand the nature of the feast unless we remember that +He Himself is the 'gift of God.' What these three draughts mean is best +perceived when we listen to Him saying, in a plain quotation of this +call, 'If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.' Nothing short +of Himself can satisfy the thirst of one soul, much less of all the +thirsty. Like the flow from the magic fountain of the legend, Jesus +becomes to each what each most desires. + +How does He become ours? The paradox of buying with what is not money is +meant, by its very appearance of contradiction, to put in strongest +fashion that the possession of Him depends on nothing in us but the +sense of need and the willingness to accept. We buy Christ when we part +with self, which is all that we have, in order to win Him. We must be +full of conscious emptiness and desire, if we are to be filled with His +fulness. Jesus interpreted the meaning of 'come to the waters' when He +said, 'He that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on +Me shall never thirst.' Faith is coming, faith is drinking, faith is +buying. + +The universal call, with is clear setting forth of blessing and +conditions of possessing, is followed by a pleading remonstrance as to +the folly of lavishing effort and money on what is not bread. It is +strange that men will cheerfully take more pains to continue thirsty +than to accept the satisfaction which God provides. They toil and +continue unsatisfied. Experience does not teach them, and all the while +the one real good is waiting to be theirs for nothing. + + ''Tis heaven alone that is given away; + 'Tis only God may be had for the asking.' + +Christ goes a-begging, and we spend our strength in vain toil to acquire +what we turn away from when it is offered us in Him. When the great +Father offers bread for nothing, we will not have it, but we are ready +to give any price for a stone. It is not the wickedness, but the folly, +of unbelief, which is the marvel. + +The contrast between the heavy price at which men buy hunger, and the +easy rate at which they may have full satisfaction, is further set forth +by the call to 'incline the ear,' which is all that is needed in order +that life and nourishment which delights the soul may be ours. 'Hearken, +and eat' is equivalent to 'Hearken, and ye shall eat.' The real 'good' +for man is only to be found in listening to and obeying the divine +voice, whether it sound in invitation, promise, or command. The true +life of the soul lies in that listening receptiveness which takes for +one's own God's great gift of Christ, and yields glad obedience to His +every word. + +The exiled Israel was promised an 'everlasting covenant' as the result +of their acceptance of the invitation; and we know whose blood it is +that has sealed the new covenant, which abides as long as Christ's +fulness and men's need shall last. That covenant, of which we seldom +hear in Isaiah, but which fills a prominent place in Jeremiah and +Ezekiel, is further explained as being 'the sure mercies of David.' This +phrase and its context are difficult, but the general meaning is clear. +The great promises of God's unfailing mercy, made to the historical +founder of the royal house, shall be transferred and continued, with +inviolable faithfulness, to those who drink of the gift of God. + +This parallel between the great King and the whole mass of the true +Israel is further set forth in verses 4 and 5. Each begins with +'Behold,' and the similar form indicates similarity in contents. The son +of Jesse was in some degree God's witness to the heathen nations, as is +expressed in several psalms; and, what he was imperfectly, the ransomed +Israel would be to the world. The office of the Christian Church is to +draw nations that it knew not, to follow in the blessed path, in which +it has found satisfaction and the dawnings of a more than natural glory +transfiguring it. They who have themselves drunk of the unfailing +fountain in Christ are thereby fitted and called to cry to others, 'Come +ye to the waters.' Experience of Christ's preciousness, and of the rest +of soul which comes from partaking of His salvation, impels and obliges +to call others to share the bliss. + +II. The second part of the chapter begins with an urgent call to +repentance, based upon the difference between God's ways and man's, and +on the certainty that the divine promises will be fulfilled. The summons +in verses 6 and 7 is first couched in most general terms, which are then +more closely defined. To 'seek the Lord' is to direct conduct and heart +to obtain possession of God as one's own. Of that seeking, the chief +element is calling upon Him; since such is His desire to be found of us +that it only needs our asking in order to receive. As surely as the +mother hears her child's cry, so surely does He catch the faintest voice +addressed to Him. But, men being what they are, a change of ways and of +their root in thoughts is indispensable. Seeking which is not +accompanied by forsaking self and an evil past is no genuine seeking, +and will end in no finding. But this forsaking is only one side of true +repentance; the other is return to God, as is expressed in the New +Testament word for it, which implies a change of mind, purpose, and +conduct. The faces which were turned earthward and averted from God are +to be turned God-ward and diverted from earth. Whosoever thus seeks may +be confident of finding and of abundant pardon. The belief in God's +loving forgivingness is the strongest motive to repentance, and the most +melting argument to listen to the call to seek Him. But there is another +motive of a more awful kind; namely, the consideration that the period +of mercy is limited, and that a time may come, and that soon, when God +no longer 'may be found' nor 'is near.' + +The need for such a radical change in conduct and mind is further +enforced, in verses 8 and 9, by the emphatic statement of present +discord between the exiled Israel and God. Mark that the deepest seat of +the discord is first dealt with, and then the manifestation of it in +active life. Mark also that the order of comparison is inverted in the +two successive clauses in verse 8. God's thoughts have not entered into +Israel's mind and become theirs. The 'thinkings' not being regulated +according to God's truth, nor the desires and sentiments brought into +accord with His will and mind, a contrariety of 'ways' must follow, and +the paths which men choose for themselves cannot run parallel with +God's, nor be pleasing to Him. Therefore the stringent urgency of the +call to forsake 'the crooked, wandering ways in which we live,' and to +come back to the path of righteousness which is traced by God for our +feet. + +But divergence which necessitates repentance is not the only relation +between our ways and God's. There is elevation, transcendency, like that +of the eternal heavens, high, boundless, the home of light, the +storehouse of beneficent influences which fertilise. If we think of the +dreary, flat plains where the exiles were, and the magnificent sweep of +the sky over them, we shall feel the beauty of the figure. If 'My +thoughts are not your thoughts' was all that was to be said, repentance +would be of little use, and there would be little to encourage to it; +but if God's thoughts of love and ways of blessing arch themselves above +our low lives as the sky bends, pitying and bestowing, above squalor, +barrenness, and darkness, then penitence is not in vain, and the low +earth may be visited with gifts from the highest heaven. + +The certainty that such gifts will be bestowed is the last thought of +this magnificent summons. The prophet dilates on that assurance to the +end of the chapter. He seems to catch fire, as it were, from the +introduction of that grand figure of the lofty heavens domed above the +flat earth. In effect, what he says is: They are high and inaccessible, +but think what pours down from them, and how all fertility depends on +their gifts of rain and snow, and how the moisture which they drop is +turned into 'seed to the sower, and bread to the eater.' Thinking of +that continuous benefaction and miracle, we should see in it a symbol of +the better gifts from the higher heavens. So does God's word come down +from His throne. So does it turn barrenness into nodding harvest. So +does it quicken undreamed of powers of fruitfulness in human nature and +among the forces of the world. So does it supply nourishment for hungry +souls, and germs which shall bear fruit in coming years. No complicated +machinery nor the most careful culture can work what the gentle dropping +rain effects. There is mightier force in it than in many thunder-clouds. +The gospel does with ease and in silence what nothing else can do. It +makes barren souls fruitful in all good works, and in all happiness +worthy of men. Therefore the summons to drink of the springing fountain +and to turn from evil ways and thoughts is recommended by the assurance +that God's word is faithful, and all His promises firm. + +The final verses (verses 12, 13) give the glowing picture of the return +from exile amid the jubilation of a transformed world, as the strongest +motive to the obedient hearkening to God's voice, to which the chapter +has summoned, and as the great instance of God's keeping His word. + +The flight from Egypt was 'in haste' (Deut. xvi. 3); but this shall be a +triumphal exodus, without conflict or alarms. All nature shall +participate in the joy. Mountains and hills shall raise the shrill note +of rejoicing, and the trees wave their branches, as if clapping hands in +delight. This is more than mere poetic rhetoric. A redeemed humanity +implies a glorified world. Nature has been involved in the consequences +of sin, and will share in the results of redemption, and have some +humble reflected light from 'the liberty of the glory of the sons of +God.' + +The fulfilment of this final promise is not yet. All earlier returns of +the exiled Israel from the Babylon of their bondage to God and the city +of God, such as the historical one which the prophet foretold, and the +spiritual one which is repeated age by age in the history of the +Christian Church and of single penitent souls, point on to that last +triumphant day when 'the ransomed of the Lord shall return,' and the +world be transfigured to match the glory that they inherit. That fair +world without poison or offence, and the nations of the saved who +inhabit its peaceful spaces, shall be, in the fullest stretch of the +words, 'to the Lord for a name, and for an everlasting sign that shall +not be cut off.' The redemption of man and his establishing amid the +felicities of a state correspondent to His God-given glory shall be to +all eternity and to all possible creations the highest evidence of what +God is, and His token to all beings. + + + + +THE GREAT PROCLAMATION + +'Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath +no money; come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without +money and without price.'--ISAIAH lv.1. + + +The meaning of the word _preach_ is 'proclaim like a herald'; or, what +is perhaps more familiar to most of us, like a town-crier; with a loud +voice, clearly and plainly delivering the message. Now, there are other +notions of a sermon than that; and there is other work which ministers +have to do, of an educational kind. But my business now is to preach. We +have ventured to ask others than the members of our own congregation to +join us in this service; and I should be ashamed of myself, and have +good reason to be so, if I had asked you to come to hear me talk, or to +entertain you with more or less eloquent and thoughtful discourses. +There is a time for everything; and what this is the time for is to ring +out like a bellman the message which I believe God has given me for you. +It cannot but suffer in passing through human lips; but I pray that my +poor words may not be all unworthy of its stringency, and of the +greatness of its blessing. My text is God's proclamation, and all that +the best of us can do is but to reiterate that, more feebly alas, but +still earnestly. + +Suppose there was an advertisement in to-morrow morning's papers that +any one that liked to go to a certain place might get a fortune for +going, what a _queue_ of waiting suppliants there would be at the door! +Here is God's greatest gift going a-begging; and there are no doubt some +among you who listen to my text with only the thought, 'Oh, the old +threadbare story is what we have been asked to come and hear!' Brethren, +have you taken the offer? If not, it needs to be pressed upon you once +more. So my purpose in this sermon is a very simple one. I wish, as a +brother to a brother, to put before you these three things: to whom this +offer is made; what it consists of; and how it may be ours. + +I. To whom this offer is made. + +It is to every one thirsty and penniless. That is a melancholy +combination, to be needing something infinitely, and to have not a +farthing to get it with. But that is the condition in which we all +stand, in regard to the highest and best things. This invitation of my +text is as universal as if it had stopped with its third word. 'Ho, +every one' would have been no broader than is the offer as it stands. +For the characteristics named are those which belong, necessarily and +universally, to human experience. If my text had said, 'Ho, every one +that breathes human breath,' it would not have more completely covered +the whole race, and enfolded thee and me, and all our brethren, in the +amplitude of its promise, than it does when it sets up as the sole +qualifications thirst and penury--that we infinitely need, and that we +are absolutely unable to acquire, the blessings that it offers. + +'Every one that thirsteth'--that means desire. Yes; but it means need +also. And what is every man but a great bundle of yearnings and +necessities? None of us carry within ourselves that which suffices for +ourselves. We are all dependent upon external things for being and for +wellbeing. + +There are thirsts which infallibly point to their true objects. If a man +is hungry he knows that it is food that he wants. And just as the +necessities of the animal life are incapable of being misunderstood, and +the objects which will satisfy them incapable of being confused or +mistaken, so there are other nobler thirsts, which, in like manner, work +automatically, and point to the thing that they need. We have social +instincts; we need love; we need friendship; we need somebody to lean +upon; we thirst for some heart to rest our heads upon, for hands to +clasp ours; and we know where the creatures and the objects are that +will satisfy these desires. And there are the higher thirsts of the +spirit, that 'follows knowledge, like a sinking star, beyond the +furthest bounds of human thought'; and a man knows where and how to +gratify the impulse that drives him to seek after the many forms of +knowledge and wisdom. + +But besides all these, besides sense, besides affection, besides +emotions, besides the intellectual spur of which we are all more or less +conscious, there come in a whole set of other thirsts that do not in +themselves carry the intimation of the place where they can be slaked. +And so you get men restless, as some of you are; always dissatisfied, as +some of you are; feeling that there is something wanting, yet not +knowing what, as some of you are. You remember the old story in the +_Arabian Nights_, of the man who had a grand palace, and lived in it +quite contentedly, until some one told him that it needed a roc's egg +hanging from the roof to make it complete, and he did not know where to +get that, and was miserable accordingly. We build our houses, we fancy +that we are satisfied; and then there comes the stinging thought that it +is not all complete yet, and we go groping, groping in the dark, to find +out where the lacking thing is. Shipwrecked sailors sometimes, in their +desperation, drink salt water, and that makes them thirstier than ever, +and brings on madness and death. Some publicans drug the vile liquors +which they sell, so that they increase thirst. We may make no mistake +about how to satisfy the desires of sense or of earthly affections; we +may be quite certain that 'money answereth all things,' and that it is +good to get on in business in Manchester; or may have found a pure and +enduring satisfaction in study and in books--yet we have thirsts that +some of us know not where to satisfy; and so we have parched lips and +swollen tongues, and raging desire that earth can give nothing to fill. + +My brother, do you know what it is that you want? + +It is God. Nothing else, nothing less. 'My soul thirsteth for God, for +the living God.' The man that knows what it is of which he is in such +sore need, is blessed. The man who only feels dimly that he needs +something, and does not know that it is God whom he does need, is +condemned to wander in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is, and +where his heart gapes, parched and cracked like the soil upon which he +treads. Understand your thirst. Interpret your desires aright. Open your +eyes to your need; and be sure of this, that mountains of money and the +clearest insight into intellectual problems, and fame, and love, and +wife, and children, and a happy home, and abundance of all things that +you can desire, will leave a central aching emptiness that nothing and +no person but God can ever fill. Oh, that we all knew what these +yearnings of our hearts mean! + +Aye! but there are _dormant_ thirsts too. It is no proof of superiority +that a savage has fewer wants than you and I have, for the want is the +open mouth into which supply comes. And it is no proof that you have +not, deep in your nature, desires which, unless they are satisfied, will +prevent your being blessed, that these desires are all unconscious to +yourselves. The business of us preachers is, very largely, to get the +people who will listen to us, to recognise the fact that they do want +things which they do not wish; and that, for the perfection of their +natures, the cherishing of noble longings and thirstings is needful, and +that to be without this sense of need is to be without one of the +loftiest prerogatives of humanity. + +Some of you do not wish forgiveness. Many of you would much rather not +have holiness. You do not want to have God. The promises of the Gospel +go clean over your heads, and are as impotent to influence you as the +wind whistling through a keyhole, because you have never been aware of +the wants to which these promises correspond, and do not understand what +it is that you truly require. + +And yet there is no desire--that is to say, consciousness of +necessities--so dormant but that its being un-gratified makes a man +restless. You do not wish forgiveness, but you will never be happy till +you get it. You do not wish to be good and true and holy men, but you +will never be blessed till you are. You do not want to have God, some of +you, but you will be restless till you find Him. You fancy you wish +heaven when you are dead; you do not want it while you are living. But +until your earthly life is like the life of Jesus Christ in heaven, +though in an inferior degree, whilst it is on earth, you will never be +at rest. You are thirsty enough after these things to be ill at ease +without them, when you bethink yourselves and pass out of the region of +mere mechanical and habitual existence; but until you get these things +that you do not desire, be sure of this: that you will be tortured with +vain unrest, and will find that the satisfactions which you do seek turn +to ashes in your mouth. 'Bread of deceit,' says the Book, 'is sweet to a +man.' The writer meant by that that there were people to whom it was +pleasant to tell profitable lies. But we might widen the meaning, and +say that all these lower satisfactions, apart from the loftier ones of +forgiveness, acceptance, reconciliation with God, the conscious +possession of Him, a well-grounded hope of immortality, the power to +live a noble life and to look forward to a glorious heaven, are 'bread +of deceit,' which promises nourishment and does not give it, but breaks +the teeth that try to masticate it; 'it turneth to gravel.' + +'Ho, every one that thirsteth.' That designation includes us all. 'And +he that hath no money.' Who has any? Notice that the persons represented +in our text as penniless are, in the next verse, remonstrated with for +spending 'money.' So then the penniless man had some pence away in some +corner of his pocket which he could spend. He had the money that would +buy shams, 'that which is not bread' but a stone though it looks like a +loaf, but he had no money for the true food. Which being translated out +of parable into fact, is simply this, that our efforts may and do win +for us the lower satisfactions which meet our transitory and superficial +necessities, but that no effort of ours can secure for us the loftier +blessings which slake the diviner thirsts of immortal souls. A man lands +in a far country with English shillings in his pocket, but he finds that +no coins go there but thalers, or francs, or dollars, or the like; and +his money is only current in his own land, and he must have it changed +before he can make his purchases. So though he has a pocketful of it he +may as well be penniless. + +And, in like fashion, you and I, with all our strenuous efforts, which +we are bound to make, and which there is joy in making, after these +lower good things that correspond to our efforts, find that we have no +coinage that will buy the good things of the kingdom of heaven, without +which we faint and die. For them our efforts are useless. Can a man by +his penitence, by his tears, by his amendment, make it possible for the +consequences of his past to be obliterated, or all changed in their +character into fatherly chastisement? No! A thousand times, no! The +superficial notions of Christianity, which are only too common amongst +both educated and uneducated, may say to a man, 'You need no divine +intervention, if only you will get up from the dust, and do your best to +keep up when you are up.' But those who realise more deeply what the +significance of sin is, and what the eternal operation of its +consequences upon the soul is, and what the awful majesty of a divine +righteousness is, learn that the man who has sinned can, by nothing that +he can do, obliterate that awful fact, or reduce it to insignificance, +in regard to the divine relations to him. It is only God who can do +that. We have no money. + +So we stand thirsty and penniless--a desperate condition! Ay! brother, +it _is_ desperate, and it is the condition of every one of us. I wish I +could turn the generalities of my text into the individuality of a +personal address. I wish I could bring its wide-flowing beneficence to a +sharp point that might touch your conscience, heart, and will. I cannot +do that; you must do it for yourself. + +'Ho, every one that thirsteth.' Will you pause for a moment, and say to +yourself, 'That is I'? 'And he that hath no money'--that is I. 'Come ye +to the waters'--that is I. The proclamation is for thine ear and for thy +heart; and the gift is for thy hand and thy lips. + +II. In what this offer consists. + +They tell an old story about the rejoicings at the coronation of some +great king, when there was set up in the market-place a triple fountain, +from each of whose three lips flowed a different kind of rare liquor +which any man who chose to bring a pitcher might fill it with, at his +choice. Notice my text, 'come ye to the _waters_' ... 'buy _wine_ and +_milk_.' The great fountain is set up in the market-place of the world, +and every man may come; and whichever of this glorious triad of +effluents he needs most, there his lip may glue itself and there it may +drink, be it 'water' that refreshes, or 'wine' that gladdens, or 'milk' +that nourishes. They are all contained in this one great gift that flows +out from the deep heart of God to the thirsty lips of parched humanity. + +And what is that gift? Well, we may say, salvation; or we may use many +other words to define the nature of the gifts. I venture to take a +shorter one, and say, it means Christ. He, and not merely some truth +about Him and His work; He Himself, in the fulness of His being, in the +all-sufficiency of His love, in the reality of His presence, in the +power of His sacrifice, in the daily derivation, into the heart that +waits upon Him, of His life and His spirit, He is the all-sufficient +supply of every thirst of every human soul. Do we want happiness? Christ +gives us His joy, abiding and full, and not as the world gives. Do we +want love? He gathers us to His heart, in which 'there is no +variableness, neither shadow cast by turning,' and binds us to Himself +by bonds that death, the separator, vainly attempts to untie, and which +no unworthiness, ingratitude or coldness of ours will ever be able to +unloose. Do we want wisdom? He will dwell with us as our light. Do our +hearts yearn for companionship? With Him we shall never be solitary. Do +we long for a bright hope which shall light up the dark future, and +spread a rainbow span over the great gorge and gulf of death? Jesus +Christ spans the void, and gives us unfailing and undeceiving hope. For +everything that you and I need here or yonder, in heart, in will, in +practical life, Jesus Christ Himself is the all-sufficient supply. + +'My life in death, my all in all.' What is offered in Him may be +described by all the glorious and blessed names which men have invented +to designate the various aspects of the Good. These are the goodly +pearls that men seek, but there is one of great price which is worth +them all, and gathers into itself all their clouded and fragmentary +splendours. Christ is all, and the soul that has Him shall never thirst. + + 'Thou of life the fountain art, + Freely let me take of Thee.' + +III. Lastly, how do we obtain the offered gifts? + +The paradox of my text needs little explanation, 'Buy without money and +without price.' The contradiction on the surface is but intended to make +emphatic this blessed truth, which I pray may reach your memories and +hearts, that the only conditions are a sense of need, and a willingness +to take--nothing less and nothing more. We must recognise our penury and +must abandon self, and put away all ideas of having a finger in our own +salvation, and be willing--which, strangely and sadly enough, many of us +are not-to be under obligations to God's unhelped and undeserved love +for all. + +Cheap things are seldom valued. Ask a high price and people think that +the commodity is precious. A man goes into a fair, for a wager, and he +carries with him a try full of gold watches and offers to sell them for +a farthing apiece, and nobody will buy them. It does not, I hope, +degrade the subject, if I say Jesus Christ comes into the market-place +of the world with His hands full of the gifts which His pierced hands +have bought, that He may give them away. He says, 'Will you take them?' +And you, and you, and you, pass by on the other side, and go away to +another merchant, and buy dearly things that are not worth the having. + +'My father, my father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, +wouldst thou not have done it?' Would you not? Swing at the end of a +pole, with hooks in your back; measure all the way from Cape Comorin to +the Himalayas, lying down on your face and rising at each length; do a +hundred things which heathens and Roman Catholics and unspiritual +Protestants think to be the way to get salvation; deny yourselves things +that you would like to do; do things that you do not want to do; give +money that you would like to keep; avoid habits that are very sweet, go +to church or chapel when you have no heart for worship; and so try to +balance the account. If the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, +thou wouldst have done it. How much rather when he says, 'Wash, and be +clean.' 'Nothing in my heart I bring.' You do _not_ bring anything. +'Simply to Thy Cross I cling.' Do you? Do you? Jesus Christ catches up +the 'comes' of my text, and He says, 'Come unto Me, all ye that labour +and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' 'If any man thirst, let +him come unto Me and drink.' Brethren, I lay it on your hearts and +consciences to answer Him--never mind about me--to answer _Him_: 'Sir, +give me this water that I thirst not.' + + + + +GOD'S WAYS AND MAN'S + +'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, +saith the Lord. 9. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are +My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.'-- +ISAIAH lv. 8, 9. + + +Scripture gives us no revelations concerning God merely in order that we +may know about Him. These words are grand poetry and noble theology, but +they are meant practically and in fiery earnestness. The 'for' at the +beginning of each clause points us back to the previous statement, and +both of the verses of our text are in different ways its foundation. And +what has preceded is this: 'Let the wicked forsake his way and the +unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, for He +will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will abundantly +pardon.' That is why the prophet dilates upon the difference between the +'thoughts' and the 'ways' of God and of men. + +If we look at these two verses a little more closely we shall perceive +that they by no means cover the same ground nor suggest the same idea as +to the relationship between God's 'ways' and 'thoughts' and ours. The +former of them speaks of unlikeness and opposition, the latter of +elevation and superiority; the former of them is the basis of an +indictment and an exhortation, the latter is the basis of an +encouragement and a promise. The former of them is the reason why 'the +wicked' and 'unrighteous man' ought to and must 'turn' from 'his ways' +and 'thoughts,' the latter of them is the reason why, 'turning,' he may +be sure that the Lord 'will abundantly pardon.' + +And so we have here two things to consider in reference to the relation +between the divine purposes and acts and man's purposes and acts. First, +the antagonism, and the indictment and exhortation that are based upon +that; second, the analogy but superiority, and the exhortation and hope +that are built upon that. Let me deal, then, with these separately. + +I. We have here an unlikeness declared, and upon that is rested an +appeal. + +Notice the remarkable order and alternation of pronouns in the first +verse. '_My_ thoughts are not _your_ thoughts,' saith the Lord. The +things that God thinks and purposes are not the things that man thinks +and purposes, and therefore, because the thoughts are different, the +outcomes of them in deeds are divergent. God's 'ways' are His acts, the +manner and course of His working considered as a path on which He moves, +and on which, in some sense, we can also journey. Our 'ways'--our manner +of life--are not parallel with His, as they should be. + +But that opposition is expressed with a remarkable variation. Observe +the change of pronouns in the two clauses. First, '_My_ thoughts are not +your thoughts'--you have not taken My truth into your minds, nor My +purposes into your wills; you do riot think God's thoughts. +Therefore--'_your_ ways (instead of 'My,' as we should have expected, to +keep the regularity of the parallelism) are not My ways'--I repudiate +and abjure your conduct and condemn it utterly. + +Now, of course, in this charge of man's unlikeness to God, there is no +contradiction of, nor reference to, man's natural constitution, in which +there are, at one and the same time, the likeness of the child with the +parent and the unlikeness between the creature and the Creator. If our +thoughts were not in a measure like God's thoughts, we should know +nothing about Him. If our thoughts were not like God's thoughts, we +should have no standard for life or thinking. Righteousness and beauty +and truth and goodness are the same things in heaven and earth, and +alike in God and man. We are made after His image, poor creatures though +we be; and though there must ever be a gulf of unlikeness, which we +cannot bridge, between the thoughts of Him whose knowledge has no growth +nor uncertainty, whose wisdom is infinite and all whose nature is +boundless light, and our knowledge, and must ever be a gulf between the +workings and ways of Him who works without effort, and knows neither +weariness nor limitation, and our work, so often foiled, so always +toilsome, yet in all the unlikeness there is (and no man can denude +himself of it) a likeness to the Father. For the image in which God made +man at the beginning is not an image that it is in the power of men to +cast away, and in the worst of his corruptions and the widest of his +departures he still bears upon him the signs of likeness 'to Him that +created him.' The coin is rusty, battered, defaced; but still legible +are the head and the writing. 'Whose image and superscription hath it?' +Render unto God the things that are declared to be God's, because they +bear His likeness and are stamped with His signature. + +But that very necessary and natural likeness between God and man makes +more solemnly sinful the voluntary unlikeness which we have brought upon +ourselves. If there were no analogy, there could be no contrast. If God +and man were utterly unlike, then there would be no evil in our +unlikeness and no need for our repentance. + +The true state for each of us is that we should, as the great astronomer +said he had done in regard to his own science, 'think God's thoughts +after Him,' and have our minds filled with His truth and our wills all +harmonised with His purposes, and that we should thus make our ways to +run parallel with the ways of God. The blessedness, the peace, the true +manhood of a man, are that his ways and thoughts should be like God's. +And so my text comes with its indictment--You who by nature were formed +in His image, you to whom it is open to sympathise with His designs, to +harmonise your wills with His will, and to bring all the dark and +crooked ways in which you walk into full parallelism with His way--you +have departed into darkness of unlikeness, and in thought and in ways +are the opposites of God. + +Mark how wonderfully, in the simple language of my text, deep truths +about this sin of ours are conveyed. Notice its growth and order. It +begins with a heart and mind that do not take in God's thoughts, truths, +purposes, desires, and then the alienated will and the darkened +understanding and the conscience which has closed itself against His +imperative voice issue afterwards in conduct which He cannot accept as +in any way corresponding with His. First comes the thought unreceptive +of God's thought, and then follow ways contrary to God's ways. + +Notice the profound truth here in regard to the essential and deepest +evil of all our evil. '_Your_ thoughts'; '_your_ ways,'--self-dependence +and self-confidence are the master-evils of humanity. And every sin is +at bottom the result of saying--'I will not conform myself to God, but I +am going to please myself, and take my own way.' My own way is never +God's way; my own way is always the devil's way. And the root of all sin +lies in these two strong, simple words, '_Your_ thoughts not Mine; +_your_ ways not Mine.' + +Notice, too, how there are suggested the misery and retribution of this +unlikeness. 'If you will not make My thoughts your thoughts, I shall not +take your ways as My ways. I will leave you to them.' 'You will be +filled with the fruit of your own devices. I shall not incorporate your +actions into My great scheme and purpose.' Men + + 'Would not know His ways, + And He has left them to their own.' + +So here we have the solemn indictment brought by God's own voice against +us all. The criminality of our unlikeness to Him rests upon our original +likeness. + +The unlikeness roots itself in thought, and blossoms in the poisonous +flower of God-displeasing acts. It brings down upon our heads the solemn +retribution of separation from Him, and being filled with the fruit of +our own devices. Such is the indictment brought against every soul of +man upon the earth, and there is built upon it the call to repentance +and change,' let the wicked forsake his _way_, and the unrighteous man +his _thoughts_.' The question rises in many a heart, 'How am I to +forsake these paths on which my feet have so longed walked?' And if I +do, what about all the years behind me, full of wild wanderings and +thoughts in all of which God was not? + +II. The second verse of our text meets that despairing question. It +proclaims the elevation of God's ways and thoughts above ours, and +thereon bases the assurance of pardon. + +The relation is not only one of unlikeness and opposition, but it is +also one of analogy and superiority. The former clause began with +thoughts which are the parents of ways, and, as befits the all-seeing +Judge, laid bare first the hidden discord of man's heart and will, ere +it pointed to the manifest antagonism of his doings. This clause begins +with God's ways, from which alone men can reach the knowledge of His +thoughts. The first follows the order of God's knowledge of man; the +second, that of man's knowledge of God. + +It is a wonderful and beautiful turn which the prophet here gives to the +thought of the transcendent elevation of God. The heavens are the very +type of the unattainable; and to say that they are 'higher than the +earth' seems, at first sight, to be but to say, 'No man hath ascended +into the heavens,' and you sinful men must grovel here down upon your +plain, whilst they are far above, out of your reach. But the heavens +bend. They are an arch, and not a straight line. They touch the horizon; +and there come from them the sweet influences of sunshine and of rain, +of dew and of blessing, which bring fertility. So they are not only far +and unattainable, but friendly and beneficent, and communicative of +good. Like them, in true analogy but yet infinite superiority to the +best and noblest in man, is the boundless mercy of our pardoning God: + + 'The glorious sky, embracing all, + Is like its Maker's love, + Wherewith encompassed, great and small + In peace and order move.' + +'As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than +your ways.' _The_ special 'thought' and 'way' which is meant here is +God's thought and way about sin. There are three points here on which I +would touch for a moment. First, God's way of dealing with sin is lifted +up above all human example. There is such a thing as pardoning mercy +amongst men. It is a faint analogy of, as it is an offshoot from, the +divine pardon, but all the forgivingness of the most placable and +long-suffering and gladly pardoning of men is but as earth to heaven +compared with the greatness of His. Our forgiveness has its limitations. +We sometimes cannot pardon as freely as we thought, because there blends +with our indignation against evil a passionate personal sense of wrong +done to us which we cannot get rid of, and that disturbs the freeness +and the joyfulness of many a human pardon. But God's pardon is +undisturbed and hindered by any sense of personal resentment, though sin +is an offense against Him, and in its freeness, its fulness, its +frequency, and its sovereign power to melt away that which it forgives, +it towers above the loftiest of earth's beauties of forgiveness, as the +starry heavens do above the flat plain. + +God's pardon is above all human example, even though, having once been +received by us, it ought to become for us the pattern by which we shape +and regulate our own lives. Nothing of which we have any experience in +ourselves or in others is more than as a drop to the ocean compared with +the absolute fulness and perfect freeness and unwearied frequency of His +forgiveness. 'He will abundantly pardon.' He will multiply pardon. 'With +Him there is plenteous redemption.' We think we have stretched the +elasticity of long suffering and forgiveness further than we might have +been reasonably expected to do if seven times we forgive the erring +brother, but God's measure of pardon is seventy times seven, two +perfectnesses multiplied into themselves perfectly; for the measure of +His forgiveness is boundless, and there is no searching of the depths of +His pardoning mercy. You cannot weary Him out, you cannot exhaust it. It +is full at the end as at the beginning; and after all its gifts still it +remains true, 'With Him is the multiplying of redemption.' + +Again, God's way of dealing with sin surpasses all our thought. All +religion has been pressed with this problem, how to harmonise the +perfect rectitude of the divine nature and the solemn claims of law with +forgiveness. All religions have borne witness to the fact that men are +dimly aware of the discord and dissonance between themselves and the +divine thoughts and ways; and a thousand altars proclaim to us how they +have felt that something must be done in order that forgiveness might be +possible to an all-righteous and Sovereign Judge. The Jew knew that God +was a pardoning God, but to him that fact stood as needing much +explanation and much light to be thrown upon its relations with the +solemn law under which he lived. We have Jesus Christ. The mystery of +forgiveness is solved, in so far as it is capable of solution, in Him +and in Him alone. His death somewhat explains how God is just and the +Justifier of him that believeth. High above man's thoughts this great +central mystery of the Gospel rises, that with God there is forgiveness +and with God there is perfect righteousness. The Cross as the basis of +pardon is the central mystery of revelation; and it is not to be +expected that our theories shall be able to sound the depths of that +great act of the divine love. Perhaps our plummets do not go to the +bottom of the bottomless after all; but is it needful that we should +have gone to the rim of the heavens, and round about it on the outside, +before we rejoice in the sunshine? Is it needful that we should have +traversed the abysses of the heavens, and passed from star to star and +told their numbers, before we can say that they are bright, or before we +can walk in their light? We do not need to understand the 'how' in order +to be sure of the fact that Christ's death is our forgiveness. Do not be +in such a hurry as some people are nowadays, to declare that the +doctrine of the Cross is contrary to man's conceptions. It _surpasses_ +them, and the very fact that it surpasses ought to stop us from +pronouncing that it _contradicts_. 'As the heavens are higher than the +earth, so are My thoughts higher than your thoughts.' + +Lastly, we are taught here that God's way of dealing with sin is the +very highest point of His self-revelation. There are many glories of the +divine nature set forth in all His ways, but the loftiest of them all is +this, that He can neutralise and destroy the fact of man's +transgressing, wiping it out by pardon; and in the very act of pardon +reconstituting in purity, and with a heart for all holiness, the sinful +men whom He forgives. This is the shining apex of all that He has done, +rising above creation and every other 'way' of His, as high as the +loftiest heavens are above the earth. + +Therefore, have a care of all forms of Christianity which do not put +God's pardoning mercy in the foreground. They are maimed, and in them +mist and cloud have covered with a roof of doleful grey the low-lying +earth, and separated it from the highest heavens. The true glory of the +revelation of God gathers round that central Cross; and there, in that +Man dying upon it in the dark--the sacrifice for a world's sin--is the +loftiest, most heavenly revelation of the all-revealing God. Strike out +the Cross from Christianity, or weaken its aspect as a message of +forgiveness and redemption, and you have quenched its brightest light, +and dragged it down to be but a little higher, if any, than many another +scheme of other moralists, philosophers, poets, and religious teachers. +The distinctive glory of Christianity is this--it tells us how God +sweeps away sin. + +And so my last thought is that, if we desire to see up on the highest +heavens of God's character, we must go down into the depths of the +consciousness of our own sin, and learn first, how unlike our ways and +thoughts are to God, ere we can understand how high above us, and yet +beneficently arching over us, are His ways and thoughts to us. We lie +beneath the heavens like some foul bog full of black ooze, rotten earth +and putrid water, where there is nothing green or fair. But the promise +of the bending heavens, with their sweet influences, declares the +possibility of reclaiming even that waste, and making it rejoice and +blossom as the rose. Spread yourselves out, dear friends, in lowly +submission and penitent acknowledgment beneath the all-vivifying mercy +of that shining heaven of God's pardon; and then the old promise will be +fulfilled in you: 'Truth shall spring out of the earth, and +righteousness shall look down from heaven; yea, the Lord shall give that +which is good, and our land'--barren and poisoned as it has been-- +responding to the skyey influences, 'shall yield her increase.' + + + + +WE SURE OF TO-MORROW? A NEW YEAR'S SERMON + +'To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.'--ISAIAH lvi. +12. + + +These words, as they stand, are the call of boon companions to new +revelry. They are part of the prophet's picture of a corrupt age when +the men of influence and position had thrown away their sense of duty, +and had given themselves over, as aristocracies and plutocracies are +ever tempted to do, to mere luxury and good living. They are summoning +one another to their coarse orgies. The roystering speaker says, 'Do not +be afraid to drink; the cellar will hold out. To-day's carouse will not +empty it; there will be enough for to-morrow.' He forgets to-morrow's +headaches; he forgets that on some tomorrow the wine will be finished; +he forgets that the fingers of a hand may write the doom of the rioters +on the very walls of the banqueting chamber. + +What have such words, the very motto of insolent presumption and short- +sighted animalism, to do with New Year's thoughts? Only this, that base +and foolish as they are on such lips, it is possible to lift them from +the mud, and take them as the utterance of a lofty and calm hope which +will not be disappointed, and of a firm and lowly resolve which may +ennoble life. Like a great many other sayings, they may fit the mouth +either of a sot or of a saint. All depends on what the things are which +we are thinking about when we use them. There are things about which it +is absurd and worse than absurd to say this, and there are things about +which it is the soberest truth to say it. So looking forward into the +merciful darkness of another year, we may regard these words as either +the expressions of hopes which it is folly to cherish, or of hopes that +it is reasonable to entertain. + +I. This expectation, if directed to any outward things, is an illusion +and a dream. + +These coarse revellers into whose lips our text is put only meant by it +to brave the future and defy to-morrow in the riot of their drunkenness. +They show us the vulgarest, lowest form which the expectation can take, +a form which I need say nothing about now. + +But I may just note in passing that to look forward principally as +anticipating pleasure or enjoyment is a very poor and unworthy thing. We +weaken and lower every day, if we use our faculty of hope mainly to +paint the future as a scene of delights and satisfactions. We spoil to- +day by thinking how we can turn it to the account of pleasure. We spoil +to-morrow before it comes, and hurt ourselves, if we are more engaged +with fancying how it will minister to our joy, than how we can make it +minister to our duty. It is base and foolish to be forecasting our +pleasures; the true temper is to be forecasting our work. + +But, leaving that consideration, let us notice how useless such +anticipation, and how mad such confidence, as that expressed in the text +is, if directed to anything short of God. + +We are so constituted as that we grow into a persuasion that what has +been will be, and yet we can give no sufficient reason to ourselves of +why we expect it. 'The uniformity of the course of nature is the +corner-stone, not only of physical science, but, in a more homely form, +of the wisdom which grows with experience, We all believe that the sun +will rise to-morrow because it rose to-day, and on all the yesterdays. +But there was a today which had no yesterday, and there will be a to- +day which will have no to-morrow. The sun will rise for the last time. +The uniformity had a beginning and will have an end. + +So, even as an axiom of thought, the anticipation that things will +continue as they have been because they have been, seems to rest on an +insufficient basis. How much more so, as to our own little lives and +their surroundings! There the only thing which we may be quite sure of +about to-morrow is that it will not be 'as this day.' Even for those of +us who may have reached, for example, the level plateau of middle life, +where our position and tasks are pretty well fixed, and we have little +more to expect than the monotonous repetition of the same duties +recurring at the same hour every day--even for such each day has its own +distinctive character. Like a flock of sheep they seem all alike, but +each, on closer inspection, reveals a physiognomy of its own. There will +be so many small changes that even the same duties or enjoyments will +not be quite the same, and even if the outward things remained +absolutely unaltered, we who meet them are not the same. Little +variations in mood and tone, diminished zest here, weakened power there, +other thoughts breaking in, and over and above all the slow, silent +change wrought on us by growing years, make the perfect reproduction of +any past impossible. So, however familiar may be the road which we have +to traverse, however uneventfully the same our days may sometimes for +long spaces in our lives seem to be, though to ourselves often our day's +work may appear as a mill-horse round, yet in deepest truth, if we take +into account the whole sum of the minute changes in it and in us, it may +be said of each step of our journey, 'Ye have not passed this way +heretofore.' + +But, besides all this, we know that these breathing-times when 'we have +no changes,' are but pauses in the storm, landing-places in the ascent, +the interspaces between the shocks. However hope may tempt us to dream +that the future is like the present, a deeper wisdom lies in all our +souls which says 'No.' Drunken bravery may front that darkness with such +words as these of our text, but the least serious spirit, in its most +joyous moods, never quite succeeds in forgetting the solemn +probabilities, possibilities, and certainties which lodge in the unknown +future. So to a wise man it is ever a sobering exercise to look forward, +and we shall be nearest the truth if we take due account, as we do +today, of the undoubted fact that the only thing certain about to-morrow +is that it will not be as this day. + +There are the great changes which come to some one every day, which may +come to any of us any day, which will come to all of us some day. Some +of us will die this year; on a day in our new diaries some of us will +make no entry, for we shall be gone. Some of us will be smitten down by +illness; some of us will lose our dearest; some of us will lose fortune. +Which of us it is to be, and where within these twelve months the blow +is to fall, are mercifully hidden. The only thing that we certainly know +is that these arrows will fly. The thing we do not know is whose heart +they will pierce. This makes the gaze into the darkness grave and +solemn. There is ever something of dread in Hope's blue eyes. + +True, the ministry of change is blessed and helpful; true, the darkness +which hides the future is merciful and needful, if the present is not to +be marred. But helpful and merciful as they are, they invest the unknown +to-morrow with a solemn power which it is good, though sobering, for us +to feel, and they silence on every lip but that of riot and foolhardy +debauchery the presumptuous words, 'To-morrow shall be as this day, and +much more abundant.' + +II. But yet there is a possibility of so using the words as to make them +the utterance of a sober certainty which will not be put to shame. + +So long as our hope and anticipations creep along the low levels of +earth, and are concerned with external and creatural good, their +language can never rise beyond, 'To-morrow _may_ be as this day.' +Oftenest they reach only to the height of the wistful wish, 'May it be +as this day!' But there is no need for our being tortured with such +slippery possibilities. We may send out our hope like Noah's dove, not +to hover restlessly over a heaving ocean of change, but to light on +firm, solid certainty, and fold its wearied wings there. Forecasting is +ever close by foreboding. Hope is interwoven with fear, the golden +threads of the weft crossing the dark ones of the warp, and the whole +texture gleaming bright or glooming black according to the angle at +which it is seen. So is it always until we turn our hope away from earth +to God, and fill the future with the light of His presence and the +certainty of His truth. Then the mists and doubts roll away; we get +above the region of 'perhaps' into that of 'surely'; the future is as +certain as the past, hope as assured of its facts as memory, prophecy as +veracious as history. + +Looking forward, then, let us not occupy ourselves with visions which we +know may or may not come true. Let us not feed ourselves with illusions +which may make the reality, when it comes to shatter them, yet harder to +bear. But let us make God in Christ our hope, and pass from +peradventures to certitudes; from 'To-morrow may he as this day--would +that it might,' to 'It shall be, it shall be, for God is my expectation +and my hope.' We have an unchanging and an inexhaustible God, and He is +the true guarantee of the future for us. The more we accustom ourselves +to think of Him as shaping all that is contingent and changeful in the +nearest and in the remotest to-morrow, and as being Himself the +immutable portion of our souls, the calmer will be our outlook into the +darkness, and the more bright will be the clear light of certainty which +burns for us in it. + +To-day's wealth may be to-morrow's poverty, to-day's health to-morrow's +sickness, to-day's happy companionship of love to-morrow's aching +solitude of heart, but to-day's God will be to-morrow's God, to-day's +Christ will be to-morrow's Christ. Other fountains may dry up in heat or +freeze in winter, but this knows no change, 'in summer and winter it +shall be.' Other fountains may sink low in their basins after much +drawing, but this is ever full, and after a thousand generations have +drawn from it, its stream is broad and deep as ever. Other springs may +be left behind on the march, and the wells and palm-trees of each Elim +on our road may be succeeded by a dry and thirsty land where no water +is, but this spring follows us all through the wilderness, and makes +music and spreads freshness ever by our path. We can forecast nothing +beside; we can be sure of this, that God will be with us in all the days +that lie before us. What may be round the next headland we know not; but +this we know, that the same sunshine will make a broadening path across +the waters right to where we rock on the unknown sea, and the same +unmoving mighty star will burn for our guidance. So we may let the waves +and currents roll as they list--or rather as He wills, and be little +concerned about the incidents or the companions of our voyage, since He +is with us. We can front the unknown to-morrow, even when we most keenly +feel how solemn and sad are the things it may bring. + + 'It can bring with it nothing + But He will bear us through.' + +If only our hearts be fixed on God and we are feeding our minds and +wills on Him, His truth and His will, then we may be quite certain that, +whatever goes, our truest riches will abide, and whoever leaves our +little company of loved ones, our best Friend will not go away. +Therefore, lifting our hopes beyond the low levels of earth, and making +our anticipations of the future the reflection of the brightness of God +thrown on that else blank curtain, we may turn into the worthy utterance +of sober and saintly faith, the folly of the riotous sensualist when he +said, 'To-morrow shall be as this day.' + +The past is the mirror of the future for the Christian; we look back on +all the great deeds of old by which God has redeemed and helped souls +that cried to Him, and we find in them the eternal laws of His working. +They are all true for to-day as they were at first; they remain true +forever. The whole history of the past belongs to us, and avails for our +present and for our future. 'As we have heard, so have we seen in the +city of our God.' + +To-day's experience runs on the same lines as the stories of the 'years +of old,' which are 'the years of the right hand of the Most High.' +Experience is ever the parent of hope, and the latter can only build +with the bricks which the former gives. So the Christian has to lay hold +on all that God's mercy has done in the ages that are gone by, and +because He is a 'faithful Creator' to transmute history into prophecy, +and triumph in that 'the God of Jacob is our refuge.' + +Nor only does the record of what He has been to others come in to bring +material for our forecast of the future, but also the remembrance of +what He has been to ourselves. Has He been with us in six troubles? We +may be sure He will not abandon us at the seventh. He is not in the way +of beginning to build and leaving His work unfinished. Remember what He +has been to you, and rejoice that there has been one thing in your lives +which, you may be sure, will always be there. Feed your certain hopes +for to-morrow on thankful remembrances of many a yesterday. 'Forget not +the works of God,' that you may 'set your hopes on God.' Let our +anticipations base themselves on memory, and utter themselves in the +prayer, 'Thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God +of my salvation.' Then the assurance that He whom we know to be good and +wise and strong will shape the future, and Himself be the Future for us, +will take all the fear out of that forward gaze, will condense our light +and unsubstantial hopes into solid realities, and set before us an +endless line of days, in each of which we may gain more of Him whose +face has brightened the past and will brighten the future, till days +shall end and time open into eternity. + +III. Looked at in another aspect, these words may be taken as the vow of +a firm and lowly resolve. + +There is a future which we can but very slightly influence, and the less +we look at that the better every way. But there is also a future which +we can mould as we wish--the future of our own characters, the only +future which is really ours at all--and the more clearly we set it +before ourselves and make up our minds as to whither we wish it to be +tending, the better. In that region, it is eminently true that 'to- +morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.' The law of +continuity shapes our moral and spiritual characters. What I am to-day, +I shall increasingly be to-morrow. The awful power of habit solidifies +actions into customs, and prolongs the reverberation of every note once +sounded, along the vaulted roof of the chamber where we live. To-day is +the child of yesterday and the parent of to-morrow. + +That solemn certainty of the continuance and increase of moral and +spiritual characteristics works in both good and bad, but with a +difference. To secure its full blessing in the gradual development of +the germs of good, there must be constant effort and tenacious +resolution. So many foes beset the springing of the good seed in our +hearts--what with the flying flocks of light-winged fugitive thoughts +ever ready to swoop down as soon as the sower's back is turned and +snatch it away, what with the hardness of the rock which the roots soon +encounter, what with the thick-sown and quick-springing thorns--that if +we trust to the natural laws of growth and neglect careful husbandry, we +may sow much but we shall gather little. But to inherit the full +consequences of that same law working in the growth and development of +the evil in us, nothing is needed but carelessness. + +Leave it alone for a year or two and the 'fruitful field will be a +forest,' a jungle of matted weeds, with a straggling blossom where +cultivation had once been. + +But if humbly we resolve and earnestly toil, looking for His help, we +may venture to hope that our characters will grow in goodness and in +likeness to our dear Lord, that we shall not cast away our confidence +nor make shipwreck of our faith, that each new day shall find in us a +deeper love, a perfecter consecration, a more joyful service, and that +so, in all the beauties of the Christian soul and in all the blessings +of the Christian life, 'to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more +abundant.' 'To him that hath shall be given.' 'The path of the just is +as the shining light, that shineth more and more until the noontide of +the day.' + +So we may look forward undismayed, and while we recognise the darkness +that wraps to-morrow in regard to all mundane affairs, may feed our +fortitude and fasten our confidence on the double certainties that we +shall have God and more of God for our treasure, that we shall have +likeness to Him and more of likeness in our characters. Fleeting moments +may come and go. The uncertain days may exercise their various ministry +of giving and taking away, but whether they plant or root up our earthly +props, whether they build or destroy our earthly houses, they will +increase our riches in the heavens, and give us fuller possession of +deeper draughts from the inexhaustible fountain of living waters. + +How dreadfully that same law of the continuity and development of +character works in some men there is no need now to dwell upon. By slow, +imperceptible, certain degrees the evil gains upon them. Yesterday's sin +smooths the path for to-day's. The temptation once yielded to gains +power. The crack in the embankment which lets a drop or two ooze through +is soon a great hole which lets in a flood. It is easier to find a man +who has never done a wrong thing than to find a man who has done it only +once. Peter denied his Lord thrice, and each time more easily than the +previous time. So, before we know it, the thin gossamer threads of +single actions are twisted into a rope of habit, and we are 'tied with +the cords of our sins.' Let no man say, 'Just for once I may venture on +evil; so far I will go and no farther.' Nay, 'to-morrow shall be as this +day, and much more abundant.' + +How important, then, the smallest acts become when we think of them as +thus influencing character! The microscopic creatures, thousands of +which will go into a square inch, make the great white cliffs that +beetle over the wildest sea and front the storm. So, permanent and solid +character is built up out of trivial actions, and this is the solemn +aspect of our passing days, that they are making _us_. + +We might well tremble before such a thought, which would be dreadful to +the best of us, if it were not for pardoning mercy and renewing grace. +The law of reaping what we have sown, or of continuing as we have begun, +may be modified as far as our sins and failures are concerned. The +entail may be cut off, and to-morrow need not inherit to-day's guilt, +nor to-day's habits. The past may be all blotted out through the mercy +of God in Christ. No debt need be carried forward to another page of the +book of our lives, for Christ has given Himself for us, and He speaks to +us all--'Thy sins be forgiven thee.' No evil habit need continue its +dominion over us, nor are we obliged to carry on the bad tradition of +wrongdoing into a future day, for Christ lives, and 'if any man be in +Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away, all things are +become new.' + +So then, brethren, let us humbly take the confidence which these words +may be used to express, and as we stand on the threshold of a new year +and wait for the curtain to be drawn, let us print deep on our hearts +the uncertainty of our hold of all things here, nor seek to build nor +anchor on these, but lift our thoughts to Him, who will bless the future +as He has blessed the past, and will even enlarge the gifts of His love +and the help of His right hand. Let us hope for ourselves not the +continuance or increase of outward good, but the growth of our souls in +all things lovely and of good report, the daily advance in the love and +likeness of our Lord. + +So each day, each succeeding wave of the ocean of time shall cast up +treasures for us as it breaks at our feet. As we grow in years, we shall +grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, +until the day comes when we shall exchange earth for heaven. That will +be the sublimest application of this text, when, dying, we can calmly be +sure that though to-day be on this side and to-morrow on the other bank +of the black river, there will be no break in the continuity, but only +an infinite growth in our life, and heaven's to-morrow shall be as +earth's to-day, and much more abundant. + + + + +FLIMSY GARMENTS + +'Their webs shall not become garments.'--ISAIAH lix. 6. + +'I counsel thee to buy of me ... white raiment, that thou mayest be +clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear.'--REV. iii. +18. + + +The force of these words of the prophet is very obvious. He has been +pouring out swift, indignant denunciation on the evil-doers in Israel; +and, says he, 'they hatch cockatrice's eggs and spin spiders' webs,' +pointing, as I suppose, to the patient perseverance, worthy of a better +cause, which bad men will exercise in working out their plans. Then with +a flash of bitter irony, led on by his imagination to say more than he +had meant, he adds this scathing parenthesis, as if he said, 'Yes, they +spin spiders' webs, elaborate toil and creeping contrivance, and what +comes of it all! The flimsy foul thing is swept away by God's besom +sooner or later. A web indeed! but they will never make a garment out of +it. It looks like cloth, but it is useless.' That is the old lesson that +all sin is profitless and comes to nothing. + +I venture to connect with that strongly figurative declaration of the +essential futility of godless living, our second text, in which Jesus +uses a similar figure to express one aspect of His gifts to the +believing soul. He is ready to clothe it, so that 'being clothed, it +will not be found naked.' + +I. Sin clothes no man even here. + +Notice in passing what a hint there is of the toil and trouble that men +are so willing to take in a wrong course. Hatching and spinning both +suggest protracted, sedulous labour. And then the issue of it all is-- +_nothing_. + +Take the plainest illustrations of this truth first--the breach of +common laws of morality, the indulgence, for instance, in dissipation. A +man gets a certain coarse delight out of it, but what does he get +besides? A weakened body, a tyrannous craving, ruined prospects, +oftenest poverty and shame, the loss of self-respect and love; of moral +excellences, of tastes for what is better. He is not a beast, and he +cannot live for pure animalism without injuring himself. + +Then take actual breaches of human laws. How seldom these 'pay,' even in +the lowest sense. Thieves are always poor. The same experience of +futility dogs all coarse and palpable breaches of morality. It is always +true that 'He that breaketh a hedge, a serpent shall bite him.' + +The reasons are not far to seek. This is, on the whole, God's world, a +world of retribution. Things are, on the whole, on the side of goodness. +God is in the world, and that is an element not to be left out in the +calculation. Society is on the side of goodness to a large extent. The +constitution of a man's own soul, which God made, works in the same +direction. Young men who are trembling on the verge of youthful +yieldings to passion, are tempted to fancy that they can sow sin and not +reap suffering or harm. Would that they settled it in their thoughts +that he who fires a fuse must expect an explosion! + +But the same rule applies to every godless form of life. Take our +Manchester temptation, money or success in business. Take ambition. Take +culture, literary fame. Take love and friendship. What do they all come +to, if godless? I do not point to the many failures, but suppose +success: would that make you a happy man? If you won what you wanted, +would it be enough? What 'garments' for your conscience, for your sense +of sin, for your infinite longings would success in any godless course +provide? You would have what you wanted, and what would it bring with +it? Cares and troubles and swift satiety, and not seldom incapacity to +enjoy what you had won with so much toil. If you gained the prize, you +would find clinging to it something that you did not bargain for, and +that took most of the dazzle away from it. + +II. The rags are all stripped off some day. + +Death is a becoming naked as to the body, and as to all the occupations +that terminate with bodily life. It necessarily involves the loss of +possessions, the cessation of activities, the stripping off of self- +deceptions, and exposure to the gaze of the Judge, without defence. The +godless soul will 'be found naked' and ashamed. All 'works of darkness,' +laden with rich blossom or juicy fruit though they have seemed to be, +will then be seen to be in tragic truth 'fruitless.' A life's spinning +and weaving, and not a rag to cover the toiler after all! Is that +'productive labour'? + +III. Christ will clothe you. + +'White raiment.' Pure character. Covering before the Judge. Festal robe +of Victory. + +'Buy'--how? By giving up self. + + + + +THE SUNLIT CHURCH + +'Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen +upon thee. 2. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross +darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory +shall be seen upon thee. 3. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, +and kings to the brightness of thy rising.'--ISAIAH lx. 1-3. + + +The personation of Israel as a woman runs through the whole of this +second portion of Isaiah's prophecy. We see her thrown on the earth a +mourning mother, a shackled captive. We hear her summoned once and again +to awake, to arise, to shake herself from the dust, to loose the bands +of her neck. These summonses are prophecies of the impending Messianic +deliverance. The same circle of truths, in a somewhat different aspect, +is presented in the verses before us. The prophet sees the earth wrapped +in a funeral pall of darkness, and a beam of more than natural light +falling on one prostrate form. The old story is repeated, Zion stands in +the light, while Egypt cowers in gloom. The light which shines upon her +is 'the Glory of the Lord,' the ancient brightness that dwelt between +the cherubim within the veil in the secret place of the Most High, and +is now come out into the open world to envelop the desolate captive. +Thus touched by the light she becomes light, and in her turn is bidden +to shine. There is a very remarkable correspondence reiterated in my +text between the illuminating God and the illuminated Zion. The word for +shine is connected with the word for light, and might fairly be rendered +'lighten,' or 'be light.' Twice the phrase 'thy light' is employed; once +to mean the light which is thine because it shines on thee; once to mean +the light which is thine because it shines from thee. The other word, +three times repeated, for _rising_, is the technical word which +expresses the sunrise, and it is applied both to the flashing glory that +falls upon Zion and to the light that gleams from her. Touched by the +sun, she becomes a sun, and blazes in her heaven in a splendour that +draws men's hearts. So, then, if that be the fair analysis of the words +before us, they present to us some thoughts bearing on the Missionary +work of the Church, and I gather them all up in three--the fact, the +ringing summons, and the confident promise. + +I. Now, as to the fact. + +Beneath the poetry of my text there lie very definite conceptions of a +very solemn and grave character, and these conceptions are the +foundation of the ringing summons that follows, and which reposes upon a +double basis--viz. '_for_ thy light is come,' and '_for_ darkness covers +the earth.' There is a double element in the representation. We have a +darkened earth, and a sunlit and a sunlike church; and unless we hold +these two convictions--both of them-in firm grasp, and that not merely +as convictions that influence our understanding, but as ever present +forces acting on our emotions, our consciences, our wills, we shall not +do the work which God has set us to do in the world. I need not dwell +long on the former of these, or speak of that funeral pall that wraps +the whole earth. Only remember that it is no darkness that came from His +hand who forms the light and creates darkness, but is like the smoke +that lies over our great cities--the work of many an earth-born fire, +whose half-consumed foulness hides the sun from us. If we take the +sulphureous and smoky pall that wraps the earth, and analyse its +contents, they are these: the darkness of ignorance, the darkness of +sorrow, the darkness of sin. Of ignorance; for throughout the wide +regions that lie beneath that covering spread over all nations is there +any certitude about God, about man, about morals, about +responsibilities, about eternity? Peradventures, guesses, dreams, +precious fragments of truth, twisted in with the worst of lies, noble +aspirations side by side with bestial representations--these are the +things on which our brethren repose, or try to repose. We do not forget +that light which lighteneth every man that cometh into the world. + +We do not forget, of course, that everywhere there are feelings after +Him, and everywhere there are gleams and glimpses of a vanishing light, +else life were impossible; but oh, dear brethren, let us not forget +either that the people sit in darkness of ignorance, which is the +saddest darkness that can afflict men. + +And it is a darkness of sorrow, for all the ills that flesh is heir to +press, unalleviated and unsustained by any known helper in the heavens, +upon millions of our fellows. They stand, as the great German poet +describes himself as standing, in one of the most pathetic of his +lyrics, before the marble image of the fair goddess, who has pity on her +face and beauty raying from her limbs, but she has no arms. So tears +fall undried. The light-hearted savage is a fiction. What a heavy gloom +lies upon his past and his present, which darkens into an impenetrable +mist that wraps and hides the future! + +And the darkness is a darkness of sin as well as of sorrow and of +ignorance. On that point I need not dwell. We all believe that all have +'sinned and come short of the glory of God,' and we all believe that +idolatry, as we see it, and as it is wrought out, is an ally of impurity +and of sin. The process is this: men make gods in their own image, and +the gods make devils of the men. 'They that make them are like unto +them, so is every one that trusteth in them.' We need no other principle +than that to account for the degradation of heathenism and for the +obscenities and foul transgression within the very courts of the temple. + +Now, dear friends, that I may not dwell too long upon the A B C of our +belief, let me urge you in one sentence to be on your guard against +present-day tendencies which weaken the force of this solemn, tragical +conviction as to the realities of heathendom. The new science of +comparative religion has done much for us. I am not saying one word +against this pursuit, or the conclusions which are drawn from it. But I +pray you to remember that the underlying truths buried beneath the +system that any men hold as their religion are one thing, and the +practical working of that system, as we see it in daily life, is +altogether another. The actual character of heathenism is not to be +learned from the sacred books of all nations and the precious gleams of +wisdom and feeling after the Divine which we recognise in man. As a +simple matter of fact, all over the world the religion of heathen +nations is a mass of obscenity, intertwined so closely with nobler +thoughts that the two seem to be inseparable. Unalleviated sorrows, +hideous foulnesses, a gross ignorance covering all the most important +realities for men--these are the facts with which we have to grapple. Do +not let us forget them. + +And on the other side, remember the contrasted picture here of the +sunlit and sunny church. The incarnation of Jesus Christ is the +fulfilment of my text. 'We behold His glory, the glory as of the only +begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.' If you and I are +Christians, we are bound to believe in Him as the exclusive source of +certainty. We hear from Him no peradventure, but His word is, 'Verily, +verily, I say unto you,' and on that word we rest all our knowledge of +God, of duty, of man, and of the future. Instead of fears, doubt, +perhapses, we have a living Christ and His rock-word. And in Him is all +joy, and in Him is the cleansing from all sin. And this threefold +radiance, into which the one pure light may be analysed, falls upon us. +It falls all over the world as well; but they into whose hearts it has +come, they whose faces are turned to it, they receive it in a sense in +which the unreceptive and unresponsive darkness of the world does not. +The light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness will have none of +it, and so it is darkness yet. The light shineth upon us, and if by His +mercy we have opened our hearts to it, then, according to the profound +teaching of this context, we are not only a sun-lighted but a sunlike +Church, and to us the commandment comes, 'Arise, shine, for thy light is +come,' and has turned thy poor darkness into a sun too. + +If we have the light we shall be light. That is but putting in a +picturesque form the very central truth of Christianity. The last word +of the gospel is transformation. We become like Him if we live near Him, +and the end for which the Master became like unto us in His incarnation +and passion was that we might become like to Him by the reception of His +very own life unto our souls. Light makes many a surface on which it +falls flash, but in the optics of earth it is the rays which are not +absorbed that are reflected; but in this loftier region the illumination +is not superficial but inward, and it is the light which is swallowed up +within us that then comes forth from us. Christ will dwell in our +hearts, and we shall be like some poor little diamond-shaped pane of +glass in a cottage window which, when the sun smites it, is visible over +miles of the plain. If that sun falls upon us, its image will be +mirrored in our hearts and flashing in our lives. The clouds that lie +over the sunset, though in themselves they be but poor, grey, and moist +vapour, when smitten by its beneficent radiance, become not unworthy +ministers and attendants upon its glory. So, my brethren, it may be with +us, for Christ comes to be our light, Because He is in us and with us we +are changed into His likeness, and the names that are most appropriate +to Him He shares with us. Is He the 'Son'?--we are sons. Is He 'the +Light of the world'? His own lips tell us, 'Ye are the light of the +world.' Is He the Christ? The Psalm says: 'Touch not my Christs, and do +My prophets no harm.' Critics have quarrelled over these last chapters +of the Book of Isaiah, as to whom the servant of the Lord is; whether he +is the personal or collective Israel, whether he is Christ or His +Church. Let us take the lesson that He and we are so united that His +office that made the union possible, wherein He was sacrificed on the +Cross for us all--belongs by derivation to His servants, and that He, +the Sun of Righteousness, moves in the heavens circled by many another +sun. + +So, dear friends, these two convictions of these two facts, the dark +earth, the sunlit, sunlike church, lie at the basis of all our +missionary work. If once we begin to doubt about them, if once we begin +to think that men have got a good deal of light already, and can do very +well without much more, or if we at all are hesitant about our +possession of the light, and the certitudes and the joys that are in it, +then good-bye to our missionary zeal. We shall soon begin to ask the +question, 'To what purpose is this waste?'--though the lips that first +asked it, by the bye, did not much recommend it--and shall consider that +money and resources and precious lives are too precious to be thrown +away thus. But if we rightly appreciate the force of these twin +principles, then we shall be ready to listen to the ringing summons. + +II. We have here, in the second place, based upon these two facts, the +summons to the Church. 'Shine, for thy light is come.' If we _have_ +light, we _are_ light. If we are light, we shall shine; but the shining +is not altogether spontaneous and effortless. Stars do not need to be +bidden to shine nor candles either; but _we_ need the exhortation, +because there are many things that dim the brilliance of our light and +interfere with its streaming forth. True, the property of light is to +shine, but we can rob the inward light of its beams. The silent witness +of a Christian life transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ is, +perhaps, the best contribution that any of us can make to the spread of +His kingdom. It is with us as it is with the great lights in the +heavens. 'There is no speech nor language; their voice is not heart,' +yet, 'their line has gone through all the earth, and their words to the +end of the world.' So we may quietly ray out the light in us and witness +the transforming power of our Master by the transparent purity of our +lives. But the command suggests likewise effort, and that effort must be +in the direction of the specific vocal proclamation of His name. + +I take both these methods of fulfilling the command into my view, in the +further remarks that I make, and I put that which I have to say upon +this into three sentences: if we are light, we shall be able to shine; +if we are light, we are bound to shine; if we are light, we shall wish +to shine. We shall be able to shine. And man can manifest what he is +unless he is a coward. Any man can talk about the things that are +interesting to him if only they are interesting to him. Any man that has +Jesus Christ can say so; and perhaps the utterance of the simple +personal conviction is the best method of proclaiming His name. All +other things are surplusage. They are good when they come, they may be +done without. Learning, eloquence, and the like of these, are the +adornments of the lamp, but it does not matter whether the lamp be a +gorgeous affair of gilt and crystal, or whether it be a poor piece of +block tin; the main question is: are there wick and oil in it? The +pitcher may be gold and silver, or costly china, or it may be a poor +potsherd. Never mind. If there is water in it, it will be precious to a +thirsty lip. And so, dear brethren, I press this upon you: every +Christian man has the power, if he is a Christian, to proclaim his +Master, and if he has the Light he will be able to show it. I pause for +a moment to say that this suggests for us the condition of all faithful +and effectual witness for Jesus Christ. Cultivate understanding and all +other faculties as much as you like: but oh! you Christian ministers, as +well as others in less official and public positions, remember this: the +fitness to impart is to possess, and that being taken for granted, the +main thing is secured. As long as the electric light is in contact with +the battery, so long does it burn. Electricians have been trying during +the past few years to make accumulators, things in which they can store +the influence and put it away in a corner and use it so that the light +need not be in connection with the battery; and they have not +succeeded--at least it is only a very partial success. You and I cannot +start accumulators. Let us remember that personal contact with Jesus is +power, and only that personal contact is so. Arise, shine! but if thou +hast gone out of the light, thou wilt shine no more. + +But again, if we are light we are bound to shine. That is an obvious +principle. The capacity to shine is the obligation to shine, for we are +all knit together by such mystical cords in this strange brotherhood of +humanity that every one of us holds his possession as trust property for +the use and behoof of others, and in the present case that which we have +received, and the price at which we have received it, give an edge to +the keenness of the obligation, and add a new grip to the stringency of +the command. It is because Christ has given Himself thus to us that the +possession of Him binds us to the imitation of His example, and the +impartation of Him to all our brethren. The obligation lies at our +doors, and cannot be delegated or devolved. + +If we have light, we shall wish to shine. What shall we say about the +Christian people who never really had such a wish? God forbid that I +should say they have no light; but this I will say, it burns very dimly. +Dear brethren, there is no better test of the depth and the purity of +our personal attachment to, and possession of, our Master than the +impulse that will spring from them to communicate Him to others. +'Necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is me if I preach not.' That should +be the word of every one of us, and it will be so in the measure in +which we ourselves have thoroughly laid hold of Jesus Christ. 'This is a +day of good tidings, and we cannot hold our peace,' said the handful of +lepers in the camp. 'If we are silent some mischief will come to us.' +'Thy word, when I shut it up in my bones and said, I will speak no more +in Thy name, was like a fire, and was weary of forbearing and could not +stay.' Brother, do you know anything of the divine necessity to share +your blessing with the men around you? Did you ever feel what it was to +carry a burden of the Lord that drove you to speech, and left you no +rest until you had done what it impelled you to do? If not, I beseech +you to ask yourselves whether you cannot get nearer to the sun than away +out there on the very edge of its system, receiving so few of its beams, +and these so impotent that they can scarcely do more than melt the +surface of the thick-ribbed ice that warps your spirit. If we are light +we shall be enabled, we shall be bound, we shall wish, to shine. +Christian men and women, is this true of you? + +III. Lastly, notice here the confident promise. + +'The Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of +thy rising.' If we have the light we shall be light; if we are light we +shall shine, and if we shine we shall attract. Certainly men and women +with the light of Christ in them will draw others to them, just as many +an eye that cannot look undazzled upon the sun can look upon it mirrored +upon some polished surface. A painter will fling upon his canvas a scene +that you and I, with our purblind eyes, have looked at hundreds of +times, and seen no beauty; but when we gaze on the picture, then we know +how fair it is. There is an attractive power in the light of Christ +shining from the face of a man. Of course, we have to moderate our +expectations. We have to remember that whilst it is true that some men +will come to the light, it is also true that some men 'love the +darkness, and will not come to the light because their deeds are evil'; +and we have to remember that we have no right to anticipate rapid +results. 'An inheritance may be begotten hastily at the beginning, but +the end thereof shall not be blessed,' said the wise man; and the +history of the Christian Church in many of its missionary operations is +a sad commentary upon the saying. We must remember that we cannot +estimate how long the preparation for a change, which will be developed +swiftly, may be. The sun on autumn mornings shines upon the fog; and the +people below, because there is a fog, do not know that it is shining; +but it is doing its work on the upper layer all the while, and at length +eats its way through the fleecy obstruction, which then swiftly +disappears. That must be a very, very long day of which the morning +twilight has been nineteen hundred years. Therefore, although the vision +tarries, we may fall back with unswerving confidence on these words of +my text--'The Gentiles shall come to the brightness of thy rising.' + +But after all this has been said, are you satisfied with the rate of +progress, are you satisfied with the swiftness of the fulfilment of such +hopes? Whose fault is it that the rate of progress is what it is? Yours +and mine and our predecessors'. There is such a thing as 'hasting the +day of the Lord,' and there is such a thing as protracting the time of +waiting. Dear brethren, the secret of our slow growth at home and abroad +lies in my text. Fulfil the conditions and you will get the result; but +if you are not shining by a light which is Christ's light, who promised +that _it_ would have attraction or draw men to it? A great deal of the +work of the Christian Church--but do not let us hide ourselves in the +generality of that word--a great deal of _our_ work is artificial light, +brewed out of retorts, and smelling sulphureous; and a great deal more +of it is the phosphorescence that glimmers above decay. If the Christian +Church has ceased in any measure, or in any of its members, to be able +to attract by the exhibition of its light, let the Christian Church sit +down and bethink itself of the sort of light it gives, and perhaps it +will find a reason for its failure. It is Christ, the holy Christ, the +loving Christ, the Christ in us making us wise and gentle, it is the +Christ manifested by word and by work, who will draw the nations to Him. + +So, men and brethren, do you keep near your Master and live close by His +side till you are drenched and saturated with His glory, and all your +cold vapours turned into visible divinity and manifested Jesus. Keep +near to Him. As long as a bit of scrap-iron touches a magnet, _it_ is a +magnet: as soon as the contact is broken it ceases to attract. If you +live in the full sunshine of Christ and have Him, not merely playing +upon the surface of your mind, but sinking deep down into it and +transforming your whole being, then some men will, as they look at you, +be filled with strange longings, and will say: 'Come, let us walk in the +light of the Lord.' So may you and I live, like the morning star, which, +from its serene altitudes, touched into radiance by the sun unseen from +the darkened plains, prophesies its rising to a sleeping world, and is +content to be lost in the lustre of that unsetting Light! + + + + +WALLS AND GATES + +'Thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise'--ISAIAH lx. +18. + + +The prophet reaches the height of eloquence in his magnificent picture +of the restored Jerusalem, 'the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy +One of Israel.' To him the city stands for the embodiment of the nation, +and his vision of the future is moulded by his knowledge of the past. +Israel and Jerusalem were to him the embodiments of the divine idea of +God's dwelling with men, and of a society founded on the presence of God +in its midst. We are not forcing meanings on his words which they will +not bear, when we see in the society of men redeemed by Christ the +perfect embodiment of his vision. Nor is the prophet of the New +Testament doing so when he casts his vision of the future which is to +follow Resurrection and Judgment into a like form, and shows us the new +Jerusalem coming down out of heaven. + +The end of the world's history is to be, not a garden but a city, a +visible community, bound together because God dwells in it, and yet not +having lost the blessed characteristics of the Garden from which man set +out on his long and devious march. + +The Christian form of the prophet's vision is the Christian Society, and +in that society, each individual member possesses his own portion of the +common blessings, so that the great words of this text have a personal +as well as a general application. We shall best bring out their rich +contents by simply taking them as they stand, and considering what is +promised by the two eloquent metaphors, which liken salvation to the +walls and praise to the gates of the City of God. + +I. Salvation is to be the city's wall. + +Another prophet foretold that the returning exiles would dwell in a +Jerusalem that had no walls, 'for I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a +wall of fire round about'; and Isaiah sang, 'We have a strong city; +salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.' There is no need for +material defences for the community or the individual whom God defends. +Would that the Church had lived up to the height of that great thought! +Would that we each believed it true in regard to our own lives! There +are three ways in which this promise may be viewed. We may think of +'salvation' as meaning God's purpose to save. And then the comfort and +sense of security will be derived from the thought that what He intends +He performs, and that nothing can traverse that purpose except our own +rebellions self-will. They whom God designs to keep are kept; they whom +God wills to save are saved, unless they oppose His will, which +opposition is in itself to be lost, and leads to ultimate and +irreparable loss. + +We may think of salvation as an actually begun work. Then the comfort +and sense of security will be derived from that great work by which +salvation has begun to be ours. The work of Christ keeps us from all +danger, and no foes can make a breach in that wall, nor reach those who +stand safe behind its strong towers. + +We may think of salvation as a personal experience, and then the comfort +and sense of security will be derived from that blessed consciousness of +possessing in some measure at least the spirit, not of bondage, but of a +son. The consciousness of having 'salvation' is our best defence against +spiritual foes and our best shield against temporal calamities. + +It is good for us to live by faith, to be thrown back on our unseen +protector, to feel with the psalmist, 'Thou, Lord, makest me to dwell in +safety, though alone,' and to see the wall great and high that is drawn +round our defenceless tent pitched on the sands of the flat desert. + +II. Praise is to be the city's gate. + +As to the Church, this prophecy anticipates the Apostle's teaching that +the whole divine work of Redemption, from its fore-ordination before the +foundation of the world, to its application to each sinful soul, is 'to +the end that we should be unto the praise of His glory' or, as he +elsewhere expands and enriches the expression, 'to the praise of the +glory of His grace.' + +We are 'secretaries of His praise.' A gate is that by which the safe +inhabitants go out into the region beyond, and the outgoings of the +active life of every Christian should be such as to make manifest the +blessings that he enjoys within the shelter of the city's walls. Only if +our hidden life is blessed with a begun salvation will our outward life +be vocal with the music of praise. The gate will be praise if, and only +if, the wall is salvation. + +And praise is the gate by which we should go out into the world, even +when the world into which we go is dark and the ways rough and hard. If +we have the warm glow of a realised salvation in our hearts, sorrows +that are but for a moment will not silence the voice of praise, though +they may cast it into a minor key. The praise that rises from a sad +heart is yet more melodious in God's ear than that which carols when all +things go well. The bird that sings in a darkened cage makes music to +its owner. 'Songs in the night' have a singular pathos and thrill the +listeners. When we 'take the cup of salvation' and call on the name of +the Lord, we shall offer to Him the sacrifices of thanksgiving, though +He may recall some of the precious gifts that He gave. For He never +takes away the wall of salvation which He has built around us, and as +long as that wall stands, its gates will be praise. Submission, +recognition of His will, and even 'silence because Thou didst it,' are +praise to His ear. + + + + +THE JOY-BRINGER + +'To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for +ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit +of heaviness.'--ISAIAH lxi. 3. + + +In the little synagogue of Nazareth Jesus began His ministry by laying +His hand upon this great prophecy and saying, 'It is Mine! I have +fulfilled it.' The prophet had been painting the ideal Messianic +Deliverer, with special reference to the return from the Babylonian +captivity. That was 'the liberty to the captives, and the opening of the +prison to them that are bound,' and about which he was thinking. But no +external deliverance of that sort could meet the needs, nor satisfy the +aspirations, of a soul that knows itself and its circumstances. Isaiah, +or the man who goes by his name, spoke greater things than he knew. I am +not going to enter upon questions of interpretation; but I may say, that +no conception of Jewish prophecy can hold its ground which is not framed +in the light of that great saying in the synagogue of Nazareth. So, +then, we have here the 'Man of Sorrows,' as this very prophet calls Him +in another place, presenting Himself as the Transformer of sorrow and +the Bringer of joy, in regard to infinitely deeper griefs than those +which sprang in the heart of the nation because of the historical +captivity. + +There is another beautiful thing in our text, which comes out more +distinctly if we follow the Revised Version, and read 'to give unto them +a _garland_ for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of +praise for the spirit of heaviness.' There we have two contrasted +pictures suggested: one of a mourner with grey ashes strewed upon his +dishevelled locks, and his spirit clothed in gloom like a black robe; +and to him there comes One who, with gentle hand, smoothes the ashes out +of his hair, trains a garland round his brow, anoints his head with oil, +and, stripping off the trappings of woe, casts about him a bright robe +fit for a guest at a festival. That is the miracle that Jesus Christ can +do for every one, and is ready to do for us, if we will let Him. Let us +look at this wonderful transformation, and at the way by which it is +effected. + +The first point I would make is that-- + +I. Jesus Christ is the Joy-bringer to men because He is the Redeemer of +men. + +Remember that in the original application of my text to the deliverance +from captivity, this gift of joy and change of sorrow into gladness was +no independent and second bestowment, but was simply the issue of the +one that preceded it, viz., the gift of liberty to the captives, and the +opening of the prison to them that were bound. The gladness was a +gladness that welled up in the heart of the captives set free, and +coming out from the gloom of the Babylonian dungeon into the sunshine of +God's favour, with their faces set towards Zion 'with songs and +everlasting joy upon their heads.' + +Now you have only to keep firm hold of this connection between these two +thoughts to come to the crown and centre-point of this great prophecy, +as far as it applies to us, and that is that it is Christ as the +Emancipator, Christ as the Deliverer, Christ as He who brings us out of +the prison of bondage of the tyranny of sin, who is the great Joy-Giver. +For there is no real, deep, fundamental and impregnable gladness +possible to a man until his relations to God have been rectified, and +until, with these rectified relations, with the consciousness of +forgiveness and the divine love nestling warm at his heart, he has +turned himself away from his dread and his sin, and has recognised in +his Father God 'the gladness of his joy.' + +Of course, there are many of us who feel that life is sufficiently +comfortable and moderately happy, or at least quite tolerable, without +any kind of reference to God at all. And in this day of growing +materialism, and growing consequent indifference to the deepest needs of +the spirit and the claims of religion, more and more men are finding, or +fancying that they find, that they can rub along somehow, and have a +fair share of gladness and satisfaction, without any need for a +redeeming gospel and a forgiving Christ. But about all that kind of +surface-joy the old words are true, 'even in laughter the heart is +sorrowful,' and hosts of us are satisfied with joys which Jesus has no +part in bringing, simply because our truest self has never once +awakened. When it does-and perhaps it will do so with some of you, like +the sleeping giant that is fabled to lie beneath the volcano whose sunny +slopes are smiling with flowers--then you will find out that no one can +bring real joy who does not take away guilt and sin. + +Jesus Christ is the Joy-bringer, because Jesus Christ is the +Emancipator. And true gladness is the gladness that springs from the +conscious possession of liberty from the captivity which holds men +slaves to evil and to their worst selves. Brethren, let us not fancy +that these surface-joys are the joys adequate to a human spirit. They +are ignoble, and they are infinitely foolish, because a touch of an +awakened conscience, a stirring of one's deeper self, can scatter them +all to pieces. So then, that is my first thought. + +Let us suggest a second, that-- + +II. Jesus Christ transforms sorrow because He transforms the mourner. + +In my text, all that this Joy-bringer and Transmuter of grief into its +opposite is represented as doing is on the man who feels the sorrow. And +although, as I have said, the text, in its original position, is simply +a deduction from the previous great prophecy which did point to a change +of circumstances, and although Jesus does bring the 'joy of salvation' +by a great change in a man's relations, yet in regard to the ordinary +sorrows of life, He affects these not so much by an operation upon our +circumstances as by an operation upon ourselves, and transforms sorrow +and brings gladness, because He transforms the man who endures it. The +landscape remains the same, the difference is in the colour of the glass +through which we look at it. Instead of having it presented through some +black and smoked medium, we see it through what the painter calls a +'Claude Lorraine' glass, tinged golden, and which throws its own lovely +light upon all that it shows us. It is possible--the eye that looks +being purged and cleansed, so as to see more clearly-that the facts +remaining identical, their whole aspect and bearing may be altered, and +that which was felt, and rightly felt, to be painful and provocative of +sadness and gloom, may change its character and beget a solemn joy. It +would be but a small thing to transform the conditions; it is far better +and higher to transform us. We all need, and some of us, I have no +doubt, do especially need, to remember that the Lord who brings this +sudden transformation for us, does so by His operation within us, and, +therefore, to that operation we should willingly yield ourselves. + +How does He do this? One answer to that question is--by giving to the +man with ashes on his head and gloom wrapped about his spirit, sources +of joy, if he will use them, altogether independent of external +circumstances.' Though the fig-tree shall not blossom, and there be no +fruit in the vine ... yet will I rejoice in the Lord.' And every +Christian man, especially when days are dark and clouds are gathering, +has it open to him, and is bound to use the possibility, to turn away +his mind from the external occasions of sadness, and fix it on the +changeless reason for deep and unchanging joy--the sweet presence, the +strong love, the sustaining hand, the infinite wisdom, of his Father +God. + +Brethren, "the paradox of the Christian life" is, 'as sorrowful, yet +always rejoicing.' Christ calls for no hypocritical insensibility to +'the ills that flesh is heir to.' He has sanctioned by His example the +tears that flow when death hurts loving hearts. He commanded the women +of Jerusalem to 'weep for themselves and for their children.' He means +that we should feel the full bitterness and pain of sorrows which will +not be medicinal unless they are bitter, and will not be curative unless +they cut deep. But He also means that whilst thus we suffer as men, in +the depths of our own hearts we should, at the same time, be turning +away from the sufferings and their cause, and fixing our hearts, quiet +even then amidst the distractions, upon God Himself. Ah! it is hard to +do, and because we do not do it, the promise that He will turn the +sorrow into joy often seems to be a vain word for us. + +It is not ours to rejoice as the world does, nor is it ours to sorrow as +those who have no hope, or as those who have no God with them. But the +two opposite emotions may, to a large extent, be harmonised and co- +existent in a Christian heart, and, since they can be, they should be. +The Christian in sorrow should be as an island set in some stormy sea, +with wild waves breaking against its black, rocky coast, and the wind +howling around it, but in the centre of it there is a deep and shady +dell 'that heareth not the loud winds when they call,' and where not a +leaf is moved by the tempest. In a like depth of calm and central +tranquillity it is possible for us to live, even while the storm hurtles +its loudest on the outermost coasts of our being; 'as sorrowful, yet +always rejoicing,' because the Joy-bringer has opened for us sources of +gladness independent of externals. + +And then there is another way by which, for us, if we will use our +privileges, the sorrows of life may be transmuted, because we, +contemplating them, have come to a changed understanding of their +meaning. That is, after all, the secret charm to be commended to us at +all times, but to be commended to us most when our hearts are heavy and +the days are dark around us. We shall never understand life if we class +its diverse events simply under the two opposite categories of good-- +evil; prosperity--adversity; gains--losses; fulfilled expectations-- +disappointed hopes, Put them all together under one class--discipline +and education; means for growth; means for Christlikeness. When we have +found out, what it takes a long while for us to learn, that the lancet +and the bandage are for the same purpose, and that opposite weathers +conspire to the same end, that of the harvest, the sting is out of the +sorrow, the poison is wiped off the arrow. We can have, if not a solemn +joy, at least a patient acquiescence, in the diversities of operation, +when we learn that the same hand is working in all for the same end, and +that all that contributes to that end is good. + +Here we may suggest a third way by which a transformation wrought upon +ourselves transforms the aspect of our sorrows, and that is, that +possessing independent sources of joy, and having come to learn the +educational aspect of all adversity, we hereby are brought by Jesus +Christ Himself to the position of submission. And that is the most +potent talisman to transform mourning into praise. An accepted grief is +a conquered grief; a conquered grief will very soon be a comforted +grief; and a comforted grief is a joy. By all these means Jesus Christ, +here and now, is transmuting the lead and iron of our griefs into the +gold of a not ignoble nor transient gladness. + +And may I say one last word? My text suggests not only these two points +to which I have already referred--viz. that Jesus Christ is the Joy- +bringer because He is the Emancipator, and that He transforms sorrow by +transforming the mourner--but, lastly, that + +III. Jesus gives joy after sorrow. + +'Nevertheless, afterward' is a great word of glowing encouragement for +all sad hearts. 'Fools and children,' says the old proverb, 'should not +see half-done work '; at least, they should not judge it. When the +ploughshare goes deep into the brown, frosty ground, the work is only +begun. The earth may seem to be scarped and hurt, and, if one might say, +to bleed, but in six months' time 'you scarce can see' the soil for +waving corn. Yes; and sorrow, as some of us could witness, is the +forecast of purest joy. I have no doubt that there are men and women +here who could say, 'I never knew the power of God, and the blessedness +of Christ as a Saviour, until I was in deep affliction, and when +everything else went dark, then in His light I saw light.' Do not some +of you know the experience? and might we not all know it? and why do we +not know it? + +Jesus Christ, even here and now, gives these blessed results of our +sorrows, if they are taken to the right place, and borne in right +fashion. For it is they 'that mourn in Zion' that He thus blesses. There +are some of us, I fear, whose only resource in trouble is to fling +ourselves into some work, or some dissipation. There are people who try +to work away their griefs, as well as people who try feverishly to drink +them away. And there are some of us whose only resource for deliverance +from our sorrows is that, after the wound has bled all it can, it stops +bleeding, and the grief simply dies by lapse of time and for want of +fuel. An affliction wasted is the worst of all waste. But if we carry +our grief into the sanctuary, then, here and now, it will change its +aspect and become a solemn joy. + +I say nothing about the ultimate result where every sorrow rightly borne +shall be represented in the future life by some stage in grace or glory, +where every tear shall be crystallised, if I might say so, into a +flashing diamond, which flings off the reflection of the divine light, +where 'there shall be no sorrow nor sighing, nor any more pain, for the +former things are passed away.' When the lesson has been learned, God +burns the rod. + +But, brethren, there is another sadder transformation. I have been +speaking about the transformation of sorrow into joy. There is also the +transformation of joy into sorrow. I spoke a little while ago about the +'laughter' in which the heart is 'sorrowful,' and the writer from whom I +quoted the words goes on to say, 'The end of that mirth is heaviness.' +'Thereof cometh in the end despondency and madness.' I saw, on a +hilltop, a black circle among the grass and heather. There had been a +bonfire there on Coronation Night, and it had all died down, and that +was the end--a hideous ring of scorched barrenness amidst the verdure. +Take care that your gladnesses do not die down like that, but that they +are pure, and being pure are undying. Union with Jesus Christ makes +sorrow light, and secures that it shall merge at last into 'joy +unspeakable and full of joy.' I believe that separation from Christ +makes joy shallow, and makes it certain that at last, instead of a +garland, shall be ashes on the head, and that, instead of a festal robe, +the spirit shall be wrapped in a garment of heaviness. + + + + +THE HEAVENLY WORKERS AND THE EARTHLY WATCHERS + +'For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I +will not rest ... I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which +shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the +Lord, keep not silence, and give Him no rest'--ISAIAH lxii. 1, 6, 7. + + +Two remarks of an expository nature will prepare the way for the +consideration of these words. The first is that the speaker is the +personal Messiah. The second half of Isaiah's prophecies forms one great +whole, which might be called The Book of the Servant of the Lord. One +majestic figure stands forth on its pages with ever-growing clearness of +outline and form. The language in which He is described fluctuates at +first between the collective Israel and the one Person who is to be all +that the nation had failed to attain. But even near the beginning of the +prophecy we read of 'My servant whom I uphold,' whose voice is to be low +and soft, and whose meek persistence is not to fail till He have 'set +judgment in the earth.' And as we advance the reference to the nation +becomes less and less possible, and the recognition of the person more +and more imperative. At first the music of the prophetic song seems to +move uncertainly amid sweet sounds, from which the true theme by degrees +emerges, and thenceforward recurs over and over again with deeper, +louder harmonies clustering about it, till it swells into the grandeur +of the choral close. + +In the chapter before our text we read, 'The Spirit of the Lord God is +upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto +the meek.' Throughout the remainder of the prophecy, with the exception +of one section which contains the prayer of the desolate Israel, this +same person continues to speak; and who he is was taught in the +synagogue of Nazareth. Whilst the preceding chapter, then, brings in +Christ as proclaiming the great work of deliverance for which He is +anointed of God, the following chapter presents Him as 'treading the +wine-press alone,' which is a symbol of the future judgment by the +glorified Saviour. Between these two prophecies of the earthly life and +of the still future judicial energy, this chapter of our text lies, +referring, as I take it, to the period between these two--that is, to +all the ages of the Church's development on earth. For these Christ here +promises His continual activity, and His continual bestowment of grace +to His servants who watch the walls of His Jerusalem. + +The second point to be noticed is the remarkable parallelism in the +expressions selected as the text: 'I will not hold _My_ peace'; the +watchmen 'shall never hold _their peace_.' And His command to them is +literally, 'Ye that remind Jehovah--no _rest_ (or silence) to you, and +give not _rest_ to Him.' + +So we have here Christ, the Church, and God all represented as +unceasingly occupied in the one great work of establishing 'Zion' as the +centre of light, salvation, and righteousness for the whole world. The +consideration of these three perpetual activities may open for us some +great truths and stimulating lessons. + +I. First, then, The glorified Christ is constantly working for His +Church. + +We are too apt to regard our Lord's real work as all lying in the past, +and, from the very greatness of our estimate of what He has done, to +forget the true importance of what He evermore does. 'Christ that died' +is the central object of trust and contemplation for devout souls--and +that often to the partial hiding of Christ that is 'risen again, who is +even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.' But +Scripture sets forth the present glorious life of our ascended Lord +under two contrasted and harmonious aspects--as being rest, and as being +continuous activity in the midst of rest. He was 'received up into +heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.' In that session on the throne +manifold and mighty truths are expressed. It proclaims the full +accomplishment of all the purposes of His earthly ministry; it +emphasises the triumphant completion of His redeeming work by His death; +it proclaims the majesty of His nature, which returns to the 'glory +which He had with the Father before the world was'; it shows to the +world, as on some coronation day, its King on His throne, girded with +power and holding the far-reaching sceptre of the universe; it +prophesies for men, in spite of all present sin and degradation, a share +in the dominion which manhood has in Christ attained, for though we see +not yet all things put under Him, we see Jesus crowned with glory and +honour. It prophesies, too, His final victory over all that sets itself +in unavailing antagonism to His love. It points us backward to an +historical fact as the basis of all our hopes for ourselves and for our +fellows, giving us the assurance that the world's deliverance will come +from the slow operation of the forces already lodged in its history by +Christ's finished work. It points us forwards to a future as the goal of +all these hopes, giving us that confidence of victory which He has who, +having kindled the fire on earth, henceforward sits at God's right hand, +waiting in the calm and sublime patience of conscious omnipotence and +clear foreknowledge 'until His enemies become His footstool.' + +But whilst on the one side Christ rests as from a perfected work which +needs no addition nor repetition, on the other He 'rests not day nor +night.' And this aspect of His present state is as distinctly set forth +in Scripture as that is. Indeed the words already quoted as embodying +the former phase contain the latter also. For is not 'the right hand of +God' the operative energy of the divine nature? And is not 'sitting at +the right hand of God' equivalent to possessing and wielding that +unwearied, measureless power? Are there not blended together in this +pregnant phrase the ideas of profoundest calm and of intensest action, +that being expressed by the attitude, and this by the locality? +Therefore does the evangelist who uses the expression expand it into +words which wonderfully close his gospel, with the same representation +of Christ's swift and constant activity as he had been all along +pointing out as characterising His life on earth. 'They went forth,' +says he, 'and preached everywhere'--so far the contrast between the Lord +seated in the heavens and His wandering servants fighting on earth is +sharp and almost harsh. But the next words tone it down, and weave the +two apparently discordant halves of the picture into a whole: 'the Lord +_working_ with them.' Yes! in all His rest He is full of work, in all +their toils He shares, in all their journeys His presence goes beside +them. Whatever they do is His deed, and the help that is done upon the +earth He doeth it all Himself. + +Is not this blessed conviction of Christ's continuous operation in and +for His Church that which underlies, as has often been pointed out, the +language of the introduction to the Acts of the Apostles, where mention +is made of the former treatise that told 'all which Jesus began both to +do and teach'? The gospel records the beginning, the Book of the Acts +the continuance; it is one biography in two volumes. Being yet present +with them He spoke and acted. Being exalted He 'speaketh from heaven,' +and from the throne carries on the endless series of His works of power +and healing. The whole history is shaped by the same conviction. +Everywhere 'the Lord' is the true actor, the source of all the life +which is in the Church, the arranger of all the providences which affect +its progress. The Lord adds to the Church daily. His name works +miracles. To the Lord believers are added. His angel, His Spirit, bring +messages to His servants. He appears to Paul, and speaks to Ananias. The +Gentiles turn to the Lord because the hand of the Lord is with the +preachers. The Lord calls Paul to carry the gospel to Macedonia. The +Lord opens the heart of Lydia, and so throughout. Not 'the Acts of the +Apostles,' but 'the Acts of the Lord in and by His servants,' is the +accurate title of this book. The vision which flashed angel radiance on +the face, and beamed with divine comfort into the heart, of Stephen, was +a momentary revelation of an abiding reality, and completes the +representation of the Saviour throned beside Almighty power. He beheld +his Lord, not seated, as if careless or resting, while His servant's +need was so sore, but as if risen with intent to help, and ready to +defend--'_standing_ on the right hand of God.' + +And when once again the heavens opened to the rapt eyes of John in +Patmos, the Lord whom he beheld was not only revealed as glorified in +the lustre of the inaccessible light, but as actively sustaining and +guiding the human reflectors of it. He 'holdeth the seven stars in His +right hand,' and '_walketh_ in the midst of the seven golden +candlesticks.' + +Not otherwise does my text represent the present relation of Christ to +His Church. It speaks of a continuous forth-putting of power, which it +is, perhaps, not over-fanciful to regard as dimly set forth here in a +twofold form--namely, work and word. At all events, that division stands +out clearly on the pages of the New Testament, which ever holds forth +the double truth of our Lord's constant action on, in, through, and for +His Zion, and of our High Priest's constant intercession. + +'I will not rest.' Through all the ages His power is in exercise. He +inspires in good men all their wisdom, and every grace of life and +character. He uses them as His weapons in the contest of His love with +the world's hatred; but the hand that forged, and tempered, and +sharpened the blade is that which smites with it; and the axe must not +boast itself against him that heweth. He, the Lord of lords, orders +providences, and shapes the course of the world for that Church which is +His witness: 'Yea, He reproved kings for their sake, saying, Touch not +Mine anointed, and do My prophets no harm.' The ancient legend which +told how, on many a well-fought field, the ranks of Rome discerned +through the battle-dust the gleaming weapons and white steeds of the +Great Twin Brethren far in front of the solid legions, is true in +loftier sense in our Holy War. We may still see the vision which the +leader of Israel saw of old, the man with the drawn sword in his hand, +and hear the majestic word, 'As Captain of the Lord's host am I now +come.' The Word of God, with vesture dipped in blood, with eyes alit +with His flaming love, with the many crowns of unlimited sovereignty +upon His head, rides at the head of the armies of heaven; 'and in +righteousness doth He judge and make war.' For the single soul +struggling with daily tasks and petty cares, His help is near and real, +as for the widest work of the collective whole. He sends none of us +tasks in which He has no share. The word of this Master is never 'Go,' +but 'Come.' He unites Himself with all our sorrows, with all our +efforts. 'The Lord also working with them' is a description of all the +labours of Christian men, be they great or small. + +Nor is this all. There still remains the wonderful truth of His +continuous intercession for us. In its widest meaning that word +expresses the whole of the manifold ways by which Christ undertakes and +maintains our cause. But the narrower signification of prayer on our +behalf is applicable, and is in Scripture applied, to our Lord. As on +earth, the climax of all His intercourse with His disciples was that +deep yet simple prayer which forms the Holy of Holies of John's Gospel, +so in heaven His loftiest office for us is set forth under the figure of +His intercession. Before the Throne stands the slain Lamb, and therefore +do the elders in the outer circle bring acceptable praises. Within the +veil stands the Priest, with the names of the tribes blazing on the +breastplate and on the shoulders of His robes, near the seat of love, +near the arm of power. And whatever difficulty may surround that idea of +Christ's priestly intercession, this at all events is implied in it, +that the mighty work which He accomplished on earth is ever present to +the divine mind as the ground of our acceptance and the channel of our +blessings; and this further, that the utterance of Christ's will is ever +in harmony with the divine purpose. Therefore His prayer has in it a +strange tone of majesty, and, if we may so say, of command, as of one +who knows that He is ever heard: '_I will_ that they whom Thou hast +given Me, be with Me where I am.' + +The instinct of the Church has, from of old, laid hold of an event in +His earthly life to shadow forth this great truth, and has bid us see a +pledge and a symbol of it in that scene on the Lake of Galilee: the +disciples toiling in the sudden storm, the poor little barque tossing on +the waters tinged by the wan moon, the spray dashing over the wearied +rowers. They seem alone, but up yonder, in some hidden cleft of the +hills, their Master looks down on all the weltering storm, and lifts His +voice in prayer. Then when the need is sorest, and the hope least, He +comes across the waves, making their surges His pavement, and using all +opposition as the means of His approach, and His presence brings +calmness, and immediately they are at the land. + +So we have not only to look back to the Cross, but up to the Throne. +From the Cross we hear a voice, 'It is finished.' From the Throne a +voice, 'For Zion's sake I will not hold My peace, and for Jerusalem's +sake I will not rest.' + +II. Secondly, Christ's servants on earth derive from Him a like +perpetual activity for the same object. + +The Lord, who in the former portion of these verses declares His own +purpose of unwearied action for Zion, associates with Himself in the +latter portion the watchmen, whom He appoints and endows for functions +in some measure resembling His own, and exercised with constancy derived +from Him. 'I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall +never hold their peace day nor night.' On the promise follows, as ever, +a command (for all divine gifts involve the responsibility of their use, +and it is not His wont either to bestow without requiring, or to require +before bestowing), 'Ye that remind Jehovah, keep not silence.' + +There is distinctly traceable before a reference to a two-fold form of +occupation devolving on these Christ-sent servants. They are watchmen, +and they are also God's remembrancers. In the one capacity as in the +other, their voices are to be always heard. The former metaphor is +common in the Old Testament, as a designation of the prophetic office, +but, in the accordance with the genius of the New Testament, as +expressed on Pentecost, when the Spirit was poured out on the lowly as +well as on the high, on the young as on the old, and all prophesied, it +may be fairly extended to designated not to some selected few, but the +whole mass of Christian people. The watchman's office falls to be done +by all who see the coming peril, and have a tongue to echo it forth. The +remembrancer's priestly office belongs to every member of Christ's +priestly kingdom, the lowest and least of whom has the privilege of +unrestrained entry into God's presence-chamber, and the power of +blessing the world by faithful prayer. What should we think of a citizen +in a beleaguered city, who saw enemy mounting the very ramparts, and +gave no alarm because that was the sentry's business? In such extremity +every man is a soldier, and women and children can at least keep watch +and raise shrill cries of warning. The gifts, then, here promised, and +the duties that flow from them, are not the prerogatives or the tasks of +any class or order, but the heritage and the burden of the Lord to every +member of His Church. + +Our voices should ever be heard on earth. A solemn message is committed +to us, by the very fact of our belief in Jesus Christ and His work. With +that faith come responsibilities of which no Christian can denude +himself. To warn the wicked man to turn from His wickedness; to blow the +trumpet when we see the sword coming; to catch ever gleaming on the +horizon, like the spears of an army through the dust of the march, the +outriders and advance-guard of the coming of Him whose coming is life or +death to all, and to lift up our voices with strength and say, 'Behold +your God'; to peal into the ears of men, sunken in earthliness and +dreaming of safety, the cry which may startle and save; to ring out in +glad tones to all who wearily ask, 'Watchman, what of the night? will +the night soon pass?' the answer which the slow dawning east has +breathed into our else stony lips, 'The morning cometh'; to proclaim +Christ, who came once to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, who +comes ever, through the ages, to bless and uphold the righteousness +which He loves and to destroy the iniquity which He hates, who will come +at the last to judge the world--this is the never-ending task of the +watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem. The New Testament calls it +'preaching,' proclaiming as a herald does. And both metaphors carry one +common lesson of the manner in which the work should be done. With clear +loud voice, with earnestness and decision, with faithfulness and +self-oblivion, forgetting himself in his message, must the herald sound +out the will of his King, the largess of his Lord. And the watchman who +stands on his watch-tower whole nights, and sees foemen creeping through +the gloom, or fire bursting out among the straw-roofed cottages within +the walls, shouts with all his might the short, sharp alarm, that wakes +the sleepers to whom slumber were death. Let us ponder the pattern. + +Our voices should ever be heard in heaven. They who trust God remind Him +of His promises by their very faith; it is a mute appeal to His faithful +love, which He cannot but answer. And, beyond that, their prayers come +up for a memorial before God, and have as real an effect in furthering +Christ's kingdom on earth as is exercised by their entreaties and +proclamations to men. + +How distinctly these words of our text define the region within which +our prayers should ever move, and the limits which bound their efficacy! +They _remind_ God. Then the truest prayer is that which bases itself on +God's uttered will, and the desires which are born of our own fancies or +heated enthusiasms have no power with Him. The prayer that prevails is a +reflected promise. Our office in prayer is but to receive on our hearts +the bright rays of His word, and to flash them back from the polished +surface to the heaven from whence they came. + +These two forms of action ought to be inseparable. Each, if genuine, +will drive us to the other, for who could fling himself into the +watchman's work, with all its solemn consequences, knowing how weak his +voice was, and how deaf the ears that should hear, unless he could bring +God's might to his help? and who could honestly remind God of His +promises and forget his own responsibilities? Prayerless work will soon +slacken, and never bear fruit; idle prayer is worse than idle. You +cannot part them if you would. How much of the busy occupation which is +called 'Christian work' is detected to be spurious by this simple test! +How much so-called prayer is reduced by it to mere noise, no better than +the blaring trumpet or the hollow drum! + +The power for both is derived from Christ. He sets the watchmen; He +commands the remembrancers. From Him flows the power, from His good +Spirit comes the desire, to proclaim the message. That message is the +story of His life and death. But for what He does and is we should have +nothing to say; but for His gift we should have no power to say it; but +for His influence we should have no will to say it. He commands and fits +us to be intercessors, for His mighty work brings us near to God; He +opens for us access with confidence to God. He inspires our prayers. He +'hath made us priests to God.' + +And, as the Christian power of discharging these twofold duties is drawn +from Christ, so our pattern is His manner of discharging them, and the +condition of receiving the power is to abide in Him. He proposes Himself +as our Example. He calls us to no labours which He has not Himself +shared, nor to any earnestness or continuance in prayer which He has not +Himself shown forth. This Master works in front of His men. The farmer +that goes first among all the sowers, and heads the line of reapers in +the yellowing harvest-field, may well have diligent servants. Our Master +'went forth, weeping, bearing precious seed,' and has left it in our +hands to sow in all furrows. Our Master is the Lord of the harvest, and +has borne the heat of the day before His servants. Look at the amount of +work, actual hard work, compressed into these three short years of His +ministry. Take the records of the words He spake on that last day of His +public teaching, and see what unwearied toil they represent. Ponder upon +that life till you catch the spirit which breathed through it all, and, +like Him, embrace gladly the welcome necessity of labour for God, under +the sense of a vocation conferred upon you, and of the short space +within which your service must be condensed. 'I must work the work of +Him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can +work.' + +Christ asks no romantic impossibilities from us, but He does ask a +continuous, systematic discharge of the duties which depend on our +relation to the world, and on our relation to Him. Let it be our life's +work to show forth His praise; let the very atmosphere in which we move +and have our being be prayer. Let two great currents set ever through +our days, which two, like the great movements in the ocean of the air, +are but the upper and under halves of the one movement--that beneath +with constant energy of desire rushing in from the cold poles to be +warmed and expanded at the tropics, where the all-moving sun pours his +directest rays; that above charged with rich gifts from the Lord of +light, glowing with heat drawn from Him, and made diffusive by His +touch, spreading itself out beneficent and life-bringing into all colder +lands, swathing the world in soft, warm folds, and turning the polar ice +into sweet waters. + +In the tabernacle of Israel stood two great emblems of the functions of +God's people, which embodied these two sides of the Christian life. Day +by day, there ascended from the altar of incense the sweet odour, which +symbolised the fragrance of prayer as it wreathes itself upwards to the +heavens. Night by night, as darkness fell on the desert and the camp, +there shone through the gloom the hospitable light of the great golden +candlestick with its seven lamps, whose steady rays outburned the stars +that paled with the morning. Side by side they proclaimed to Israel its +destiny to be the light of the world, to be a kingdom of priests. + +The offices and the honour have passed over to us, and we shall fall +beneath our obligations unless we let our light shine constantly before +men, and let our voice rise like a fountain night and day' before God-- +even as He did who, when every man went to his own house, went alone to +the Mount of Olives, and in the morning, when every man returned to his +daily task, went into the Temple and taught. By His example, by His +gifts, by the motive of His love, our resting, working Lord says to each +of us, 'Ye that remind God, keep not silence.' Let us answer, 'For +Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will +not rest.' + +III. Finally, The constant activity of the servants of Christ will +secure the constant operation of God's power. + +'_Give_ Him no rest': let there be no cessation to Him. These are bold +words, which many people would not have been slow to rebuke if they had +been anywhere else than in the Bible. Those who remind God are not to +suffer Him to be still. The prophet believes that they can regulate the +flow of divine energy, can stir up the strength of the Lord. + +It is easy to puzzle ourselves with insoluble questions about the co- +operation of God's power and man's; but practically, is it not true that +God reaches His end, of the establishment of Zion, through the Church? +He has not barely willed that the world should be saved, nor barely that +it should be saved through Christ, nor barely that it should be saved +through the knowledge of Christ; but His will is that the world shall be +saved, by faith in the person and work of Christ, proclaimed as a gospel +by men who believe it. And, as a matter of fact, is it not true that the +energy with which God's power in the gospel manifests itself depends on +the zeal and activity and prayerfulness of the Church? The great +reservoir is always full--full to the brim; however much may be drawn +from it, the water sinks not a hairsbreadth; but the bore of the pipe +and the power of the pumping-engine determine the rate at which the +stream flows from it. 'He could there do no mighty works because of +their unbelief.' The obstruction of indifference dammed back the water +of life. The city perishes for thirst if the long line of aqueduct that +strides across the plain towards the home of the mountain torrents be +ruinous, broken down, choked with rubbish. + +God is always the same--equally near, equally strong, equally gracious. +But our possession of His grace, and the impartation of His grace +through us to others, vary, because our faith, our earnestness, our +desires, vary. True, these no doubt are also His gifts and His working, +and nothing that we say now touches in the least on the great truth that +God is the sole originator of all good in man; but while believing that, +as no less sure in itself than blessed in its message of confidence and +consolation to us, we also have to remember, 'If any man open the door, +I will come in to him.' We may have as much of God as we want, as much +as we can hold, far more than we deserve. And if ever the victorious +power of His Church seems to be almost paling to defeat, and His +servants to be working no deliverance upon the earth, the cause is not +to be found in Him who is 'without variableness,' nor in His gifts, +which are 'without repentance,' but solely in us, who let go our hold of +the Eternal Might. No ebb withdraws the waters of that great ocean; and +if sometimes there be sand and ooze where once the flashing flood +brought life and motion, it is because careless warders have shut the +sea-gates. + +An awful responsibility lies on us. We can resist and refuse, or we can +open our hearts and draw into ourselves His strength. We can bring into +operation those energies which act through faithful men faithfully +proclaiming the faithful saying; or we can limit the Holy One of Israel. +'Why could not we cast him out?' 'Because of your unbelief.' + +With what grand confidence, then, may the weakest of us go to his task. +We have a right to feel that in all our labour God works with us; that, +in all our words for Him, it is not we that speak, but the Spirit of our +Father that speaks in us; that if humbly and prayerfully, with +self-distrust and resolute effort to crucify our own intrusive +individuality, we wait for Him to enshrine Himself within us, strength +will come to us, drawn from the deep fountains of God, and we too shall +be able to say, 'Not I, but the grace of God in me.' + +How this sublime confidence should tell on our characters, destroying +all self-confidence, repressing all pride, calming all impatience, +brightening all despondency, and ever stirring us anew to deeds worthy +of the 'exceeding greatness of the power which worketh in us'--I can +only suggest. + +On all sides motives for strenuous toil press in upon us--chiefly those +great examples which we have now been contemplating. But, besides these, +there are other forms of activity which may point the same lesson. Look +at the energy _around_ us. We live in a busy time. Life goes swiftly in +all regions. Men seem to be burning away faster than ever before, in an +atmosphere of pure oxygen. Do we work as hard for God as the world does +for itself? Look at the energy _beneath_ us: how evil in every form is +active; how lies and half-truths propagate themselves quick as the +blight on a rose-tree; how profligacy, and crime, and all the devil's +angels are busy on his errands. If _we_ are sitting drowsy by our +camp-fires, the enemy is on the alert. You can hear the tramp of their +legions and the rumble of their artillery through the night as they +march to their posts on the field. It is no time for God's sentinels to +nod. If they sleep, the adversary does not, but glides in the congenial +darkness, sowing his baleful tares. Do we work as hard for God as the +emissaries of evil do for their master? Look at the energy _above_ us. +On the throne of the universe is the immortal Power who slumbereth not +nor sleepeth. Before the altar of the heavens is the Priest of the +world, the Lord of His Church, 'who ever liveth to make intercession for +us.' Round Him stand perfected spirits, the watchmen on the walls of the +New Jerusalem, who 'rest not day and night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, +Lord God Almighty.' From His presence come, filling the air with the +rustle of their swift wings and the light of their flame-faces, the +ministering spirits who evermore 'do His commandments, hearkening to the +voice of His word.' And we, Christian brethren, where are we in all this +magnificent concurrence of activity, for purposes which ought to be dear +to our hearts as they are to the heart of God? Do we work for Him as He +and all that are with Him do? Is His will done by us on earth, as it is +heaven? + +Alas! alas! have we not all been like those three apostles whose eyes +were heavy with sleep even while the Lord was wrestling with the tempter +under the gnarled olives in the pale moonlight of Gethsemane? Let us +arouse ourselves from our sloth. Let us lift up our cry to God: 'Awake, +awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord, as in the ancient days in the +generations of old'; and the answer shall sound from the heavens to us +as it did to the prophet, an echo of his prayer turned into a command, +'Awake, awake, put on _thy_ strength, O Zion.' + + + + +MIGHTY TO SAVE + +'Mighty to save.'--ISAIAH lxiii. 1. + + +We have here a singularly vivid and dramatic prophecy, thrown into the +form of a dialogue between the prophet and a stranger whom he sees from +afar striding along from the mountains of Edom, with elastic step, and +dyed garments. The prophet does not recognise him, and asks who he is. +The Unknown answers, 'I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.' +Another question follows, seeking explanation of the splashed crimson +garments of the stranger, and its answer tells of a tremendous act of +retributive destruction which he has recently launched at the nations +hostile to 'My redeemed.' + +Now we note that this prophecy follows, both in the order of the book +and in the evolution of events, on those in chapter lxi., which referred +to our Lord's work on earth, and in chapter lxii, which has for part of +its theme His intercession in heaven. And we are entitled to take the +view that the place as well as the substance of this prophecy referred +to the solemn act of final Judgment in which the returning Lord will +manifest Himself. Very significant is it that the prophet does not +recognise in this Conqueror, with blood-bespattered robes, the meek +sufferer of chapter liii., or Him who in chapter lxi. came to bind up +the broken-hearted. And very instructive is it that the title in our +text comes from the stranger's own lips, as relevant to the tremendous +act of judgment from which He is seen returning. The title might seem +rather to look back to the former manifestation of Him as bearing our +griefs and carrying our sorrows. It does indeed, thank God, look back to +that never-to-be-forgotten miracle of mercy and power, but it also +brings within the sweep of His saving might the judgment still to come. + +I. The mighty Saviour as made known in the past and present. + +We think much of the meek and gentle side of Christ's character. Perhaps +we do not think enough of the strength of it. We trace His great +sacrifice to His love, and we can never sufficiently adore that +incomparable manifestation of a love deeper than our plummets can +fathom. But probably we do not sufficiently realise what gigantic +strength went to the completion of that sacrifice. We know the solemn +imagining of a great artist who has painted a colossal Death overbearing +the weak resistance of a puny Love; but here love is the giant, and his +sovereign command brings Death obedient to it, to do his work. Yes, that +weak man hanging on the Cross is therein revealed as 'the power of God.' +Strange clothing of weakness which yet cannot hide the mighty limbs that +wear it! + +And if we think of our Lord's life we see the same combination of +gentleness and power. His very name rings with memories of the captain +whose one commanded duty was to 'be strong and of a good courage.' + +In Him was all strength of manhood--inflexible, iron will, unchanging +purpose, strength from consecration, strength from righteousness. In Him +was the heroism of prophets and martyrs in supreme degree. + +In Him was the strength of indwelling Divinity. He fought and conquered +all man's enemies, routed sin, and triumphed over Death. + +In the Cross we see divine power in operation in its noblest form, in +its intensest energy, in its widest sweep, in its most magnificent +result. He is able to save, to save all, to save any. + +He is mighty to save, and is able to save unto the uttermost, because He +lives for ever, and His power is eternal as Himself. + +II. The mighty Saviour as to be manifested in the future. + +Clearly the imagery of the context describes a tremendous act of +judgment. And as clearly the Apocalyptic Seer understood this prophecy +as not only pointing to Christ, but as to be fulfilled in the final act +of judgment. He quotes its words when he paints his magnificent vision +of the Conqueror riding forth on his white horse, with garments +sprinkled with blood and treading the 'winepress of the fierceness and +wrath of Almighty God.' And the vision is interpreted unmistakably when +we read that, though this Conqueror had a name unknown to any but +Himself, 'His name is called the Word of God.' So the unity of person in +the Word made flesh who dwelt among us, full of grace and of this Mighty +One girt for battle, is taught. + +Keeping fast hold of this clue, the contrast between the characteristics +of the historical Jesus and of the rider on the white horse becomes +solemn and full of warning. And the contrast between the errand of the +historical Jesus and that of the Conqueror bids us ponder on the +possibilities that may sleep in perfect love. We have to widen our +conceptions, if we have thought of our Jesus only as love, and have +thought of love as shallow, as most men do. We are sometimes told that +these two pictures, that of the Christ of the Gospels and that of the +Christ of the Apocalypse, are incapable of being fused together in one +original. But they can be stereoscoped, if we may say so. And they must +be, if we are ever to understand the greatness of His love or the +terribleness of His judgments. 'The wrath of the Lamb' sounds an +impossibility, but if we ponder it, we shall find depths of graciousness +as well as of awe in it. + +Let us learn that the righteous Judge is logically and chronologically +the completion of the picture of the merciful Saviour. In this age there +is a tendency to treat sin with too much pity and too little +condemnation. And there is not a sufficiently firm grasp of the truth +that divine love must be in irreconcilable antagonism with human sin, +and can do nothing but chastise and smite it. + +III. The saving purpose of even that destructive might. + +Through the whole Old Testament runs the longing that God would 'awake' +to smite evil. + +The tragedy of the drowned hosts in the Red Sea, and Miriam and her +maidens standing with their timbrels and shrill song of triumph on the +bank, is a prophecy of what shall be. 'Ye shall have a song as in the +night a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart as when one goeth with +a pipe to come unto the mountain of the Lord.' And at the thought of +that solemn act of judgment they who love the Judge, and have long known +Him, 'may lift up their heads' in the confidence that 'their redemption +draweth nigh.' That is the last, and in some sense the mightiest, +greatest act by which He shows Himself 'mighty to save His redeemed.' + +So we may, like the prophet, see that swift form striding nearer and +nearer, but, unlike the prophet, we need not to ask, 'Who is this that +cometh?' for we have known Him from of old, and we remember the voice +that said, 'This same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye have seen +Him go into heaven.' 'Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have +boldness before Him in the day of judgment.' + + + + +THE WINEPRESS AND ITS TREADER + +'Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that +treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the winepress alone.'--ISAIAH +lxiii. 2, 3. + + +The structure of these closing chapters is chronological, and this is +the final scene. What follows is epilogue. The reference of this +magnificent imagery to the sufferings of Jesus is a complete +misapprehension. These sufferings were dealt with once for all in +chapter liii., and it is Messiah triumphant who has filled the prophet's +vision since then. + +I. The treading of the winepress. + +The nations are flung into the press, as ripe grapes. The picture is +plainly a figure of some tremendous judgment in which the powers that +oppose the majestic march of the triumphant Messiah will be crushed and +trampled to ruin. They are trodden 'in Mine anger, and their life-blood +is sprinkled on My garments.' It is He who crushes, not He who is +crushed. The winepress which He treads is the 'winepress of the wrath of +Almighty God,' and His treading of it is His executing of God's +judgments on those whose antagonism to Him and to His 'redeemed' has +brought them within their sweep. The prophetic imagination kindles and +casts its thought into that terrible picture, which some fastidious +people would think coarse, of a peasant standing up to his knees in a +vat heaped with purple clusters, and fiercely trampling them down, while +the red juice splashes upon his girt-up clothes. + +The prophet does not date his vision. It has been realised many a time, +and will be many a time still. Wherever opposition to Christ and His +kingdom has reached ripeness, wherever antagonistic tendencies have +borne fruit which has matured, the winepress is set up and the treading +begins. 'Wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered +together.' 'Immediately he putteth in the sickle because the harvest is +done.' The judgments tarry long, and Christ's servants, oppressed or +hard pressed, get impatient, and cry 'How long, O Lord, dost Thou not +judge? It is time for Thee to work.' But long patience precedes the +divine awaking, for it is not God's way nor Christ's to cut down even a +cumbering tree, until the possibility of its bearing fruit is plainly +ended, and the last use that He makes of anything is to burn it. The +repeated settings up of Christ's winepress have all been one in +principle, and they all point onwards to a final one. There have been +many 'days of the Lord,' and if men were wise and 'observed these +things,'--which most of them are not,--they would see that these lesser +'days' made a 'final great and terrible day of the Lord' supremely +probable, and in perfect analogy with all that experience and history +have testified as to the method of the divine government. + +Surely it is strange that the groundless expectation of the unbroken +continuance of the present order should be so strong that many should +utterly ignore the truth taught by such teachers as these, and +reiterated by science, which declares that the physical universe had a +beginning and will have an end, and confirmed by Jesus Himself. There +will come a to-morrow when the sun will _not_ rise. There will come a +to-morrow which will be '_the_ day of the Lord,' of which all these +earlier and partial epochs of judgment were but precursors and prophets. + +II. The Treader of the Winepress. + +The context clearly shows that, in the prophet's view, the suffering +Messiah in His exalted royalty is the agent of this, as of all divine +acts. He is clothed with majesty, and it is 'in His hand,' or through +His agency, that all 'the pleasure of the Lord' is brought to pass. The +contrast with the figure in chap. liii. is ever to be kept in view. The +lowliness, the weales and bruises, the form without comeliness are gone, +and for these we see a conqueror, glorious in apparel and striding +onwards in conscious strength. + +But the access of majesty does not imply the putting off of lowliness +and meekness. There is much that is severe and terrible in the figure +that rises here before the prophet's vision, but both aspects equally +belong to the glorified Christ, and that duality in His character makes +each element more impressive. His long-suffering mercy and more than +human tenderness do not hamper His arm when it is bared to smite; His +judicial severity does not dam up the flow of His mercy and tenderness. +When He was on earth, He wept over Jerusalem, but His tears did not +hinder His pronouncing woe on the city. His love leads Him to warn +before He smites, but it does not contradict His threatenings, nor augur +our impunity. Nay rather, love compels Him to smite. And, more terrible +still, it is His very love that smites most severely hearts that have +rejected it and learn their folly and sin too late. + +III. Why the winepress is trodden. + +The context tells us. The triumphant figure, seen by the prophet +striding onwards from Edom, answers the question as to His identity +with, 'I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.' Then the treading +of the winepress, from which He is represented as coming, is regarded as +an exemplification of both these characteristics. It is a great act of +righteousness. It is a great act of salvation. Similarly, He is +represented as having been moved to that destructive judgment by the +'vengeance' that burned in His heart, and by His seeing that there were +none to help His 'redeemed.' + +So, then, the destructive act is a manifestation of Righteousness, which +in such a connection means retributive justice. Awe-inspiring as it may +be, the thunderstorm brings relief to a world sweltering in a stagnant +atmosphere, and each blinding flash freshens the air. 'When the wicked +perish, there is shouting.' The destruction of some hoary evil that has +long afflicted humanity and blocked the progress of the kingdom which is +'righteousness and peace and joy,' is a good. Christ's 'terrible things' +are all 'in righteousness,' and meant to set Him forth as 'the +confidence of all the ends of the earth.' To clear His character and +government from all suspicion of moral indifference, to demonstrate by +facts which the blindest can see, that it is not all the same to Him +whether men are good or bad, to write in great letters which, like the +capitals on a map, stretch across a whole land, 'The Judge of all the +earth shall do right'--surely these are worthy ends to move even the +loving Christ to tread the winepress. + +Further, His destructive judgments, however terrible, will always be +accurately measured by righteousness. They are not outbursts of feeling; +they are in exact correspondence with the evils that bring them down. +The lava flows according to its own density and the lie of the land +which it covers. These judgments are deformed by no undue severity; no +base elements of temper, no errors as to the degree of criminality mar +them. They are calm and absolutely accurate judgments of Him who is not +only just but Justice. + +But the context further teaches us that the true point of view from +which to regard Christ's treading of the winepress is to think of it as +redemptive and contributory to the salvation of 'My redeemed.' Therefore +there follows immediately on this picture of the conqueror treading the +peoples in His fury and pouring their life-blood on the earth, the song +of the delivered. Up through the troubled air, heavy with +thunder-clouds, soars their praise, as a lark might rise and pour its +strains above a volcano in eruption--'I will mention the loving kindness +of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord +hath bestowed on us and the great goodness toward the house of Israel +which He hath bestowed on them, according to His mercies, and according +to the multitude of His loving kindnesses.' Pharaoh is drowned in the +Red Sea; Miriam and her maidens on the bank clash their cymbals, and +lift shrill voices in their triumphant hymn. Babylon sinks like a +millstone in the great waters--'and I heard as it were a great voice of +a great multitude in heaven saying, Hallelujah; salvation and glory and +power belong to our God, for true and righteous are His judgments.' The +innermost impulse of judgment is love. + + + + +THE SYMPATHY OF GOD + +'In all their afflictions He was afflicted, and the angel of His +presence saved them'--ISAIAH lxiii. 9. + + +I. The wonderful glimpse opened here into the heart of God. + +It is not necessary to touch upon the difference between the text and +margin of the Revised Version, or to enter on the reason for preferring +the former. And what a deep and wonderful thought that is, of divine +sympathy with human sorrow! We feel that this transcends the prevalent +tone of the Old Testament. It is made the more striking by reason of the +other sides of the divine nature which the Old Testament gives so +strongly; as, for instance, the unapproachable elevation and absolute +sovereignty of God, and the retributive righteousness of God. + +Affliction is His chastisement, and is ever righteously inflicted. But +here is something more, tender and strange. Sympathy is a necessary part +of love. There is no true affection which does not put itself in the +place and share the sorrows of its objects. And His sympathy is none the +less because He inflicts the sorrow. These afflictions wherein He too +was afflicted, were sent by Him. Like an earthly father who suffers more +than the child whom he chastises, the Heavenly Father feels the strokes +that He inflicts. + +That sympathy is consistent with the blessedness of God. Even in the +pain of our human sympathy there is a kind of joy, and we may be sure +that in His nature there is nothing else. + +Contrast with other thoughts about God. + +The vague agnosticism of the present day, which knows only a dim +Something of which we can predicate nothing. + +The God of the philosophers--whom we are bidden to think of as +passionless and unemotional. No wave of feeling ever ripples that +tideless sea. The attribute of infinitude or sovereign completeness is +dwelt on with such emphasis as to obscure all the rest. + +The gods of men's own creation are careless in their happiness, and +cruel in their vengeance. But here is a God for all the weary and the +sorrowful. What a thought for us in our own burdened days! + +II. The mystery of the divine salvation. + +Of course the salvation here spoken of is the deliverance from Egyptian +bondage. This is a summary of the Exodus. But we must mark well that +significant expression, 'the angel of His face' or 'presence.' We can +only attempt a partial and bald enumeration of some of the very +remarkable references to that mysterious person, 'the angel of the Lord +'or 'of the presence.' The dying Jacob ascribed his being 'redeemed from +all evil' to 'the Angel,' and invoked his blessing on 'the lads.' '_The_ +angel of the Lord' appeared to Moses out of the midst of the burning +bush. On Sinai, Jehovah promised to send an 'angel' in whom was His own +name, before the people. The promise was renewed after Israel's sin and +repentance, and was then given in the form, '_My_ presence shall go with +thee.' Joshua saw a man with a drawn sword in his hand, who declared +himself to be the Captain of the Lord's host. 'The angel of the Lord' +appeared to Manoah and his wife, withheld his name from them because it +was 'wonderful' or 'secret,' accepted their sacrifice, and went up to +heaven in its flame. Wherefore Manoah said, 'We have seen God.' Long +after these early visions, a psalmist knows himself safe because 'the +angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him.' Hosea, +looking back on the story of Jacob's wrestling at Peniel, says, first, +that 'he had power with _God_, yea, he had power over the _angel_,' and +then goes on to say that 'there He spake with us, even _Jehovah_.' And +Malachi, on the last verge of Old Testament prophecy, goes furthest of +all in seeming to run together the conceptions of Jehovah and the Angel +of Jehovah, for he says, 'The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to +His temple; and the angel of the covenant ... behold, _he_ cometh.' From +this imperfect _resume_, we see that there appears in the earliest as in +the latest books of the Old Testament, a person distinguished from the +hosts of angels, identified in a very remarkable manner with Jehovah, by +alternation of names, in attributes and offices, and in receiving +worship, and being the organ of His revelation. That special relation to +the divine revelation is expressed by both the representation that +'Jehovah's name is in him,' and by the designation in our text, 'the +angel of His presence,' or literally, 'of His face.' For 'name' and +'face' are in so far synonymous that they mean the side of the divine +nature which is turned to the world. + +For the present I go no further than this. It is clear, then, that our +text is at all events remarkable, in that it ascribes to this 'angel of +His presence' the praise of Jehovah's saving work. The loving heart, +afflicted in all their afflictions, sends forth the messenger of His +face, and by Him is salvation wrought. The whole sum of the deliverance +of Israel in the past is attributed to Him. Surely this must have been +felt by a devout Jew to conceal some great mystery. + +III. The crowning revelation both of the heart of God and of His saving +power. + +(a) Jesus Christ is the true 'angel of the face.' + +I do not need to enter on the question of whether in the Old Testament +the angel of the Covenant was indeed a pre-manifestation of the eternal +Son. I am disposed to answer it in the affirmative. But be that as it +may, all that was spoken of the angel is true of Him. God's name is in +Him, and that not in fragments or half-syllables but complete. The face +of God looks lovingly on men in Him, so that Jesus could declare, 'He +that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.' His presence brings God's +presence, and He can venture to say, '_We_ will come and make our abode +with Him.' He is the agent of the divine salvation. + +The identity and the difference are here in their highest form. + +(b) The mystery of God's sharing our sorrows is explained in Him. + +We may find a difficulty in the thought of a suffering and sympathising +God. But if we believe that 'My name is in Him,' then the sympathy and +gentleness of Jesus is the compassion of God. This is a true revelation. +So tears at the grave sighs in healing, and all the sorrows which He +bore are an unveiling of the heart of God. + +That sharing our sorrows is the very heart of His work. We might almost +say that He became man in order to increase His power of sympathy, as a +prince might temporarily become a pauper. But certainly He became man +that He might bear our burdens. 'Himself took our infirmities.' +'Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He himself +also likewise took part of the same.' + +The atoning death is the climax of Christ's being afflicted with our +afflictions. His priestly sympathy flows out now and for ever to us all. + +So complete is His unity with God, that He works the salvation which is +God's, and that God's name is in Him. So complete is His union with us, +that our sorrows touch Him and His life becomes ours. 'Ye have done it +unto Me.' 'Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?' + +For us in all our troubles there are no darker rooms than Christ has +been in before us. We are like prisoners put in the same cell as some +great martyr. He drank the cup, and we can put the rim to our lips at +the place that His lips have touched. But not only may we have our +sufferings lightened by the thought that He has borne the same, and that +we know the 'fellowship of Christ's sufferings,' but we have the further +alleviation of being sure that He makes our afflictions His by perfect +sympathy, and, still more wonderful and blessed, that there is such +unity of life and sensation between the Head and the members that our +afflictions _are_ His, and are not merely made so. + + 'Think not thou canst sigh a sigh, + And thy Saviour is not by; + Think not thou canst shed a tear + And thy Saviour is not near.' + +Do not front the world alone. _In_ all our afflictions He is with us; +_out_ of them all He saves. + + + + +HOW TO MEET GOD + +'Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that +remember Thee in Thy ways.'--ISAIAH lxiv. 5. + + +The prophet here shows us how there is a great staircase which we +ourselves build, which leads straight from earth to heaven, and how we +can secure that we shall meet with God and God with us. 'Isaiah' is +often called the evangelical prophet. He is so, not only because of his +predictions of the suffering Servant of Jehovah which are 'fulfilled' in +Christ, but because his conceptions of the religious life tremble on the +very verge of the full-orbed teaching of the New Testament. In these +ancient words of my text, in very different phraseology indeed, we see a +strikingly accurate and full anticipation of the very central teaching +of Paul and his brother apostles, as to the way by which God and man +come into union with one another. 'Thou meetest him that rejoiceth'; +that joy is to be manifested by 'working righteousness,' but the joy +which is the parent of righteousness is the child of something +else--'those that remember Thee in Thy ways.' If we ponder these words, +and carefully mark their relation to each other, we may discern, as it +were, a great staircase with three flights in it, and at the top God's +face. + +We have to begin with the last clause of our text--'Thou meetest him ... +that remembers Thee in Thy ways.' + +The first stage on the road which will bring any man into, and keep any +man in, contact with God, and loving fellowship with Him, is the +contemplation of His character as it is made known to us by His acts. +God, like man, is known by His 'fruits.' You cannot get at a clear +conception of God by speculation, or by thinking about Him or about what +He is in Himself. Lay hold of the clue of His acts, and it leads you +straight into His heart. But the act of acts, in which the whole Godhead +concurs, in which all its depths and preciousness are concentrated, like +wine in a golden cup, is the incarnation and life and death of Jesus +Christ our Lord. There, and not in the thoughts of our own hearts nor +the tremors of our own consciences, nor in the enigmatical witness of +Providence--which is enigmatical until it is interpreted in the light of +the Incarnation and the Crucifixion--there we see most clearly the +'ways' of God, the beaten, trodden path by which He is wont to come +forth out of the thick darkness into which no speculation can peer an +inch, and walk amongst men. The cross of Christ, and, subordinately, His +other dealings with us, as interpreted thereby, is the 'way of the +Lord,' from everlasting to everlasting. And it is by a loving gaze upon +that 'way' that we learn to know Him for what He is. It is there, and +there only, that the thick darkness passes into glorious light. It is at +that point alone that the closed circle of the Infinite nature of Deity +opens so as that a man can press into the very centre of the glory, and +feel himself at home in the blaze. It is 'those that remember Thee in +Thy ways,' and especially in that way of righteousness and peace, the +way of the cross--it is they who have built the first flight of the +solemn staircase that leads up from the lownesses and darknesses of +earth into the loftinesses and lights of heaven. + +But note that word 'Remember,' for it suggests the warning that such +contemplation of the ways of the Lord will not be realised by us without +effort. We shall forget, assuredly, unless we earnestly try to +'remember.' There are so many things within us to draw us away, the +duties, and the joys, and the sorrows of life so insist upon having a +place in our hearts and thoughts, that assuredly, unless by resolute +effort, frequently repeated, we clear a space in this crowded and +chattering market-place, where we can stand and gaze on the white +summits far beyond the bustling crowd, we shall never see them, though +they are visible from every place. Unless you try to remember, you will +certainly forget. + +Many voices preach to-day many duties for Christians. Let me plead for +times of quiet, for times of 'doing' nothing, for fruitful times of +growth, for times when we turn all the rout and rabble of earthly +things, and even the solemn company of pressing duties, out of our +hearts and thoughts, and shut up ourselves alone with God. Be sure you +will never build even the first step of the staircase unless you know +what it is to go into the secret place of the Most High, and, alone with +God, to summon to 'the sessions of sweet, silent thought' His ways, and +especially Him who is 'the Way,' both of God to us, and of us to God. + +Now, the second flight of this great staircase is pointed out in the +first clause of my text: 'Thou meetest him that rejoiceth.' + +That meditative remembrance of the ways of God will be the parent of +holy joy which will bring God near to our heart. Alas! it is too often +the very opposite of true that men's joys are such as to bring God to +them. The excitement, and often the impure elements, that mingle with +what the world calls 'joy,' are such as to shut Him out from us. But +there is a gladness which comes from the contemplation of Him as He is, +and as He is known by His 'ways' to be, which brings us very near to +God, and God very near to us. It is that joy which was spoken of in an +earlier part of this context: 'I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, My +soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments +of salvation.' Here, then, is the second stage--gladness, deep, pure, +based upon the contemplation of God's character as manifested in His +work. I do not think that the ordinary type of modern Christianity is +half joyful enough. And I think that we have largely lost the very +thought that gladness is a plain Christian _duty_, to be striven after +in the appropriate manner which my text suggests, and certainly to be +secured if we seek it in the right way. We all know how outward cares, +and petty annoyances, and crushing sorrows, and daily anxieties, and the +tear and wear of work, and our own restlessness and ungovernableness, +and the faults that still haunt our lives, and sometimes make us feel as +if our Christianity was all a sham--how all these things are at enmity +with joy in God. But in face of them all, I would echo the old grand +words of the epistle of gladness written by the apostle in prison, and +within hail of his death: 'Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say +rejoice.' Recognise it as your duty to be glad, and if it is hard to be +so, ask yourselves whether you are doing what will make you so, +remembering 'Thee in Thy ways.' That is the second flight of the +staircase. + +The third stage is working righteousness because of such joy. 'Thou +meetest him that rejoiceth, and '--because he does--'worketh +righteousness.' Every master knows how much more work can be got out of +a servant who works with a cheery heart than out of one that is driven +reluctantly to his task. You remember our Lord's parable where He traces +idleness to fear: 'I knew thee that thou wast an austere man, gathering +where thou didst not strew, and I was afraid, and I went and hid thy +talent.' No work was got out of that servant because there was no joy in +him. The opposite state of mind--diligence in righteous work, inspired +by gladness which in its turn is inspired by the remembrance of God's +ways--is the mark of a true servant of God. The prophet's words have the +germ of the full New Testament doctrine that the first step to all +practical obedience and righteous living is the recognition of the great +truth of Christ's death for us on the Cross; that the second step is the +acceptance of that great work, and the gladness that comes from the +assurance of forgiveness and acceptance with God, and that the issue of +both these things, the preached gospel and the faith that grasps it and +the love by which the faith is followed, is obedience, instinct with +willingness and buoyant with joyfulness, and therefore tending to be +perfect in degree and in kind. The work that is worth doing, the work +which God regards as 'righteous,' comes, and comes only, from the +motives of 'remembering Thee in Thy ways,' and rejoicing because we do +remember. + +And the gladness which is wholesome and blessed, and is 'joy in the +Lord,' will manifest itself by efflorescing into all holiness and all +loftiness and largeness of obedience. You may try to frighten men into +righteousness, you will never succeed. You may try to coerce their +wills, and your strongest bands will be broken as the iron chains were +by the demoniac. But put upon them the silken leash of love, and you may +lead them where you will. You cannot grow grapes on an iceberg, and you +cannot get works of righteousness out of a man that has a dread of God +at the back of his heart, killing all its joy. But let the spring +sunshine come, and then all the frost-bound earth opens and softens, and +the tender green spikelets push themselves up through the brown soil, +and in due time come 'the blade, and the ear, and the full corn in the +ear.' Isaiah anticipated Paul when he said, 'Thou meetest him that +rejoiceth and worketh righteousness.' + +Lastly, we have the landing-place to which the stair leads. God comes to +such a man. He meets him indeed at all the stages, for there is a +blessed communion with God, that springs immediately from remembering +Him in His ways, and a still more blessed one that springs from +rejoicing in His felt friendship and Fatherhood, and a yet more blessed +one that comes from practical righteousness. For if there is anything +that breaks our communion with God, it is that there linger in our lives +evils which make it impossible for God and us to come close together. +The thinnest film of a non-conductor will stop the flow of the strongest +electric current, and an almost imperceptible film of self-will and +evil, dropped between oneself and God, will make a barrier impermeable +except by that divine Spirit who worketh upon a man's heart and who may +thin away the film through his repentance, and then the Father and the +prodigal embrace. 'Thou meetest him,' not only 'that worketh +righteousness,' but that hates his sin. + +Only remember, if there is the practice of evil, there cannot be the +sunshine of the Presence of God. But remember, too, that the commonest, +homeliest, smallest, most secular tasks may become the very highest +steps of the staircase that brings us into His Presence. If we go about +our daily work, however wearisome and vulgar and commonplace it often +seems to us, and make it a work of righteousness resting on the joy of +salvation, and that reposing on the contemplation of God as He is +revealed in Jesus Christ, our daily work may bring us as close to God as +if we dwelt in the secret place of the Most High, and the market and the +shop may be a temple where we meet with Him. + +Dear brethren, there are two kinds of meeting God: 'Thou meetest him +that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness,' and that is blessed, as when +Christ met the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. There is another +kind of meeting with God. 'Who, making war, sitteth not down first, and +consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh +against him with twenty thousand?' + + + + +'THE GOD OF THE AMEN' + +'He who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of +truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of +truth.'--ISAIAH lxv. 16. + + +The full beauty and significance of these remarkable words are only +reached when we attend to the literal rendering of a part of them which +is obscured in our version. As they stand in the original they have, in +both cases, instead of the vague expression, 'The God of truth,' the +singularly picturesque one, 'The God of the Amen.' + +I. Note the meaning of the name. Now, _Amen_ is an adjective, which +means literally firm, true, reliable, or the like. And, as we know, its +liturgical use is that, in the olden time, and to some extent in the +present time, it was the habit of the listening people to utter it at +the close of prayer or praise. But besides this use at the end of some +one else's statement, which the sayer of the 'Amen' confirms by its +utterance, we also find it used at the beginning of a statement, by the +speaker, in order to confirm his own utterance by it. + +And these two uses of the expression reposing on its plain meaning, in +the first instance signifying, 'I tell you that it is so'; and in the +second instance signifying, 'So may it be!' or, 'So we believe it is,' +underlie this grand title which God takes to Himself here, 'the God of +the Amen,' both His Amen and ours. So that the thought opens up very +beautifully and simply into these two, His truth and our faith. + +First, it emphasises the absolute truthfulness of every word that comes +from His lips. There is implied in the title that He really _has_ +spoken, and declared to man something of His will, something of His +nature, something of His purposes, something of our destiny. And now He +puts, as it were, the broad seal upon the charter and says, 'Amen! +Verily it is so, and My word of Revelation is no man's imagination, and +My word of command is the absolute unveiling of human duty and human +perfectness, and My word of promise is that upon which a man may rest +all his weight and be safe for ever.' God's word is 'Amen!' man's word +is 'perhaps.' For in regard to the foundation truths of man's belief and +experience and need, no human tongue can venture to utter its own +asseverations with nothing behind them but itself, and expect men to +accept them; but that is exactly what God does, and alone has the right +to do. His word absolutely, and through and through, in every fibre of +it, is reliable and true. + +Now do not forget that there was one who came to us and said, 'Amen! +Amen! I say unto you.' Jesus Christ, in all His deep and wonderful +utterances, arrogated to Himself the right which God here declares to be +exclusively His, and He said, 'I too have, and I too exercise, the right +and the authority to lay My utterances down before you, and expect you +to take them because of nothing else than because I say them.' God is +the God of the Amen! The last book of Scripture, when it draws back the +curtain from the mysteries of the glorified session of Jesus Christ at +the right hand of God, makes Him say to us, 'These things saith the +Amen!' And if you want to know what that means, its explanation follows +in the next clause, 'the faithful and true witness.' + +But then, on the other hand, necessarily involved in this title, though +capable of being separately considered, is not only the absolute +truthfulness of the divine word, but also the thorough-going reliance, +on our parts, which that word expects and demands. God's 'Amen,' and +'Verily,' of confirmation, should ever cause the 'Amen' of acceptance +and assent to leap from our lips. If He begins with that mighty word, so +soon as the solemn voice has ceased its echo should rise from our +hearts. The city that cares for the charter which its King has given it +will prepare a fitting, golden receptacle in which to treasure it. And +the men who believe that God in very deed has spoken laws that +illuminate, and commandments that guide, and promises that calm and +strengthen and fulfil themselves, will surely prepare in their hearts an +appropriate receptacle for those precious and infallible words. God's +truth has corresponding to it our trust. God's faithfulness demands, and +is only adequately met by, our faith. If He gives us the sure foundation +to build upon, it will be a shame for us to bring wood, hay, stubble, +and build these upon the Rock of Ages. The building should correspond +with its foundation, and the faith which grasps the sure word should +have in it something of the unchangeableness and certainty and +absoluteness of that word which it grasps. If His revelation of Himself +is certain, you and I ought to be certain of His revelation of Himself. +Our certitude should correspond to its certainty. + +Ah! my friend, what a miserable contrast there is between the firm, +unshaken, solid security of the divine word upon which we say that we +trust, and the poor, feeble, broken trust which we build upon it. 'Let +not that man think that He shall receive anything of the Lord'; but let +us expect, as well as 'ask, in faith, nothing wavering'; and let our +'Amen!' ring out in answer to God's. + +The Apostle Paul has a striking echo of the words of my text in the +second Epistle to the Corinthians: 'All the promises of God in Him are +yea! and through Him also is the Amen!' The assent, full, swift, frank +--the assent of the believing heart to the great word of God comes +through the same channel, and reaches God by the same way, as God's word +on which it builds comes to us. The 'God of the Amen,' in both senses of +the word, is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the +seal as well as the substance of the divine promises, and whose voice in +us is the answer to, and the grasp of, the promises of which He is the +substance and soul. + +II. Now notice, next, how this God of the Amen is, by reason of that +very characteristic, the source of all blessing. + +'He who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of +Truth.' That phrase of _blessing oneself in_, which is a frequent Old +Testament expression, is roughly equivalent to invoking, and therefore +receiving, blessing from. You find it, for instance, in the +seventy-second Psalm, in that grand burst which closes one of the books +of the Psalter and hails the coming of the Messianic times, of which my +text also is a prediction. 'Men shall be blessed in Him,' or rather, +'shall bless themselves in Him,' which is a declaration, that all +needful benediction shall come down upon humanity through the coming +Messias, as well as that men shall recognise in that Messias the source +of all their blessing and good. So the text declares that, in those days +that are yet to come, the whole earth shall be filled with men whose +eyes have been purged from ignorance and sin, and from the illusions of +sense and the fascinations of folly, and who have learned that only in +the God of the Amen is the blessing of their life to be found. + +Of course it is so. For only on Him can I lean all my weight and be sure +that the stay will not give. All other bridges across the great abysses +which we have to traverse or be lost in them, are like those +snow-cornices upon some Alp, which may break when the climber is on the +very middle of them, and let him down into blackness out of which he +will never struggle. There is only one path clear across the deepest +gulf, which we poor pilgrims can tread with absolute safety that it will +never yield beneath our feet. My brother! there is one support that is +safe, and one stay upon which a man can lean his whole weight and be +sure that the staff will never either break or pierce his palm, and that +is the faithful God, in whose realm are no disappointments, amongst +whose trusters are no heart-broken and deceived men, but who gives +bountifully, and over and above all that we are able to ask or think. +They who have made experience, as we have all made experience, of the +insufficiency of earthly utterances, of the doubtfulness of the clearest +words of men, of the possible incapacity of the most loving, to be what +they pledge themselves to be, and of the certainty that even if they are +so for a while they cannot be so always--have surely learned one half, +at least, of the lesson that life is meant to teach us; and it is our +own fault if we have not bettered it with the better half, having +uncoiled the tendrils of our hearts from the rotten props round which +they have been too apt to twine themselves, and wreathed them about the +pillars of the eternal throne, which can never shake nor fail. 'He that +blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself'--unless he is a +fool--'in the God of the Amen!' and not in the _man_ of the +'peradventure.' + +III. Lastly, note how the God of the Amen should be the pattern of His +servants. + +'He that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth,' or, 'of +the Amen.' The prophet deduces from the name the solemn thought that +those who truly feel its significance will shape _their_ words +accordingly, and act and speak so that they shall not fear to call His +pure eyes to witness that there are neither, hypocrisy, nor insincerity, +nor vacillation, nor the 'hidden things of dishonesty' nor any of the +skulking meannesses of craft and self-seeking in them. 'I swear by the +God of the Amen, and call Thy faithfulness to witness that I am trying +to be like Thee,' that is what we ought to do if we call ourselves +Christians. If we have any hold at all of Him, and of His love, and of +the greatness and majesty of His faithfulness, we shall try to make our +poor little lives, in such measure as the dewdrops may be like the sun, +radiant like His, and of the same shape as His, for the dewdrop and the +sun are both of them spheres. That is exactly what the apostle does, in +that same chapter in 2 Cor., to which I already referred. He takes these +very thoughts of my text, and in their double aspect too, and says, +'Just because God is faithful, do you Corinthians think that, when I +told you that I was coming to see you, I did not mean it?' He brings the +greatest thought that He can find about God and God's truth, down to the +settlement of this very little matter, the vindication of Himself from +the charge, on the one hand, of facile and inconsiderate vacillation, +and, on the other hand, of insincerity. So, we may say, the greatest +thoughts should regulate the smallest acts. Though our maps be but a +quarter of an inch to a hundred miles, let us see that they are drawn to +scale. Let us see that He is our Pattern; and that the truthfulness, the +simplicity, and faithfulness, which we rest upon as the very foundation +of our intellectual as well as our moral and religious being, are, in +our measure, copied in ourselves. 'As God is faithful,' said Paul, 'our +word to you was not yea! and nay!' And they who are trusting to the God +of the Amen! will live in all simplicity and godly sincerity; their yea +will be yea, and their nay, nay. + + + +THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH + + +GOD'S LAWSUIT + + +'Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the Lord, and with your +children's children will I plead.'--JER. ii. 9. + +Point out that 'plead' is a forensic term. There is a great lawsuit in +which God is plaintiff and men defendants. The word is frequent in +Isaiah. + +I. The reason for God's pleading. + +The cause--'wherefore.' Our transgression does not make Him turn away +from us. It does profoundly modify the whole relation between us. It +does give an aspect of antagonism to His dealings. + +II. The manner. + +The whole history of the world and of each individual. All outward +providences. All the voice of Conscience. Christ. Spirit, who convinces +the world of Sin. + +III. The purpose. + +Wholly our being drawn from our evil. The purely reformatory character +of all punishment here. The sole object to win us back to Himself. He +conquers in this lawsuit when we come to love Him. + +IV. The patience. + +That merciful pleading--'I will _yet_'--runs on through all sin, and is +only made more earnest by deepening hostility. After rejections still +lingers. Extends over a thousand generations. Is exercised even where He +foresees failure. + + + + +STIFF-NECKED IDOLATERS AND PLIABLE CHRISTIANS + +'Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but My people +have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.'--JER. ii. 11. + + +The obstinacy of the adherents of idolatry is in striking contrast with +Israel's continual tendency to forsake Jehovah. It reads a scarcely less +forcible lesson to many nominal and even to some real Christians. + +I. That contrast carries with it a disclosure of the respective origins +of the two kinds of Religion. + +The strangeness of the contrasted conduct is intensified when we take +into account the tremendous contrast between the two Objects of worship. +Israel's God was Israel's 'Glory'; the idol-worshipper bowed down before +'that which doth not profit,' and yet no experience of God could bind +His fickle worshippers to Him, and no experience of the impotence of the +idol could shake its votaries' devotion. They cried and were not heard. +They toiled and had no results. They broke their teeth on 'that which is +not bread,' and filled their mouths with gritty ashes that mocked them +with a semblance of nourishment and left them with empty stomachs and +excoriated gums, yet by some strange hallucination they clung to +'vanities,' while Israel was always hankering after opportunity to +desert Jehovah. The stage of civilisation partly accounts for the +strange fascination of idolatry over the Israelites. But the deeper +solution lies in the fact that the one religion rises from the hearts of +men, corresponds to their moral condition, and is largely moulded by +their lower nature; while the other is from above, corresponds, indeed, +with the best and deepest longings and needs of souls, but contravenes +many of their most clamant wishes, and necessarily sets before them a +standard high and difficult to reach. Men make their gods in their own +image, and are conscious of no rebuke nor stimulus to loftier living +when they gaze on them. The God of Revelation bids men remake themselves +in His image, and that command requires endless effort. The average man +has to put a strain on his intellect in order to rise to the +apprehension of God, and a still more unwelcome strain on his moral +nature to rise to the imitation of God. No wonder, then, if the dwellers +on the low levels should cleave to them, and the pilgrims to the heights +should often weary of their toil and be distressed with the difficulty +of breathing the thin air up there, and should give up climbing and drop +down to the flats once more. + +II. That contrast carries with it a rebuke. + +Many voices echo the prophet's contrast nowadays. Our travelling +countrymen, especially those of them who have no great love for earnest +religion, are in the habit of drawing disparaging contrasts between +Buddhists, Brahmins, Mohammedans, any worshippers of other gods and +Christians. One may not uncharitably suspect that a more earnest +Christianity would not please these critics much better than does the +tepid sort, and that the pictures they draw both of heathenism and of +Christianity are coloured by their likes and dislikes. But it is well to +learn from an enemy, and caricatures may often be useful in calling +attention to features which would escape notice but for exaggeration. So +we may profit by even the ill-natured and distorted likenesses of +ourselves as contrasted with the adherents of other religions which so +many 'liberal-minded' writers of travels delight to supply. + +Think, then, of the rebuke which the obstinate adherence of idolaters to +their idols gives to the slack hold which so many professing Christians +have on their religion. + +Think of the way in which these lower religions pervade the whole life +of their worshippers, and of how partial is the sway over a little +territory of life and conduct which Christianity has in many of its +adherents. The absorption in worship shown by Mohammedans, who will +spread their prayer carpets anywhere and perform their drill of prayers +without embarrassment or distraction in the sight of a crowd, or the +rapt 'devotion' of fakirs, are held up as a rebuke to us 'Christians' +who are ashamed to be caught praying. One may observe, in mitigation, +that the worship which is of the heart is naturally more sensitive to +surrounding distractions than that which is a matter of posturing and +repetition by rote. But there still remains substance enough in the +contrast to point a sharp arrow of rebuke. + +And there is no denying that in these 'heathen' religions, religion is +intertwined with every act of life in a fashion which may well put to +shame many of us. Remember how Paul had to deal at length with the duty +of the Corinthians in view of the way in which every meal was a +sacrifice to some god, and how the same permeation of life with religion +is found in all these 'false faiths.' The octopus has coiled its +tentacles round the whole body of its victim. Bad and sad and mad as +idolatry is, it reads a rebuke to many of us, who keep life and religion +quite apart, and lock up our Christianity in our pews with our +prayer-books and hymnaries. + +Think of the material sacrifices made by idolaters, in costly offerings, +in painful self-tortures, and in many other ways, and the niggardliness +and self-indulgence of so many so-called Christians. + +III. The contrast suggests the greatness of the power which can overcome +even such obstinate adherence to idols. + +There is one, and only one, solvent for that rock-like obstinacy--the +Gospel. The other religions have seldom attempted to encroach on each +other's territory, and where they have, their instrument of conversion +has generally been the sword. The Gospel has met and mastered them all. +It, and it only, has had power to draw men to itself out of every faith. +The ancient gods who bewitched Israel, the gods of Greece, the gods of +our own ancestors, the gods of the islands of the South Seas, lie +huddled together, in undistinguished heaps, like corpses on a +battlefield, and the deities of India and the East are wounded and +slowly bleeding out their lives. 'Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, the +idols are upon the beasts,' all packed up, as it were, and ready to be +carried off. + +The rate of progress in dethroning them varies with the varying national +conditions. It is easier to cut a tunnel through chalk than through +quartz. + +IV. That contrast carries with it a call for Christian effort to spread +the conquering Gospel. + + +FOUNTAIN AND CISTERNS + +'They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them +out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water'--JER. ii. 13. + + +The proclivity of the Jews to idolatry is an outstanding fact all +through their history. That persistent national tendency surely compels +us to recognise a divine inspiration as the source of the prophetic +teaching and of the lofty spiritual theology of the Old Testament, which +were in sharpest unlikeness and opposition to the whole trend of the +people's thoughts. + +It is this apostasy which is referred to here. The false gods made by +men are the broken cisterns. But the text embodies a general truth. + +I. The irksomeness of a godless life. + +The contrast is between the springing fountain, there in the desert, +with the lush green herbage round about, where a man has only to stoop +and drink, and the painful hewing of cisterns. + +This emblem of the fountain beautifully suggests the great thought of +God's own loving will as the self-originated impulse by which He pours +out all good. Apart from all our efforts, the precious gift is provided +for us. Our relation is only that of receivers. + +We have the contrast with this in the laborious toils to which they +condemn themselves who seek for created sources of good. 'Hewn out +cisterns'--think of a man who, with a fountain springing in his +courtyard, should leave it and go to dig in the arid desert, or to hew +the live rock in hopes to gain water. It was already springing and +sparkling before him. The conduct of men, when they leave God and seek +for other delights, is like digging a canal alongside a navigable river. +They condemn themselves to a laborious and quite superfluous task. The +true way to get is to take. + +Illustrations in religion. Think of the toil and pains spent in idolatry +and in corrupt forms of Christianity. + +Illustrations in common life. Your toils--aye, and even your pleasures +--how much of them is laboriously digging for the water which all the +while is flowing at your side. + +II. The hopelessness of a godless life. + +The contrast further is between living waters and broken cisterns. God +is the fountain of living waters; in other words, in fellowship with God +there is full satisfaction for all the capacities and desires of the +soul; heart--conscience--will--understanding--hope and fear. + +The contrast of the empty cisterns. What a deep thought that with all +their work men only make 'cisterns,' _i.e._ they only provide +circumstances which _could hold_ delights, but cannot secure that water +should be in them! The men-made cisterns must be God-filled, if filled +at all. The true joys from earthly things belong to him who has made God +his portion. + +Further, they are 'broken cisterns,' and all have in them some flaw or +crack out of which the water runs. That is a vivid metaphor for the +fragmentary satisfaction which all earthly good gives, leaving a deep +yearning unstilled. And it is temporary as well as partial. 'He that +drinketh of this water shall thirst again'--nay, even as with those who +indulge in intoxicating drinks, the appetite increases while the power +of the draught to satisfy it diminishes. But the crack in the cistern +points further to the uncertain tenure of all earthly goods and the +certain leaving of them all. + +All godless life is a grand mistake. + +III. The crime of a godless life. + +It is right to seek for happiness. It is sin to go away from God. You +are thereby not merely flinging away your chances, but are transgressing +against your sacredest obligations. Our text is not only a remonstrance +on the grounds of prudence, showing God-neglecting men that they are +foolish, but it is an appeal to conscience, convincing them that they +are sinful. God loves us and cares for us. We are bound to Him by ties +which do not depend on our own volition. And so there is punishment for +the sin, and the evils experienced in a godless life are penal as well +as natural. + +We recall the New Testament modification of this metaphor, 'The water +that I shall give him shall be _in_ him a fountain of water.' Arabs in +desert round dried--up springs. Hagar. Shipwrecked sailors on a reef. +Christ opens 'rivers in the wilderness and streams in the desert.' + + + + +FORSAKING JEHOVAH + +'Know therefore, and see, that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou +hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that My fear is not in thee, saith +the Lord God of hosts.'--JER. ii. 19. + + +Of course the original reference is to national apostasy, which was +aggravated by the national covenant, and avenged by national disasters, +which are interpreted and urged by the prophet as God's merciful +pleading with men. But the text is true in reference to individuals. + +I. The universal indictment. + +This is not so much a charge of isolated overt acts, as of departure +from God. That departure, itself a sin, is the fountain of all other +sins. Every act which is morally wrong is religiously a departure from +God; it could not be done, unless heart and will had moved away from +their allegiance to Him. So the solemn mystery of right and wrong +becomes yet more solemn, when our personal relation to the personal God +is brought in. + +Then--consider what this forsaking is-at bottom aversion of will, or +rather of the whole nature, from Him. + +How strange and awful is that power which a creature possesses of +closing his heart against God, and setting up a quasi-independence! + +How universal it is-appeal to each man's own consciousness. + +II. The special aggravation. + +'_Thy God_ '---the original reference is to Israel, whom God had taken +for His and to whom He had given Himself as theirs, by His choice from +of old, by redemption from Egypt, by covenant, and by centuries of +blessings. But the designation is true in regard to God and each of us. +It points to the personal relation which we each sustain to Him, and so +is a pathetic appeal to affection and gratitude. + +III. The bitter fruit. + +6 Evil' may express rather the moral character of forsaking God, while +'bitter' expresses rather the consequences of it, which are sorrows. + +So the prophet appeals to experience. As the Psalmist confidently +invites to 'taste and see that God is good,' so Jeremiah boldly bids the +apostates know and see that departing is bitter. + +It is so, for it leaves the soul unsatisfied. + +It leads to remorse. + +It drags after it manifold bitter fruits. 'The wages of sin is death.' + +Sin without consequent sorrow is an impossibility if there is a God. + +IV. The loving appeal. + +The text is not denunciation, but tender, though indignant, pleading, in +hope of winning back the wanderers. The prophet has just been pointing +to the sorrowful results which necessarily follow on the nation's +apostasy, and tells Israel that its own wickedness shall correct it, and +then, in the text, he beseeches them not to be blind to the meaning of +their miseries, but to let these teach them how sinful and how sorrowful +their apostasy is. Men's sorrows are a mystery, but that sinners should +not have sorrows were a sadder mystery still. And God pleads with us all +not to lose the good of our experiences of the bitterness of sin by our +levity or our blindness to their meaning. By His providences, by His +Spirit working on us, by the plain teachings and loving pleadings of His +word, He is ever striving to open our eyes that we may see Good and +Evil, and recognise that all Good is bound up for us with cleaving to +God, and all Evil with departing from Him. When we turn our backs on Him +we are full front with the deformed figure of Evil; when we turn away +from it, we are face to face with Him, and in Him, with all Good. + + + + +A COLLOQUY BETWEEN A PENITENT AND GOD + +'A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of +the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, and they have +forgotten the Lord their God. Return, ye backsliding children, and I +will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto Thee; for Thou art the +Lord our God.'---JER. iii. 21, 22. + + +We have here a brief dramatic dialogue. First is heard a voice from the +bare heights, the sobs and cries of penitence, produced by the prophet's +earnest remonstrance. The penitent soul is absorbed in the thought of +its own evil. Its sin stands clear before it. Israel sees its sin in its +two forms. 'They have perverted their way,' or have led a wrong outward +life of action, and the reason is that 'they have forgotten God,' or +have been guilty of inward alienation and departure from Him. Here is +the consciousness of sin in its essential character, and that produces +godly sorrow. The distinction between mere remorse and repentance is +here already, in the 'weeping and supplication.' + +I. So we have here a consciousness of sin in its true nature, as +embracing both deeds and heart, as originating in departure from God, +and manifested in perverted conduct. + +Further, we have here sorrow. There may be consciousness of sin in its +true nature without any sorrow of heart. It is fatal when a man looks +upon his evil, gets a more or less clear sight of it, and is not sorry +and penitent. It is conceivable that there should be perfect knowledge +of sin and perfect insensibility in regard to it. + +A sinful man's true mood should be sorrow--not flinging the blame on +others, or on fate, or circumstances; not regarding his sin as +misfortune or as inevitable or as disease. + +Conscience is meant to produce that consciousness and that sorrow: but +conscience may be dulled or silenced. It cannot be anyhow induced to +call evil good, but it may be mistaken in what is evil. The gnomon is +true, but a veil of cloud may be drawn over the sky. + +Further, we have here supplication. These two former may both be +experienced, without this third. There may be consciousness of sin and +sorrow which lead to no blessing. 'My bones waxed old through my +roaring.' Sorrow after a godly sort may be hindered by false notions of +God's great love, or by false notions of what a man ought to do when he +finds he has gone wrong. It may be hindered by cleaving, subtle love of +sin, or by self-trust. But where all these have been overcome there is +true repentance. + +II. The loving divine answer. + +Another ear than the prophet's has heard the plaint from the bare +heights. Many a frenzied shriek had gone up from these shrines of +idolatrous worship, and as with Baal's prophets, it had brought no +answer, nor had there been any that regarded. But this weeping reaches +the ear that is never closed. Contrast with verse 23: 'Truly in vain is +the help that is looked for from the hills, the shouting (of idol- +worshippers) on the mountains.' + +The instantaneousness of God's answer is very beautiful. It is like the +action of the father in the parable of the prodigal son, who saw his +repentant boy afar off and ran and kissed him. + +There seems to be, in both the invitation to return and in the promise +to hear the backslidings, a quotation from Hosea xiv. (1-4). We see here +how God meets the penitent with a love that recognises all his sin and +yet is love. It is not rebuke or reproach that lies in that designation, +'backsliding children.' It is tenderest mercy that lets us see that He +knows exactly what we are, and yet promises His love and forgiveness. He +loves us sinners with a love that beckons us back to Himself, with a +love that promises healing. The truth which should be taken into the +mind and heart of the man conscious of sin is God's knowledge of it all +already and yet His undiminished love, God's welcome of him back, God's +ready pardon. All this is true for the world in Christ, and is true for +every individual soul. + +The answer and the invitation here are immediate. + +There is often a long period of painful struggle. It looks as if the +answer were not immediate. But that is because we do not listen to it. + +III. The happy response of the returning soul. + +That too is immediate. The soul believes God's promises. It recognises +God's claim. It returns to Him. We are attracted by His grace. The +sunflower turns to the sun. The penitent is not driven only, but drawn +--God's own loving self-revelation in Christ is His true power. 'I, if I +am lifted up, will draw all men unto Me.' + +The consciousness of sin remains and is even deepened (subsequent +verses), and yet is different. A light of hope is in it. The very sense +of sin brings us to Him, to hide our faces on His heart like a child in +its mother's lap. + +This response of the soul may be instantaneous. If it is not immediate, +it too probably will never be at all. + + + + +A QUESTION FOR THE BEGINNING + +'What will ye do in the end?'--JER. v. 31. + + +I find that I preached to the young from this text just thirty years +since--nearly a generation ago. How few of my then congregation are here +to-night! how changed they and I are! and how much nearer the close we +have drifted! How many of the young men and women of that evening have +gone to meet the end, and how many of them have wrecked their lives +because they would not face and answer this question! + +Ah, dear young friends, if I could bring some of the living and some of +the dead, and set them to witness here instead of me, they would burn in +on you, as my poor words never can do, the insanity of living without a +satisfactory and sufficient reply to the question of my text, 'What will +ye do in the end?' + +In its original application these words referred to a condition of +religious and moral corruption in which a whole nation was involved. The +men that should have spoken for God were 'prophesying lies.' The priests +connived at profitable falsehoods because by these their rule was +confirmed. And the deluded populace, as is always the case, preferred +smooth falsehoods to stern truths. So the prophet turns round +indignantly, and asks what can be the end of such a welter and carnival +of vice and immorality, and beseeches his contemporaries to mend their +ways by bethinking themselves of what their course led to. + +But we may dismiss the immediate application of the words for the sake +of looking at the general principle which underlies them. It is a very +familiar and well-worn one. It is simply this, that a large part of the +wise conduct of life depends on grave consideration of consequences. It +is a sharp-pointed question, that pricks many a bubble, and brings much +wisdom down into the category of folly. There would be less misery in +the world, and fewer fair young lives cast away upon grim rocks, if the +question of my text were oftener asked and answered. + +I. I note, first, that here is a question which every wise man will ask +himself. + +I do not mean to say that the consideration of consequences is the +highest guide, nor that it is always a sufficient one; nor that it is, +by any means, in every case, an easily applied one. For we can all +conceive of circumstances in which it is the plainest duty to take a +certain course of action, knowing that, as far as this life is +concerned, it will bring down disaster and ruin. Do right! and face +_any_ results therefrom. He who is always forecasting possible issues +has a very leaden rule of conduct, and will be so afraid of results that +he will not dare to move; and his creeping prudence will often turn out +to be the truest imprudence. + +But whilst all that is true, and many deductions must be made from the +principle which I have laid down, that the consideration of +circumstances is a good guide in life, yet there are regions in which +the question comes home with direct and illuminating force. Let me just +illustrate one or two of these. + +Take the lower application of the question to nearer ends in life. Now +this awful life that we live is so strangely concatenated of causes and +effects, and each little deed drags after it such a train of eternal and +ever-widening consequences, that a man must be an idiot if he never +looks an inch beyond his nose to see the bearing of his actions. I +believe that, in the long-run, and in the general, condition is the +result of character and of conduct; and that, whatsoever deductions may +be necessary, yet, speaking generally, and for the most part, men are +the architects of their own condition, and that they make the houses +that they dwell in to fit the convolutions of the body that dwells +within them. And, that being so, it being certain that 'whatsoever a man +soweth, that shall he also reap,' and that no deed, be it ever so small, +be it ever so evanescent, be it ever so entirely confined within our own +inward nature, and never travelling out into visibility in what men call +actions--that every one of such produces an eternal, though it may be an +all but imperceptible effect, upon ourselves; oh, surely there can be +nothing more ridiculous than that a man should refrain from forecasting +the issue of his conduct, and saying to himself? 'What am I to do in the +end?' + +If you would only do that in regard to hosts of things in your daily +life you _could_ not be the men and women that you are. If the lazy +student would only bring clearly before his mind the examination-room, +and the unanswerable paper, and the bitter mortification when the +pass-list comes out and his name is not there, he would not trifle and +dawdle and seek all manner of diversions as he does, but he would bind +himself to his desk and his task. If the young man who begins to tamper +with purity, and in the midst of the temptations of a great city to +gratify the lust of the eye and the lust of the flesh, because he is +away from the shelter of his father's house, and the rebuke of his +mother's purity, could see, as the older of us have seen, men with their +bones full of the iniquity of their youth, or drifted away from the city +to die, down in the country like a rat in a hole, do you think the +temptations of the streets and low places of amusement would not be +stripped of their fascination? If the man beginning to drink were to say +to himself, 'What am I to do in the end?' when the craving becomes +physical, and volition is suspended, and anything is sacrificed in order +to still the domineering devil within, do you think he would begin? I do +not believe that all sin comes from ignorance, but sure I am that if the +sinful man saw what the end is he would, in nine cases out of ten, be +held back. 'What will ye do in the end?' Use that question, dear +friends, as the Ithuriel spear which will touch the squatting tempter at +your ear, and there will start up, in its own shape, the fiend. + +But the main application that I would ask you to make of the words of my +text is in reference to the final end, the passing from life. Death, the +end, is likewise Death, the beginning. If it were an absolute end, as +coarse infidelity pretends to believe it is, then, of course, such a +question as my text would have no kind of relevance. 'What will ye do in +the end?' 'Nothing! for I shall be nothing. I shall just go back to the +nonentity that I was. I do not need to trouble myself.' Ah, but Janus +has two faces, one turned to the present and one to the future. His +temple has two gates, one which admits from this lower level, and one, +at the back, which launches us out on to the higher level. The end is a +beginning, and the beginning is retribution. The end of sowing is the +beginning of harvest. The man finishes his work and commences to live on +his wages. The brewing is over, and the drinking of the brewst +commences. + +And so, brother, 'What will ye do in the end--which is not an end, but +which is a beginning? 'Surely every wise man will take that question +into consideration. Surely, if it be true that we all of us are silently +drifting to that one little gateway through which we have to pass one by +one, and then find ourselves in a region all full of consequences of the +present, he has a good claim to be counted a prince of fools who 'jumps +the life to come,' and, in all his calculations of consequences, which +he applies wisely and prudently to the trifles of the present, forgets +to ask himself, 'And, after all that is done, what shall I do then?' You +remember the question in the old ballad: + + "'What good came of it at last?' ... + 'Nay, that I cannot tell,' quoth he; + But 'twas a famous victory.'" + +Ay, but what came of it at the last? Oh brother, that one question, +pushed to its issues, condemns the wisdom of this world as folly, and +pulverises into nothingness millions of active lives and successful +schemes. What then? What then? 'I have much goods laid up for many +years.' Well and good, what then? 'I will say to my soul, Take thine +ease, eat, drink, and be merry.' Yes, what then? 'This night thy soul +shall be required of thee.' He never thought of that! And so his +epitaph was 'Thou fool!' + +II. So, secondly, mark, here is a question which a great many of us +never think about. + +I do not mean, now, so much in reference to the nearer ends compassed +in this life, though even in regard to them it is only too true; I mean +rather in regard to that great and solemn issue to which we are all +tending. But in regard of both, it seems to me one of the strangest +things in all the world that men should be content so commonly to be +ignorant of what they perfectly well know, and never to give attention +to that of which, should they bethink themselves, they are absolutely +certain. + +'What will ye do in the end?' Why! half of us put away that question +with the thought in our minds, if not expressed, at least most +operative, 'There is not going to be any end; and it is always going to +be just like what it is to-day.' Did you ever think that there is no +good ground for being sure that the sun will rise to-morrow; that it +rose for the first time once; that there will come a day when it will +rise for the last time? The uniformity of Nature may be a postulate, +but you cannot find any logical basis for it. Or, to come down from +heights of that sort, have you ever laid to heart, brother, that the +only unchangeable thing in this world is change, and the only thing +certain, that there is no continuance of anything; and that, therefore, +you and I are bound, if we are wise, to look that fact in the face, and +not to allow ourselves to be befooled by the difficulty of imagining +that things will ever be different from what they are? Oh! many of us-- +I was going to say most of men, I do not know that it would be an +exaggeration--are like the careless inhabitants of some of those sunny, +volcanic isles in the Eastern Ocean, where Nature is prodigally +luxuriant and all things are fair, but every fifty years or so there +comes a roar and the island shakes, and half of it, perhaps, is +overwhelmed, and the lava flows down and destroys gleaming houses and +smiling fields, and heaven is darkened with ashes, and then everything +goes on as before, and people live as if it was never going to happen +again, though every morning, when they go out, they see the cone +towering above their houses, and the thin column of smoke, pale against +the blue sky. + +It is not altogether sinful or bad that we should live, to some extent, +under the illusion of a fixity and a perpetuity which has no real +existence, for it helps to concentrate effort and to consolidate habit, +and to make life possible. But for men to live, as so many of us do, +never thinking of what is more certain than anything else about us, +that we shall slide out of this world, and find ourselves in another, +is surely not the part of wisdom. + +Another reason why so many of us shirk this question is the lamentable +want of the habit of living by principle and reflection. Most men never +see their life steadily, and see it whole. They live from hand to +mouth, they are driven this way and that way; they adapt means to ends +In regard to business or the like, but in the formation of their +character, and in the moulding of their whole being, crowds of them +live a purely mechanical, instinctive, unreflective life. There is +nothing more deplorable than the small extent to which reflection and +volition really shape the lives of the bulk of mankind. Most of us take +our cue from our circumstances, letting them dominate us. They tell us +that in Nature there is such a thing as protective mimicry, as it is +called-animals having the power--some of them to a much larger extent +than others--of changing their hues in order to match the gravel of the +stream in which they swim or the leaves of the trees on which they +feed. That is like what a great many of us do. Put us into a place +where certain forms of frivolity or vice are common, and we go in for +them. Take us away from these and we change our hue to something a +little whiter. But all through we never know what it is to put forth a +good solid force of resistance and to say, 'No! I will not!' or, what +is sometimes quite as hard to say, 'Yes! though,' as Luther said in +his strong way, 'there were as many devils in Worms as there are tiles +on the housetops, I will!' If people would live more by reflection and +by the power of a resisting will, this question of my text would come +oftener to them. + +And there is another cause that I must touch on for one moment, why so +many people neglect this question, and that is because they are +uneasily conscious that they durst not face it. I know of no stranger +power than that by which men can ignore unwelcome questions; and I know +of nothing more tragical than the fact that they choose to exercise the +power. What would you think of a man who never took stock because he +knew that he was insolvent, and yet did not want to know it? And what +do you think of yourselves if, knowing that the thought of passing into +that solemn eternity is anything but a cheering one, and that you have +to pass thither, you never turn your head to look at it? Ah, brother, +if it be true that this question of my text is unpleasant to you to +hear put, be sure that that is the strongest reason why you should put +it. + +III. Thirdly, here is a question especially directed to you young folk. + +It is so because you are specially tempted to forget it. It may seem as +if there were no people in the world that had less need to be appealed +to, as I have been appealing to you, by motives drawn from the end of +life, than you who are only standing at its beginning. But it is not +so. An old rabbi was once asked by his pupil when he should fulfil a +certain precept of the law, and the answer was, 'The day before you +die.' 'But,' said the disciple, 'I may die to-morrow.' 'Then,' said the +master, 'do it to-day.' And so I say to you, do not make sure that the +beginning at which you stand is separated by a long tract of years from +the end to which you go. It may be, but it may not be. I know that +arguments pleading with men to be Christians, and drawn from the +consideration of a future life, are not fashionable nowadays, but I am +persuaded that that preaching of the Gospel is seriously defective, and +will be lamentably ineffective, which ignores this altogether. And, +therefore, dear friends, I say to you that, although in all human +probability a stretch of years may lie between you and the end of life, +the question of my text is one specially adapted to you. + +And it is so because, with your buoyancy, with your necessarily limited +experience, with the small accumulation of results that you have +already in your possession, and with the tendencies of your age to live +rather by impulse than by reflection, you are specially tempted to +forget the solemn significance of this interrogation. And it is a +question especially for you, because you have special advantages in the +matter of putting it. We older people are all fixed and fossils, as you +are very fond of telling us. The iron has cooled and gone into rigid +shapes with us. It is all fluent with you. You may become pretty nearly +what you like. I do not mean in regard to circumstances: other +considerations come in to determine these; but circumstances are +second, character is first; and I do say, in regard to character, you +young folk have all but infinite possibilities before you; and, I +repeat, may become almost anything that you set yourselves to be. You +have no long, weary trail of failures behind you, depressing and +seeming to bring an entail of like failure with them for the future. +You have not yet acquired habits--those awful things that may be our +worst foes or our best friends--you have not yet acquired habits that +almost smother the power of reform and change. You have, perhaps, years +before you in which you may practise the lessons of wisdom and self- +restraint which this question fairly fronted would bring. And so I lay +it on your hearts, dear young friends. I have little hope of the old +people. I do not despair of any, God forbid! but the fact remains that +the most of the men who have done anything for God and the world worth +doing have been under the influence of Christian principle in their +early days. And from fifteen to one or two and twenty is the period in +which you get the set which, in all likelihood, you will retain through +eternity. So, 'What will ye do in the end?' Answer the question whilst +yet it is possible to answer it, with a stretch of years before you in +which you may work out the conclusions to which the answer brings. + +IV. And that leads me to say, last of all, and but a word, that here is +a question which Jesus Christ alone enables a man to answer with calm +confidence. + +As I have said, the end is a beginning; the passage from life is the +entrance on a progressive and eternal state of retribution. And Jesus +Christ tells us two other things. He tells us that that state has two +parts; that in one there is union with Him, life, blessedness for ever; +and that in the other there is darkness, separation from Him, death, +and misery. These are the facts, as revealed by the incarnate Word of +God, on which answers to this question must be shaped. + +'What will ye do in the end?' If I am trusting to Him; if I have +brought my poor, weak nature and sinful soul to Him, and cast them upon +His merciful sacrifice and mighty intercession and life-giving Spirit, +then I can say: 'As for me, I shall behold Thy face in righteousness; I +shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness.' Ay, and what about +those who do not take Him for their Prince and their Saviour? 'What +will _ye_ do in the end?' When life's illusions are over, when +all its bubbles are burst, when conscience awakes, and when you stand +to give an account of yourself to God, 'What will ye do in the end' +which is a beginning? 'Can thy heart endure and thy hand be strong in +the day that I shall deal with thee?' Oh brother, do not turn away from +that Christ who is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the +ending! If you will cleave to Him, then you may let the years and weeks +slip away without regret; and whether the close be far off or near, +death will be robbed of all its terrors, and the future so filled with +blessedness, that of you the wise man's paradox will be true: 'Better +is the end of a thing than the beginning, and the day of death than the +day of birth.' + + + + +POSSESSING AND POSSESSED + +'The portion of Jacob is not like them--for He is the former of all +things: and Israel is the tribe of His inheritance. The Lord of Hosts +is His name.'--JER. x. 16, R.V. + + +Here we have set forth a reciprocal possession. We possess God, He +possesses us. We are His inheritance, He is our portion. I am His; He +is mine. + +This mutual ownership is the very living centre of all religion. +Without it there is no relation of any depth between God and us. How +much profounder such a conception is than the shallow notions about +religion which so many men have! It is not a round of observance; not a +painful effort at obedience, not a dim reverence for some vague +supernatural, not a far-off bowing before Omnipotence, not the mere +acceptance of a creed, but a life in which God and the soul blend in +the intimacies of mutual possession. + +I. The mutual possession. + +God is our portion. + +That thought presupposes the possibility of our possessing God. It +presupposes the fact that He has given Himself to us, and the answering +fact that we have taken Him for ours. + +We are God's inheritance. + +We give ourselves to Him--we do so where we apprehend that He has given +Himself to us; it is His giving love that moves men to yield themselves +to God. He takes us for His. What a wonderful thought that He delights +in possessing us! The all-sufficiency of our portion is guaranteed +because He is 'the former of all things.' The safety of His inheritance +is secured because 'the Lord of Hosts is His name.' And that name +accentuates the wonder that He to whom all the ordered armies of the +universe submit and belong should still take us for His inheritance. + +Mark the contrast of this true possession with the false and merely +external possessions of the world. Those outward things which a man has +stand in no real relation with him. They fade and fleet away, or have +to be left, and, even while they last, are not his in any real sense. +Only what has indissolubly entered into, and become one with, our very +selves is truly ours. + +Our possession of God suggests a view of our blessedness and our +obligation. It secures blessedness--for we have in Him an all- +sufficient object and a treasure for all our nature. It imposes the +obligation to let our whole nature feed upon, and be filled by, Him, to +see that the temple where He dwells is clean, and not to fling away our +treasure. + +His possession of us suggests a corresponding view of our blessedness +and our obligation. + +We are His--as slaves are their owners' property. So we are bound to +submission of will. To be owned by God is an honour. The slave's goods +and chattels belong to the master. + +His possession of us binds us to consecrate ourselves, and so to +glorify Him in 'body and spirit which are His.' + +It ensures our safety. How constantly this calming thought is dwelt on +in Scripture--that they who belong to Him need fear nothing. 'Fear not, +I have called thee by thy name, them art Mine.' God does not hold His +possessions with so slack a grasp as to lose them or to suffer them to +be wrenched away. A psalmist rose to the hope of immortality by +meditating on what was involved in his being God's possession here and +now. He was sure that even Death's bony fingers could not keep their +hold on him, and so he sang, 'Thou wilt not suffer Thine Holy One to +see corruption.' The seal on the foundation of God which guarantees its +standing sure is, 'The Lord knoweth them that are His.' 'They shall be +Mine in the day that I do make, even a peculiar treasure,' is His own +assurance, on which resting, a trembling soul may 'have boldness in the +day of judgment.' + +II. The human response by which God becomes ours and we His. + +That response is first the act of faith, which is an act of both reason +and will, and then the act of love and self-surrender which follows +faith, and then the continuous acts of communion and consecration. + +All must commence with recognition of His free gift of Himself to us in +Christ. We come empty-handed. That gift recognised and accepted moves +us to give ourselves to Him. When we give ourselves to Him we find that +we possess Him. + +Further, there must be continuous communion. This mutual possession +depends on our occupation of mind and heart with Him. We possess Him +and are possessed by Him, when our wills are kept in harmony with, and +submission to, Him, when our thoughts are occupied with Him and His +truth, when our affections rest in Him, when our desires go out to Him, +when our hopes are centred in Him, when our practical life is devoted +to Him. + +III. The blessedness of this mutual possession. + +To possess God is to have an all-sufficient object for all our nature. +He who has God for his very own has the fountain of life in himself, +has the spring of living water, as it were, in his own courtyard, and +needs not to go elsewhere to draw. He need fear no loss, for his wealth +is so engrained in the very substance of his being that nothing can rob +him of it but himself, and that whilst he lasts it will last with, +because in, him. + +How marvellous that into the narrow room of one poor soul He should +come whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain! Solomon said, 'How much +less this house which I have built,'--well may we say the same of our +little hearts. But He can compress Himself into that small compass and +expand His abode by dwelling in it. + +Nor is the blessedness of being possessed by Him less than the +blessedness of possessing Him. For so long as we own ourselves we are +burdens to ourselves, and we only own ourselves truly when we give +ourselves away utterly. Earthly love, with its blessed mysteries of +mutual possession, teaches us that. But all its depth and joy are as +nothing when set beside the liberty, the glad peace, the assured +possession of our enriched selves, which are ours when we give +ourselves wholly to God, and so for the first time are truly lords of +ourselves, and find ourselves by losing ourselves in Him. + +Nor need we fear to say that God, too, delights in that mutual +possession, for the very essence of love is the desire to impart +itself, and He is love supreme and perfect. Therefore is He glad when +we let Him give Himself to us, and moved by 'the mercies of God, yield +ourselves to Him a sacrifice of a sweet smell, acceptable to God.' + + + + +CALMS AND CRISES + +'If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then +how canst thou contend with horses? and though in a land of peace thou +art secure, yet how wilt thou do in the pride of Jordan?'--JER. xii. 5, +R.V. + + +The prophet has been complaining of his persecutors. The divine answer +is here, reproving his impatience, and giving him to understand that +harder trials are in store for him. + +Both clauses mean substantially the same thing, and are of a parabolic +nature. The one adduces the metaphor of a race: 'Footmen have beaten +you, have they? Then how will you run with cavalry?' The other is more +clear in the Revised Version rendering: 'Though in a land of peace you +are secure, what will you do in Jordan when it swells?' The 'swelling +of Jordan' is a figure for extreme danger. + +The questions may be taken as referring to our own lives. Note how the +one refers more to strength for duties, the other to peace and safety +in dangers. They both recognise that life has great alternations as to +the magnitude of its tasks and trials, and they call on experience to +answer the question whether we are ready for times of stress and peril. + +I. Think of what may come to us. + +We all have had the experience of how in our lives there are long +stretches of uneventful days, and then, generally without warning, some +crisis is sprung on us, which demands quite a different order of +qualities to cope with it. Our typhoons generally come without any +warning from a falling barometer. + +We may at any moment be confronted with some hard duty which will task +our utmost energy. + +We may at any moment be plunged in some great calamity to which the +quiet course of our lives for years will be as the still flow of the +river between smiling lawns is to the dash and fierce currents of the +rapids in a grim canyon. + +The tasks that may come on us and the tasks that must come, the dangers +that may beset us and the dangers that must envelop us, the +possibilities that lie hidden in the future, and the certainties that +we know to be shrouded there, should surely sometimes occupy a wise +man's thoughts. It is but living in a fool's paradise to soothe +ourselves with the assurance which a moment's thought will shatter: +'To-morrow shall be as this day.' We shall not always have the easy +competition with footmen; there will some time come a call to strain +our muscles to keep up with the gallop of cavalry. We shall have to +struggle to keep our feet in the swelling of Jordan, and must not +expect to have a continual leisurely life in 'a land of peace.' + +II. Think of what experience tells us as to our power to meet these +crises. + +The footmen have wearied you. The small tasks have been more than your +patience and strength could manage. No doubt great exigencies often +call forth great powers that were dormant in the humdrum of ordinary +life. But the man who knows himself best will be the most ready to +shrink with distrust from the dread possibilities of duty. + +If we think of the 'footmen' with whom we have contended as +representing the smaller faults that we have tried to overcome, does +our success in conquering some small bad habit, some 'little sin,' +encourage the hope that we could keep our footing when some great +temptation of a lifetime came down on us with a rush like the charge of +a battalion of horsemen? Or, if we cast our eyes forward to the +calamities that lie still 'on the knees of the gods' for us, do we feel +ready to meet the hours of desolating disaster, the 'hour of death and +the day of judgment'? Even in a land of peace we have all had alarms, +perturbations, and defeats enough, and our security has been at the +mercy of marauders so often that if we are wise, and take due heed of +what experience has to say to us of our reserve of force, we shall not +be hopeful of keeping our footing in the whirling currents of a river +in full flood. + +III. Think of the power that will fit us for all crises. + +With the power of Jesus in our spirits we shall never have to attempt a +duty for which we are not strengthened, nor to front a danger from and +in which He will not defend us. With His life in us we shall be ready +for the long hours of uneventful, unexciting duties, and for the short +spurts that make exacting calls on us. We 'shall run and not be weary; +we shall walk and not faint.' If we live in Jesus we shall always be in +'a land of peace,' and no 'plague shall come nigh our dwelling.' Even +when the soles of our feet rest in the waters of Jordan, the waters of +Jordan shall be cut off, and we shall pass over on dry ground into the +land of peace, where they that would swallow us up shall be far away +for ever. + + + + +AN IMPOSSIBILITY MADE POSSIBLE + +'Can the Ethiopian change his skin?'--JER. xiii. 23. 'If any man be in +Christ, he is a new creature.'--2 COR. v. 17. 'Behold, I make all +things new.'--REV. xxi. 5. + + +Put these three texts together. The first is a despairing question to +which experience gives only too sad and decisive a negative answer. It +is the answer of many people who tell us that character must be +eternal, and of many a baffled man who says, 'It is of no use--I have +tried and can do nothing.' The second text is the grand Christian +answer, full of confidence. It was spoken by one who had no superficial +estimate of the evil, but who had known in himself the power of Christ +to revolutionise a life, and make a man love all he had hated, and hate +all he had loved, and fling away all he had treasured. The last text +predicts the completion of the renovating process lying far ahead, but +as certain as sunrise. + +I. The unchangeableness of character, especially of faults. + +We note the picturesque rhetorical question here. They were +occasionally accustomed to see the dark-skinned, Ethiopian, whether we +suppose that these were true negroes from Southern Egypt or dark Arabs, +and now and then leopards came up from the thickets on the Jordan, or +from the hills of the southern wilderness about the Dead Sea. The black +hue of the man, the dark spots that starred the skin of the fierce +beast, are fitting emblems of the evil that dyes and speckles the soul. +Whether it wraps the whole character in black, or whether it only spots +it here and there with tawny yellow, it is ineradicable; and a man can +no more change his character once formed than a negro can cast his +skin, or a leopard whiten out the spots on his hide. + +Now we do not need to assert that a man has no power of self- +improvement or reformation. The exhortations of the prophet to +repentance and to cleansing imply that he has. If he has not, then it +is no blame to him that he does not mend. Experience shows that we have +a very considerable power of such a kind. It is a pity that some +Christian teachers speak in exaggerated terms about the impossibility +of such self-improvement. + +But it is very difficult. + +Note the great antagonist as set forth here--Habit, that solemn and +mystical power. We do not know all the ways in which it operates, but +one chief way is through physical cravings set up. It is strange how +much easier a second time is than a first, especially in regard to evil +acts. The hedge once broken down, it is very easy to get through it +again. If one drop of water has percolated through the dyke, there will +be a roaring torrent soon. There is all the difference between once and +never; there is small difference between once and twice. By habit we +come to do things mechanically and without effort, and we all like +that. One solitary footfall across the snow soon becomes a beaten way. +As in the banyan-tree, each branch becomes a root. All life is held +together by cords of custom which enable us to reserve conscious effort +and intelligence for greater moments. Habit tends to weigh upon us with +a pressure 'heavy as frost, and deep almost as life.' But also it is +the ally of good. + +The change to good is further made difficult because liking too often +goes with evil, and good is only won by effort. It is a proof of man's +corruption that if left alone, evil in some form or other springs +spontaneously, and that the opposite good is hard to win. Uncultivated +soil bears thistles and weeds. Anything can roll downhill. It is always +the least trouble to go on as we have been going. + +Further, the change is made difficult because custom blinds judgment +and conscience. People accustomed to a vitiated atmosphere are not +aware of its foulness. + +How long it takes a nation, for instance, to awake to consciousness of +some national crime, even when the nation is 'Christian'! And how men +get perfectly sophisticated as to their own sins, and have all manner +of euphemisms for them! + +Further, how hard it is to put energy into a will that has been +enfeebled by long compliance. Like prisoners brought out of the +Bastille. + +So if we put all these reasons together, no wonder that such +reformation is rare. + +I do not dwell on the point that it must necessarily be confined within +very narrow limits. I appeal to experience. You have tried to cure some +trivial habit. You know what a task that has been--how often you +thought that you had conquered, and then found that all had to be done +over again. How much more is this the case in this greater work! Often +the efforts to break off evil habits have the same effect as the +struggles of cattle mired in a bog, who sink the deeper for plunging. +The sad cry of many a foiled wrestler with his own evil is, 'O wretched +man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' We do +not wish to exaggerate, but simply to put it that experience shows that +for men in general, custom and inclination and indolence and the lack +of adequate motive weigh so heavily that a thorough abandonment of +evil, much more a hearty practice of good, are not to be looked for +when once a character has been formed. So you young people, take care. +And all of us listen to--- + +II. The great hope for individual renewal. + +The second text sets forth a possibility of entire individual renewal, +and does so by a strong metaphor. + +'If any man be in Christ he is a new creature,' or as the words might +be rendered, 'there is a new creation,' and not only is he renewed, but +all things are become new. He is a new Adam in a new world. + +Now (a) let us beware of exaggeration about this matter. There +are often things said about the effects of conversion which are very +far in advance of reality, and give a handle to caricature. The great +law of continuity runs on through the change of conversion. Take a man +who has been the slave of some sin. The evil will not cease to tempt, +nor will the effects of the past on character be annihilated. +'Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap,' remains true. In +many ways there will be permanent consequences. There will remain the +scars of old wounds; old sores will be ready to burst forth afresh. The +great outlines of character do remain. + +(b) What is the condition of renewal? + +'If any man be in Christ'--how distinctly that implies something more +than human in Paul's conception of Christ. It implies personal union +with Him, so that He is the very element or atmosphere in which we +live. And that union is brought about by faith in Him. + +(c) How does such a state of union with Christ make a man over +again? + +It gives a new aim and centre for our lives. Then we live not unto +ourselves; then everything is different and looks so, for the centre is +shifted. That union introduces a constant reference to Him and +contemplation of His death for us, it leads to self-abnegation. + +It puts all life under the influence of a new love. 'The love of Christ +constraineth.' As is a man's love, so is his life. The mightiest +devolution is to excite a new love, by which old loves and tastes are +expelled. 'A new affection' has 'expulsive power,' as the new sap +rising in the springtime pushes off the lingering withered leaves. So +union with Him meets the difficulty arising from inclination still +hankering after evil. It lifts life into a higher level where the +noxious creatures that were proper to the swamps cannot live. The new +love gives a new and mighty motive for obedience. + +That union breaks the terrible chain that binds us to the past. 'All +died.' The past is broken as much as if we were dead. It is broken by +the great act of forgiveness. Sin holds men by making them feel as if +what has been must be--an awful entail of evil. In Christ we die to +former self. + +That union brings a new divine power to work in us. 'I live, yet not I, +but Christ liveth in me.' + +It sets us in a new world which yet is the old. All things are changed +if we are changed. They are the same old things, but seen in a new +light, used for new purposes, disclosing new relations and powers. +Earth becomes a school and discipline for heaven. The world is +different to a blind man when cured, or to a deaf one,--there are new +sights for the one, new sounds for the other. + +All this is true in the measure in which we live in union with Christ. + +So no man need despair, nor think, 'I cannot mend now.' You may have +tried and been defeated a thousand times. But still victory is +possible, not without effort and sore conflict, but still possible. +There is hope for all, and hope for ME. + +III. The completion in a perfectly renewed creation. + +The renovation here is only partial. Its very incompleteness is +prophetic. If there be this new life in us, it obviously has not +reached its fulness here, and it is obviously not manifested here for +all that even here it is. + +It is like some exotic that does not show its true beauty in our +greenhouses. The life of a Christian on earth is a prophecy by both its +greatness and its smallness, by both its glory and its shame, by both +its brightness and its spots. It cannot be that there is always to be +this disproportion between aspiration and performance, between willing +and doing. Here the most perfect career is like a half-lighted street, +with long gaps between the lamps. + +The surroundings here are uncongenial to the new creatures. 'Foxes have +holes'--all creatures are fitted for their environment; only man, and +eminently renewed man, wanders as a pilgrim, not in his home. The +present frame of things is for discipline. The schooling over, we burn +the rod. So we look for an external order in full correspondence with +the new nature. + +And Christ throned 'makes all things new.' How far the old is renewed +we cannot tell, and we need not ask. Enough that there shall be a +universe in perfect harmony with the completely renewed nature, that we +shall find a home where all things will serve and help and gladden and +further us, where the outward will no more distract and clog the +spirit. + +Brethren, let that mighty love constrain you; and look to Christ to +renew you. Whatever your old self may have been, you may bury it deep +in His grave, and rise with Him to newness of life. Then you may walk +in this old world, new creatures in Christ Jesus, looking for the +blessed hope of entire renewal into the perfect likeness of Him, the +perfect man, in a perfect world, where all old sorrows and sins have +passed away and He has made all things new. Through eternity, new joys, +new knowledge, new progress, new likeness, new service will be ours-- +and not one leaf shall ever wither in the amaranthine crown, nor 'the +cup of blessing' ever become empty or flat and stale. Eternity will be +but a continual renewal and a progressive increase of ever fresh and +ever familiar treasures. The new and the old will be one. + +Begin with trusting to Him to help you to change a deeper blackness +than that of the Ethiopian's skin, and to erase firier spots than stain +the tawny leopard's hide, and He will make you a new man, and set you +in His own time in a 'new heaven and earth, where dwelleth +righteousness.' + + + + +TRIUMPHANT PRAYER + +'O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do Thou it for Thy +name's sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against +Thee. 8. O the hope of Israel, the saviour thereof in time of trouble, +why shouldest Thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man +that turneth aside to tarry for a night? 9. Why shouldest Thou be as a +man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet Thou, O Lord, art +in the midst of us, and we are called by Thy name; leave us not.'--JER. +xiv. 7-9. + + +My purpose now carries me very far away from the immediate occasion of +these words; yet I cannot refrain from a passing reference to the +wonderful pathos and picturesque power with which the long-forgotten +calamity that evoked them is portrayed in the context. A terrible +drought has fallen upon the land, and the prophet's picture of it is, +if one might say so, like some of Dante's in its realism, in its +tenderness, and in its terror. In the presence of a common calamity all +distinctions of class have vanished, and the nobles send their little +ones to the well, and they come back with empty vessels and drooping +heads instead of with the gladness that used to be heard in the place +of drawing of water. The ploughmen are standing among the cracked +furrows, gazing with despair on the brown chapped earth, and in the +field the very dumb creatures are sharing in the common sorrow, and the +imperious law of self-preservation overpowers and crushes the maternal +instincts. 'Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, +because there was no grass.' And on every little hilltop where cooler +air might be found, the once untamable wild asses are standing with +open nostrils panting for the breeze, their filmy eyes failing them, +gazing for the rain that will not come. And then, from contemplating +all that sorrow, the prophet turns to God with a wondrous burst of +strangely blended confidence and abasement, penitence and trust, and +fuses together the acknowledgment of sin and reliance upon the +established and perpetual relation between Israel and God, pleading +with Him about His judgments, presenting before Him the mysterious +contradiction that such a calamity should fall on those with whom God +dwelt, and casting himself lowly before the throne, and pleading the +ancient name: 'Do Thou it! Leave us not.' + +It is to the wonderful fulness and richness of this prayer that I ask +your attention in these few remarks. Expositors have differed as to +whether the drought that forms its basis was a literal one, or is the +prophet's way of putting the sore calamities that had fallen on Israel. +Be that as it may, I need not remind you how often in Scripture that +metaphor of the 'rain that cometh down from heaven and watereth the +earth' is the symbol for God's divine gift of His Spirit, and how, on +the other hand, the picture of the 'dry and thirsty land where no water +is' is the appropriate figure for the condition of the soul or of the +Church void of the divine presence. And I think I shall not mistake if +I say that though we have much to make us thankful, yet you and I, dear +brethren, and all our Churches and congregations, are suffering under +this drought, and the merciful 'rain, wherewith Thou dost confirm Thine +inheritance when it is weary' has not yet come as we would have it. May +we find in these words some gospel for the day that may help us to come +to the temper of mind into which there shall descend the showers to +'make soft the earth and bless the springing thereof!' + +Glancing over these clauses, then, and trying to put them into +something like order for our purpose, there are four things that I +would have you note. The first is the mysterious contradiction between +the ideal Israel and the actual state of things; the second is the +earnest inquiry as to the cause; the third the penitent confession of +our sinfulness; and the last, the triumphant confidence of believing +prayer. + +I. First of all, then, look at the illustration given to us by these +words of the mysterious contradiction between the ideal of Israel and +the actual condition of things. + +Recur, for the sake of illustration, to the historical event upon which +our text is based. The old prophet had said, 'The Lord thy God giveth +thee a good land, a land full of brooks and water, rivers and depths, a +land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not +lack anything in it'; and the startling fact is, that these men saw +around them a land full of misery for want of that very gift which had +been promised. The ancient charter of Israel's existence was that God +should dwell in the midst of them, and what was it that they beheld? +'As things are,' says the prophet, 'it looks as if that perennial +presence which Thou hast promised had been changed into visits, short +and far between. Why shouldest Thou be as a stranger in the land, and +as a wayfaring man, that turneth aside to tarry for a night?' + +Now, I suppose there are two ideas intended to be conveyed--the brief, +transitory, interrupted visits, with long, dreary stretches of absence +between them; and the indifference of the visitant, as a man who +pitches his tent in some little village to-night cares very little +about the people that he never saw before this afternoon's march, and +will never see after to-morrow morning. And not only is it so, but, +instead of the perpetual energy of this divine aid that had been +promised to Israel, as things are now, it looks as if He was a mighty +man astonied, a hero that cannot save--some warrior stricken by panic +fear into a paralysis of all his strength--a Samson with his locks +shorn. The ideal had been so great--perpetual gifts, perpetual +presence, perpetual energy; the reality is chapped ground and parched +places, occasional visitations, like vanishing gleams of sunshine in a +winter's day, and a paralysis, as it would appear, of all the ancient +might. + +Dear Christian friends, am I exaggerating, or dealing only with one set +of phenomena, and forgetting the counterpoising ones on the other side, +when I say, Change the name, and the story is told about us? God be +thanked we have much that shows us that He has not left us, but yet, +when we think of what we are, and of what God has promised that we +should be, surely we must confess that there is the most sad, and, but +for one reason, the most mysterious contradiction between the divine +ideal and the actual facts of the case. Need we go further to learn +what God meant His Church to be, than the last words that Jesus Christ +said to us--'Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world'? +Need we go further than those metaphors which come from His lips as +precepts, and, like all His precepts, are a commandment upon the +surface, but a promise in the sweet kernel--'Ye are the salt of the +earth,' 'ye are the light of the world'--or than the prophet's vision +of an Israel which 'shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from +the Lord'? Is that the description of what you and I are? Have not we +to say, 'We have not wrought any deliverance in the earth, neither have +the inhabitants of the world fallen'? 'Salt of the earth,' and we can +hardly keep our own souls from going putrid with the corruption that is +round about us. 'Light of the world,' and our poor candles burnt low +down into the socket, and sending up rather stench and smoke than +anything like a clear flame. The words sound like irony rather than +promises, like the very opposite of what we are rather than the ideals +towards which our lives strive. In our lips they are presumption, and +in the lips of the world, as we only too well know, they are a not +undeserved scoff, to be said with curved lip, 'The salt of the earth,' +and 'the light of the world'! + +And look at what we are doing: scarcely holding our own numerically. +Here and there a man comes and declares what God has done for his soul. +But what is the Church, what are the Christian men of England, with all +their multifarious activities, performing? Are we leavening the +national mind? Are we breathing a higher godliness into trade, a more +wholesome, simple style of living into society? And as for expansion, +why, the Church at home does not keep up with the actual increase of +the population; and we are conquering heathendom as we might hope to +drain the ocean by taking out thimblefuls at a time. Is that what the +Lord meant us to do? Our Father with us; yes, but oh! as a 'mighty man, +astonied,' as He might well be, 'that cannot save' for the old, old +reason, 'He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.' +No wonder that on the other side men are saying--and it is not such a +very presumptuous thing to say, if you have regard only to the facts +that appear on the surface--men are saying, 'wait a little while, and +all these organisations will come to nothing; these Christian churches, +as they are called,' and everything that you and I regard as +distinctive of Christianity, 'will be gone and be forgotten.' We +believe ourselves to be in possession of an eternal light; the world +looks at us and sees that it is like a flickering flame in a dying +lamp. Dear brethren, if I think of the lowness of our own religious +characters, the small extent to which we influence the society in which +we live, of the slow rate at which the Gospel progresses in our land, I +can only ask the question, and pray you to lay it to heart, which the +old prophet asked long ago: 'O Thou that art named the house of Jacob, +is the Spirit of the Lord straitened? Are these His doings? Do not my +words do good to them that walk uprightly?' 'Why shouldest Thou be as a +mighty man that cannot save?' + +II. Let me ask you to look at the second thought that I think may +fairly be gathered from these words, namely, that this consciousness of +our low and evil condition ought to lead to very earnest and serious +inquiry as to its cause. + +The prophet having acknowledged transgression yet asks a question, 'Why +shouldest Thou leave us? Why have all these things come upon us?' And +he asks it not as ignorant of the answer, but in order that the answer +may be deepened in the consciences and perceptions of those that listen +to him, and that they together may take the answer to the Throne of +God. There can be no doubt in a Christian mind as to the reason, and +yet there is an absolute necessity that the familiar truth as to the +reason should be driven home to our own consciences, and made part of +our own spiritual experience, by our own honest reiteration of it and +reflection upon it. + +'Why shouldest Thou leave us?' Now, I need not spend time by taking +into consideration answers that other people might give. I suppose that +none of us will say that the reason is in any variableness of that +unalterable, uniform, ever present, ever full, divine gift of God's +Spirit to His children. We do not believe in any arbitrary sovereignty +that withdraws that gift; we do not believe that that gift rises and +falls in its fulness and its abundance. We believe that the great +reservoir is always full, and that, if ever our small tanks be empty, +it is because there is something choking the pipe, not because there is +anything less in the centre storehouse. We believe, if I may take +another illustration, that it is with the seasons and the rotation of +day and night in the religious experience as it is with them in the +natural world. Summer and winter come and go, not because of any +variableness in the centre orb, but because of the variation in the +inclination of the circling satellite; day and night come not by reason +of any 'shadow cast by turning' from the sun that revolves not at all-- +but by reason of the side that is turned to his life-giving and +quickening beams. We believe that all the clouds and mist that come +between us and God are like the clouds and mist of the sky, not dropped +upon us from the blue empyrean above, but sucked up from the undrained +swamps and poisonous fens of the lower earth. That is to say, if there +be any change in the fulness of our possession of the divine Spirit, +the fault lies wholly within the region of the mutable and of the +human, and not at all in the region of the perennial and divine. + +Nor do we believe, I suppose, any of us, that we are to look for any +part of the reason in failure of the adaptation of God's work and God's +ordinances to the great work which they have to do. Other people may +tell us, if they like--it will not shake our confidence--that the fire +that was kindled at Pentecost has all died down to grey ashes, and that +it is of no use trying to cower over the burnt-out embers any more in +order to get heat out of them. They may, and do, tell us that the +'rushing, mighty wind that filled the house' obeys the law of cycles as +the wind of the natural universe, and will calm into stillness after a +while, and then set in and blow from the opposite quarter. They may +tell us, and they do tell us, that the 'river of the water of life that +flows from the Throne of God and of the Lamb' is lost in the sands of +time, like the streams in the great Mongolian plateau. We do not +believe that. Everything stands exactly as it always has been in regard +to the perennial possession of Christ's Spirit as the strength and +resource of His Church; and the fault, dear friends, lies only here: 'O +Lord, our iniquities testify against us; our backslidings are many; we +have sinned against Thee.' + +Oh, let me urge upon you, and upon myself, that the first thing which +we have to do is prayerfully and patiently and honestly to search after +this cause, and not look to superficial trifles such as possible +variations and improvements in order and machinery, and polity or +creed, or anything else, as the means of changing and bettering the +condition of things, but to recognise this as being the one sole cause +that hinders--the slackness of our own hold on Christ's hand, and the +feebleness and imperfection of our own spiritual life. Dear brethren, +there is no worse sign of the condition of churches than the calm +indifference and complacency in the present condition of things which +visits very many of us; it is like a deadly malaria wherever it is to +be found, and there is no more certain precursor of a blessed change +than a widespread dissatisfaction with what we are, and an honest, +earnest search after the cause. The sleeper that is restless, and +tosses and turns, is near awakening; and the ice that cracks, and +crumbles, and groans, and heaves, is on the point of breaking up. When +Christian men and women are aroused to this, the startled recognition +of how far beneath the ideal--no, I should not say how far beneath, but +rather how absolutely opposed to, the ideal--so much of our Christian +life and work is, and when further they push the inquiry for the cause, +so as to find that it lies in their own sin, then we shall be near the +time, yea, the 'set time, to favour Zion.' + +III. And so let me point you, in the next place--and but a word or two +on that matter--to the consideration that the consciousness of the evil +condition and knowledge of its cause leads on to lowly penitence and +confession. + +I dwell upon that for a moment for one reason mainly. I suppose that it +is a very familiar observation with us all that when, by God's mercy, +any of us individually, or as communities, are awakened to a sense of +our own departure from what He would have us be, and the feebleness of +all our Christian work, we are very apt to be led away upon the wrong +scent altogether, and instead of seeking improvement and revivification +in God's order, we set up an order of our own, which is a great deal +more pleasing to our own natural inclinations. For instance, to bring +the thing to a practical illustration, suppose I were, after these +remarks of mine, as a kind of corollary from them, to ask for +volunteers for some new form of Christian work, I believe I should get +twenty for one that I should get if I simply said, 'Brethren, let us go +together and confess our sins before God, and ask Him not to leave us.' +We are always tempted to originate some new kind of work, to +manufacture a revival, to begin by bringing together the outcasts into +the fold, instead of to begin by trying to deepen our own Christian +character, and purifying our own hearts, and getting more and more of +the life of God into our own spirits, and then to let the increase from +without come as it may. The true law for us to follow is to begin with +lowly abasement at His footstool, and when we have purged ourselves +from faults and sins in the very act of confessing them, and of shaking +them from us, then when we are fit for growth, external growth, we +shall get it. But the revival of the Church is not what people fancy it +to be so often nowadays, the gathering in of the unconverted into its +fold--that is the consequence of the revival. The revival comes by the +path of recognition of sin, and confession of sin, and forsaking of +sin, and waiting before Him for His blessing and His Spirit. Let me put +all that I would say about this matter into the one remark, that the +law of the whole process is the old one which was exemplified on the +day of Pentecost. 'Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly; gather the +people, assemble the elders; let the bridegroom go forth of his +chamber, and the bride out of her closet; let the priests, the +ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar. Yea, the +Lord will be zealous for His land, and will pity His people; and I will +pour out My Spirit upon all flesh.' Brethren, to our knees and to +confessions! Let us see to it that we are right in our own inmost +hearts. + +IV. And so, finally, look at the wonderful way in which in this text of +ours the prophet fuses together into one indistinguishable and yet not +confused whole, confession, and pleading remonstrance and also the +confidence of triumphant prayer. + +I cannot touch upon the various points of that as I would gladly do; +but I must suggest one or two of them for your consideration. Look at +the substance of his petition: 'Do Thou it for Thy name's sake.' 'Leave +us not.' That is all he asks. He does not prescribe what is to be done. +He does not ask for the taking away of the calamity, he simply asks for +the continual presence and the operation of the divine hand, sure that +God is in the midst of them, and working all things right. Let us shape +our expectations in like fashion, not being careful to discover paths +for Him to run in; but contented if we can realise the sweetness and +the strength of His calming and purging presence, and willing to leave +the manner of His working in His own hand. + +Then, look at what the text suggests as pleas with God, and grounds of +confidence for ourselves. 'Do Thou it for Thy name's sake, the hope of +Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of trouble. Thou art in the midst +of us, we are called by Thy name.' There are three grounds upon which +we may base our firm confidence. The one is the name--all the ancient +manifestations of Thy character, which have been from of old, and +remain for our perpetual strength. 'As we have heard, so have we seen +in the city of the Lord of Hosts.' 'That which is Thy memorial unto all +generations pledges Thee to the constant reiteration and reproduction, +hour by hour, according to our necessity, of all the might, and the +miracles, and the mercies of the past. Do Thou it for Thy name's sake.' + +And then Jeremiah turns to the throne of God with another plea--'the +hope of Israel'--and thereby fills his mouth with the argument drawn +from the fact that the confidence of the Church is fixed upon Him, and +that it cannot be that He will disappoint it. 'Because Thou hast given +us Thy name, and because Thy name, by Thy grace, has become, through +our faith, our hope, Thou art doubly bound--bound by what Thou art, +bound by what we expect--to be with us, our strength and our +confidence.' + +And the final plea is the appeal to the perennial and essential +relationship of God to His Church. 'We are called by Thy name'--'we +belong to Thee. It were Thy concern and ours that Thy Gospel should +spread in the world, and the honour of our Lord should be advanced. +Thou hast not surely lost Thy hold of Thine own, or Thy care for Thine +own property.' The psalmist said, 'Thou wilt not suffer him that is +devoted to Thee to see corruption.' And what his faith felt to be +impossible in regard to the bodily life is still more unthinkable in +regard to the spiritual. It cannot be that that which belongs to Him +should pass and perish. 'We are called by Thy name, and Thou, Lord, art +in the midst of us'--not a Samson shorn of his locks; not a wayfaring +man turning aside to delay for a night; but the abiding Presence which +makes the Church glad. + +Dear brethren, calm and confident expectation should be our attitude, +and lowly repentance should rise to triumphant believing hope, because +God is moving round about us in this day. Thanks be to His name, there +is spread through us all an expectation of great things. That +expectation brings its own fulfilment, and is always God's way of +preparing the path for His own large gifts, like the strange, +indefinable attitude of expectation which we know filled the civilised +world before the birth of Jesus Christ--like the breath of the morning +that springs up before the sun rises, and says, 'The dawn; the dawn,' +and dies away. The expectation is the precursor of the gift, and the +prayer is the guarantee of the acceptance. Take an illustration. Those +great lakes in Central Africa that are said to feed the Nile are filled +with melting snows weeks and weeks before the water rises away down in +Egypt, and brings fertility across the desert that it makes to glisten +with greenness, and to rejoice and blossom as the rose. And so in +silence, high up upon the mountains of God, fed by communion with +Himself, the expectation rises to a flood-tide ere it flows down +through all the channels of Christian organisation and activity, and +blesses the valleys below. It is not for us to hurry the work of God, +nor spasmodically to manufacture revivals. It is not for us, under the +pretence of waiting for Him, to be cold and callous; but it is for us +to question ourselves wherefore these things have come upon us, with +lowly, penitent confession to turn to God, and ask Him to bless us. Oh, +if we were to do this, we should not ask in vain! Let us take the +prayer of our context, and say, 'We acknowledge, O Lord, our +wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against +Thee. Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause +rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not Thou He, O Lord, our +God? Therefore we will wait upon Thee.' Be sure that the old merciful +answer will come to us, 'I will pour rivers of water upon him that is +thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground; and I will pour My Spirit upon +thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring.' + + + + +SIN'S WRITING AND ITS ERASURE + +'The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of +a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the +horns of your altars.'--JER. xvii. 1. + +'Ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by +us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in +tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.'-2 COR. iii. 3. + +'Blotting out the handwriting that was against us.'---COL .ii. 14. + + +I have put these verses together because they all deal with +substantially the same metaphor. The first is part of a prophet's +solemn appeal. It describes the sin of the nation as indelible. It is +written in two places. First, on their hearts, which reminds us of the +promise of the new covenant to be written on the heart. The 'red- +leaved tablets of the heart' are like waxen tables on which an iron +stylus makes a deep mark, an ineradicable scar. So Judah's sin is, as +it were, eaten into their heart, or, if we might so say, tattooed on +it. It is also written on the stone horns of the altar, with a diamond +which can cut the rock (an illustration of ancient knowledge of the +properties of the diamond). That sounds a strange place for the record +of sin to appear, but the image has profound meaning, as we shall see +presently. + +Then the two New Testament passages deal with other applications of the +same metaphor. Christ is, in the first, represented as writing on the +hearts of the Corinthians, and in the second, as taking away 'the +handwriting contrary to us.' The general thought drawn from all is that +sin's writing on men's hearts is erased by Christ and a new inscription +substituted. + +I. The handwriting of sin. + +Sin committed is indelibly written on the heart of the doer. + +'The heart,' of course, in Hebrew means more than merely the supposed +seat of the affections. It is figuratively the centre of the spiritual +life, just as physically it is the centre of the natural. Thoughts and +affections, purposes and desires are all included, and out of it are +'the issues of life,' the whole outgoings of the being. It is the +fountain and source of all the activity of the man, the central unity +from which all comes. Taken in this wide sense it is really the whole +inner self that is meant, or, as is said in one place, 'the hidden man +of the heart.' And so the thought in this vigorous metaphor may be +otherwise put, that all sin makes indelible marks on the whole inward +nature of the man who does it. + +Now to begin with, think for a moment of that truth that everything +which we do reacts on us the doers. + +We seldom think of this. Deeds are done, and we fancy that when done, +they are done _with_. They pass, as far as outward seeming goes, +and their distinguishable consequences in the outward world, in the +vast majority of cases, soon apparently pass. All seems evanescent and +irrecoverable as last year's snows, or the water that flowed over the +cataract a century ago. But there is nothing more certain than that all +which we do leaves indelible traces on ourselves. The mightiest effect +of a man's actions is on his own inward life. The recoil of the gun is +more powerful than the blow from its shot. Our actions strike inwards +and there produce their most important effects. The river runs +ceaselessly and its waters pass away, but they bring down soil, which +is deposited and makes firm land, or perhaps they carry down grains of +gold. + +This is the true solemnity of life, that in all which we do we are +carrying on a double process, influencing others indeed, but +influencing ourselves far more. + +Consider the illustrations of this law in regard to our sins. + +Now the last thing people think of when they hear sermons about 'sin' +is that what is meant is the things that they are doing every day. I +can only ask you to try to remember, while I speak, that I mean those +little acts of temper, or triflings with truth, or yieldings to passion +or anger, or indulgence in sensuality, and above all, the living +without God, to which we are all prone. + +(a) All wrong-doing makes indelible marks on character. It makes its +own repetition easier. Habit strengthens inclination. Peter found +denying his Lord three times easier than doing it once. It weakens +resistance. In going downhill the first step is the only one that needs +an effort; gravity will do the rest. + +It drags after it a tendency to other evil. All wrong things have so +much in common that they lead on to one another. A man with only one +vice is a rare phenomenon. Satan sends his apostles forth two by two. +Sins hunt in couples, or more usually in packs, like wolves, only now +and then do they prey alone like lions. Small thieves open windows for +greater ones. It requires continually increasing draughts, like +indulgence in stimulants. The palate demands cayenne tomorrow, if it +has had black pepper to-day. + +So, whatever else we do by our acts, we are making our own characters, +either steadily depraving or steadily improving them. There will come a +slight slow change, almost unnoticed but most certain, as a dim film +will creep over the peach, robbing it of all its bloom, or some +microscopic growth will steal across a clearly cut inscription, or a +breath of mist will dim a polished steel mirror. + +(b) All wrong-doing writes indelible records on the memory, that awful +and mysterious power of recalling past things out of the oblivion in +which they seem to lie. How solemn and miserable it is to defile it +with the pictures of things evil! Many a man in his later years has +tried to 'turn over a new leaf,' and has never been able to get the +filth out of his memory, for it has been printed on the old page in +such strong colours that it shines through. I beseech you all, and +especially you young people, to keep yourselves 'innocent of much +transgression,' and 'simple concerning evil'--to make your memories +like an illuminated missal with fair saints and calm angels bordering +the holy words, and not an _Illustrated_ Police News. Probably +there is no real oblivion. Each act sinks in as if forgotten, gets +overlaid with a multitude of others, but it is there, and memory will +one day bring it to us. + +And all sin pollutes the imagination. It is a miserable thing to have +one's mind full of ugly foul forms painted on the inner walls of our +chamber of imagery, like the hideous figures in some heathen temple, +where gods of lust and murder look out from every inch of space on the +walls. + +(c) All wrong-doing writes indelible records on the conscience. It does +so partly by sophisticating it--the sensibility to right and wrong being +weakened by every evil act, as a cold in the head takes away the sense +of smell. It brings on colour-blindness to some extent. One does not +know how far one may go towards 'Evil! be thou my good'--or how far +towards incapacity of distinguishing evil. But at all events the +tendency of each sin is in that direction. So conscience may become +seared, though perhaps never so completely as that there are no +intervals when it speaks. It may long lie dormant, as Vesuvius did, till +great trees grow on the floor of the crater, but all the while the +communication with the central fires is open, and one day they will +burst out. + +The writing may be with invisible ink, but it will be legible one day. +So, then, all this solemn writing on the heart is done by ourselves. +What are you writing? There is a presumption in it of a future +retribution, when you will have to read your autobiography, with clearer +light and power of judging yourselves. At any rate there is retribution +now, which is described by many metaphors, such as sowing and reaping, +drinking as we have brewed, and others--but this one of indelible +writing is not the least striking. + +Sin is graven deep on sinful men's worship. + +The metaphor here is striking and not altogether clear. The question +rises whether the altars are idolatrous altars, or Jehovah's. If the +former, the expression may mean simply that the Jews' idolatry, which +was their sin, was conspicuously displayed in these altars, and had, as +it were, its most flagrant record in their sacrifices. The altar was the +centre point of all heathen and Old Testament worship, and altars built +by sinners were the most conspicuous evidences of their sins. + +So the meaning would be that men's sin shapes and culminates in their +religion; and that is very true, and explains many of the profanations +and abominations of heathenism, and much of the formal worship of so- +called Christianity. + +For instance, a popular religion which is a mere Deism, a kind of vague +belief in a providence, and in a future state where everybody is happy, +is but the product of men's sin, striking out of Christianity all which +their sin makes unwelcome in it. The justice of God, punishment, +sinfulness of sin, high moral tone, are all gone. And the very horns of +their altars are marked with the signs of the worshippers' sin. + +But the 'altars' may be God's altars, and then another idea will come +in. The horns of the altar were the places where the blood of the +sacrifice was smeared, as token of its offering to God. They were then a +part of the ritual of propitiation. They had, no doubt, the same meaning +in the heathen ritual. And so regarded, the metaphor means that a sense +of the reality of sin shapes sacrificial religion. + +There can be no doubt that a very real conviction of sin lies at the +foundation of much, if not all, of the system of sacrifices. And it is a +question well worth considering whether a conviction so widespread is +not valid, and whether we should not see in it the expression of a true +human need which no mere culture, or the like, will supply. + +At all events, altars stand as witnesses to the consciousness of sin. +And the same thought may be applied to much of the popular religion of +this day. It may be ineffectual and shallow but it bears witness to a +consciousness of evil. So its existence may be used in order to urge +profounder realisation of evil on men. You come to worship, you join in +confessions, you say 'miserable sinners'--do you mean anything by it? If +all that be true, should it not produce a deeper impression on you? + +But another way of regarding the metaphor is this. The horns of the +altar were to be touched with the blood of propitiation. But look! the +blood flows down, and after it has trickled away, there, deep carven on +the horns, still appears the sin, _i.e._ the sin is not expiated by the +sinner's sacrifice. Jeremiah is then echoing Isaiah's word, 'Bring no +more vain oblations.' The picture gives very strikingly the +hopelessness, so far as men are concerned, of any attempt to blot out +this record. It is like the rock-cut cartouches of Egypt on which time +seems to have no effect. There they abide deep for ever. Nothing that we +can do can efface them. 'What I have written, I have written.' Pen- +knives and detergents that we can use are all in vain. + +II. Sin's writing may be erased, and another put in its place. + +The work of Christ, made ours by faith, blots it out. + +(a) Its influence on conscience and the sense of guilt. The accusations +of conscience are silenced. A red line is drawn across the indictment, +or, as Colossians has it, it is 'nailed to the cross.' There is power in +His death to set us free from the debt we owe. + +(b) Its influence on memory. Christ does not bring oblivion, but yet +takes away the remorse of remembrance. Faith in Christ makes memory no +longer a record which we blush to turn over, or upon which we gloat with +imaginative delight in guilty pleasures past, but a record of our +shortcomings that humbles us with a penitence which is not pain, but +serves as a beacon and warning for the time to come. He who has a clear +beam of memory on his backward track, and a bright light of hope on his +forward one, will steer right. + +(c) Its influence on character. + +We attain new hopes and tastes. 'We become epistles of Christ known and +read of all men,' like palimpsests, Homer or Ovid written over with the +New Testament gospels or epistles. + +Christ's work is twofold, erasure and rewriting. For the one, 'I will +blot out as a cloud their transgressions.' None but He can remove these. +For the other, 'I will put My law into their minds and will write it on +their hearts.' He can impress all holy desires on, and can put His great +love and His mighty spirit into, our hearts. + +So give your hearts to Him. They are all scrawled over with hideous and +wicked writing that has sunk deep into their substance. Graven as if on +rock are your sins in your character. Your worship and sacrifices will +not remove them, but Jesus Christ can. He died that you might be +forgiven, He lives that you may be purified. Trust yourself to Him, and +lean all your sinfulness on His atonement and sanctifying power, and the +foul words and bad thoughts that have been scored so deep into your +nature will be erased, and His own hand will trace on the page, poor and +thin though it be, which has been whitened by His blood, the fair +letters and shapes of His own likeness. Do not let your hearts be the +devil's copybooks for all evil things to scrawl their names there, as +boys do on the walls, but spread them before Him, and ask Him to make +them clean and write upon them His new name, indicating that you now +belong to another, as a new owner writes his name on a book that he has +bought. + + + + +THE HEATH IN THE DESERT AND THE TREE BY THE RIVER + +'He shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good +cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt +land and not inhabited...He shall be as a tree planted by the waters, +and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when +heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in +the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.'--JER. +xvii. 6, 8. + + +The prophet here puts before us two highly finished pictures. In the +one, the hot desert stretches on all sides. The fierce 'sunbeams like +swords' slay every green thing. The salt particles in the soil glitter +in the light. No living creature breaks the melancholy solitude. It is a +'waste land where no one came, or hath come since the making of the +world.' Here and there a stunted, grey, prickly shrub struggles to live, +and just manages not to die. But it has no grace of leaf, nor +profitableness of fruit; and it only serves to make the desolation more +desolate. + +The other carries us to some brimming river, where everything lives +because water has come. The pictures are coloured by Eastern experience. +For in those lands more than beneath our humid skies and weaker +sunshine, the presence or absence of running water makes the difference +between barrenness and fertility. Dipping their boughs in the sparkling +current, and driving their roots through the moist soil, the bordering +trees lift aloft their pride of foliage and bear fruits in their season. + +So, says Jeremiah, the two pictures represent two sets of men; the one, +he who diverts from their true object his heart-capacities of love and +trust, and clings to creatures and to men, 'making flesh his arm and +departing from the living God'; the other, he who leans the whole weight +of his needs and cares and sins and sorrows upon God. We can make choice +of which shall be the object of our trust, and according as we choose +the one or the other, the experience of these vivid pictures will be +ours. + +Let me briefly, then, draw out the points of contrast in these two +companion sketches. + +I. The one is in the desert, the other by the river. + +Underneath the pictures there lies this thought, that the direction of a +man's trust determines the whole cast of his life, because it +determines, as it were, the soil in which he grows. We can alter our +habitat. The plant is fixed; but 'I saw men as trees--yes! but as 'trees +walking.' We can walk, and can settle where we shall be rooted and +whence we shall draw our inspiration, our confidence, our security. The +man that chooses-for it is a matter of choice--to trust in any creature +thereby wills, though he does not know it, that he shall dwell in a +'salt land and not inhabited.' The man that chooses to cast his whole +self into the arms of God, and in a paroxysm of self-distrust to realise +the divine helpfulness and presence, that man will soon know that he is +'planted by the river.' + +Now, the poor, little dusty shrub in the desert, whose very leaves have +been modified into prickles, is fit for the desert, and is as much at +home there as are the willows by the water-courses with their lush +vegetation in their moist bed. But if a _man_ makes that fatal choice +which so-many of us are making, of shutting out God from his confidence +and his love, and squandering these upon earth and upon creatures, he is +as fatally out of harmony with the place which he has chosen for +himself, and as much away from his natural soil, as a tropical plant +would be amongst the snows of Arctic glaciers, or a water-lily in the +Sahara. + +Considering all that I am and need, what and where is my true home and +the soil in which I can grow securely, and fear no evil? Brethren, there +is only one answer to that question. The very make of a man's spirit +points to God, and to God alone, as the natural place for him to root +and grow in. You, I, the poorest and humblest of men, will never be +right, never feel that we are in our native soil, and compassed with the +appropriate surroundings, until we have laid our hearts and our hands on +the breast of God, and rested ourselves on Him. Not more surely do gills +and fins proclaim that the creature that has them is meant to roam +through the boundless ocean, nor the anatomy and wings of the bird +witness more plainly to its destination to soar in the open heavens than +the make of your spirits testifies that God, and none less or lower, is +your portion. We are built for God, and unless we recognise and act upon +that conviction, we are like the prickly shrub in the desert, whatever +good may be around us; and if we do recognise and act upon it, whatever +parched ground may seem to stretch on all sides, there will be soil +moist enough for us to draw refreshment and vitality from it. + +If that be so, brethren, what insanity the lives of multitudes of us +are! As well might bees try to suck honey from a vase of wax flowers as +we to draw what we need from creatures, from ourselves, from visible and +material things. + +What would you business men think of some one who went and sold out all +his stock of Government or other sound securities, and then flung the +proceeds down a hole in South Africa, out of which no gold will ever +come? He would be about as wise as are the people who fancy that these +hearts of theirs will ever be at home except they find a home in God. + +Where else will you find love that will never fail, nor change, nor die? +Where else will you find an object for the intellect that will yield +inexhaustible material of contemplation and delight? Where else +infallible direction for the will? Where else shall weakness find +unfailing strength, or sorrow, adequate consolation, or hope, certain +fulfilment, or fear, a safe hiding-place? Nowhere besides. Oh! then, +brethren, do, I beseech you, turn away your heart's confidence and love +from earth and creatures; for until the roots of your life go down into +God, and you draw your life from Him, you are not in your right soil. + +II. The one can take in no real good; the other can fear no evil. + +One verse of our text says, 'He shall not see when good cometh'; the +other one, according to our Authorised Version, 'He shall not see when +heat cometh.' But a very slight alteration of one word in the original +gives a better reading, which is adopted in the Revised Version, where +we have, 'and shall not fear when heat cometh.' That alteration is +obviously correct, because there follows immediately a parallel clause, +'and shall not be careful'--or anxious--'in the year of drought.' In +both these clauses the metaphor of the tree is a little let go; and the +man who is signified by it comes rather more to the front than in the +remainder of the picture. But that is quite natural. + +So look at these two simple thoughts for a moment. He whose trust is set +upon creatures is thereby disabled from recognising what is his highest +good. His judgment is perverted. _There_ is the explanation of the fact +that men are contented with the partial and evanescent blessedness that +may be drawn from human loves and companionship and material things. It +is because they have gone blind, and the false direction of their +confidence, has put out their eyes. And if any of my hearers are living +careless about God, and all that comes from Him, and perfectly contented +with that which they find in this visible, diurnal sphere, that is not +because they have the good which they need, but because they do not know +that good when they see it, and have lost the power of discerning what +is really for their benefit and blessedness. + +There is nothing sadder in this world than the conspiracy into which men +seem to have entered to ignore the highest good, and to profess +themselves contented with the lowest. I remember a rough parable of +Luther's--the roughness of which may be pardoned for the force and +vividness of it--which bears on this matter. He tells how a company of +swine were offered all manner of dainty and refined foods, and how, with +a unanimous swinish grunt, they answered that they preferred the warm, +reeking 'grains' from the mash-tub. The illustration is coarse, but it +is not an unfair representation of the choice that some of us are +making. + +'He cannot see when good cometh.' God comes, and I would rather have +some more money. God comes, and I prefer some woman's love. God comes, +and I would rather have a prosperous business. God comes, and I prefer +beer. So I might go the whole round. The man that cannot see good when +it is there before his face, because the false direction of his +confidence has blinded his eyes, cannot open his heart to it. It comes, +but it does not come in. It surrounds him, but it does not enter into +him. You are plunged, as it were, in a sea of possible felicity, which +will be yours if your heart's direction is towards God, and the +surrounding ocean of blessedness has as little power to fill your heart +as the sea has to enter some hermetically sealed flask, dropped into the +middle of the Atlantic. 'He cannot see when good cometh.' Blind, blind, +blind! are multitudes of us. + +Turn to the other side. 'He shall not fear when heat cometh,' which is +evil in those Eastern lands, 'and shall not be careful in the year of +drought.' The tree, that sends its roots towards a river that never +fails, does not suffer when all the land is parched. The man who has +driven his roots into God, and is drawing from that deep source what is +needful for his life and fertility, has no occasion to dread any evil, +nor to gnaw his heart with anxiety as to what he is to do in parched +days. Troubles may come, but they do not go deeper than the surface. It +may be all cracked and caked and dry, 'a thirsty land where no water +is,' and yet deep down there may be moisture and coolness. + +Faith, which is trust, and fear are opposite poles. If a man has the +one, he can scarcely have the other in vigorous operation. He that has +his trust set upon God does not need to dread anything except the +weakening or the paralysing of that trust; for so long as it lasts it is +a talisman which changes evil into good, the true philosopher's stone +which transmutes the baser metals into gold; and, so long as it lasts, +God's shield is round him and no evil can befall him. + +Brethren, if our trust is in God, it is unworthy of it and of us to +fear, for all things are His, and there is no evil in evil as men call +it, so long as it does not draw away our hearts from our Father and our +Hope. Therefore, he that fears let him trust; he that trusts let him not +be afraid. He that sets his heart and anchors his hopes of safety on any +except God, let him be afraid, for he is in a very stern world, and if +he is not fearful he is a fool. + +So the direction of our trust, if it is right, shuts all real evil out +from us, and if it is wrong, shuts us out from all real good. + +III. The one is bare, the other clothed with the beauty of foliage. + +The word which is translated 'heat' has a close connection with, if it +does not literally mean, 'naked' or 'bare.' Probably, as I have said, it +designates some inconspicuously leaved desert shrub, the particular +species not being ascertainable or a matter of any consequence. Leaves, +in Scripture, have a recognised symbolical meaning. 'Nothing but leaves' +in the story of the fig-tree meant only beautiful outward appearance, +with no corresponding outcome of goodness of heart, in the shape of +fruit. So I may venture here to draw a distinction between leafage and +fruit, and say that the one points rather to a man's character and +conduct as lovely in appearance, and in the other as morally good and +profitable. + +This is the lesson of these two clauses--misdirected confidence in +creatures strips a man of much beauty of character, and true faith in +God adorns a soul with a leafy vesture of loveliness. Now, I have no +doubt that there start up in your minds at once two objections to that +statement: first, that a great many godless men do present fair and +attractive features of character; and secondly, that a great many +Christian men do not. I admit both things frankly, and yet I say that, +for the highest good, the perfect crowning beauty of any human +character, this is needed, that it should cling to God. 'Whatsoever +things are lovely and of good report' lack their supreme excellence, the +diamond on the top of the royal crown, the glittering gold on the summit +of the campanile, unless there is in them a distinct reference to God. + +I believe that I am speaking to some who would not profess themselves to +be religious men, and who yet are truly desirous of cultivating in their +character the Fair and the Good. To them I would venture to say-- +brethren, you will never be so completely, so refinedly, so truly, +graceful as you might be, unless the roots of your character 'are hid +with Christ in God.' + + 'A servant with this clause + Makes drudgery divine,' + +said good old George Herbert. And any act, however humble, on which the +light from God falls, will gleam with a lustre else unattainable, like +some piece of broken glass in the furrows of a ploughed field. + +Sure I am that if we Christian people had a deeper faith, we should have +fairer lives. And I beseech you, my fellow-believers in Jesus Christ, +not to supply the other side with arguments against Christianity, by +showing that it is possible for a man to say and to suppose that he sets +his heart on God, and yet to bear but little leafage of beauty or grace +of character. Goodness is beauty; beauty is goodness. Both are to be +secured by communion and union with Him who is fairer than the children +of men. Dip your roots into the fountain of life--it is the fountain of +beauty as well as of life, and your lives will be green. + +IV. Lastly, the one is sterile, the other fruitful. + +I admit, as before, that this statement often seems to be contradicted, +both by the good works of godless men, and by the bad works of godly +ones. But for all that, I would urge you to consider that the only works +of men worth calling 'fruit,' if regard is had to their capacities, +relations, and obligations, are those done as the outcome and +consequence of hearts trusting in the Lord. The rest of the man's +activities may be busy and multiplied, and, from the point of view of a +godless morality, many may be fair and good; but if we think of him as +being destined, as his chief end, 'to glorify God, and (so) to enjoy Him +for ever,' what correspondence between such a creature and acts that are +done without reference to God can there ever be? They are not worth +calling 'fruit.' At the most they are 'wild grapes,' and there comes a +time when they will be tested and the axe laid to the root of the trees, +and these imperfect deeds will shrivel up and disappear. + +Trust will certainly be fruitful. In so saying we are upon Christian +ground, which declares that the outcome of faith is conduct in +conformity with the will of Him in whom we trust, and that the +productive principle of all good in man is confidence in God manifest to +us in Jesus Christ. + +So we have not to begin with work; we have to begin with character. +'Make the tree good,' and its fruit will be good. Faith will give power +to bring forth such fruit; and faith will set agoing the motive of love +which will produce it. Thus, dear brethren, we come back to this--the +prime thing about a man is the direction which his trust takes. Is it to +God? Then the tree is good; and its fruit will be good too. If you will +trust yourselves to 'God manifest in the flesh,' to Jesus Christ and His +work for you and in you, then you will be as if 'planted by the rivers +of water,' you will be able to receive into yourselves, and will +receive, all good, and be masters of all evil, will exhibit graces of +character else impossible, and will bring forth 'fruit that shall +remain.' Separated from Him we are nothing, and can bring forth nothing +that will stand the light of that last moment. + +Brother, turn your trust to that dear Lord, and then you will have your +'fruit unto holiness, and the end shall be everlasting life,' when the +transplanting season comes, and they that have been 'planted in the +house of the Lord' below shall 'flourish in the courts of our God' +above, and grow more green and fruitful, beside the 'river of the water +of life that proceedeth from the throne of God and of the Lamb.' + + + + +A SOUL GAZING ON GOD + +'A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our +sanctuary.'--JER. xvii. 12. + + +I must begin by a word or two of explanation as to the language of this +passage. The word 'is' is a supplement, and most probably it ought to be +omitted, and the verse treated as being, not a statement, but a series +of exclamations. The next verse runs thus, 'O Lord! the hope of Israel, +all that forsake Thee shall be ashamed'; and the most natural and +forcible understanding of the words of my text is reached by connecting +them with these following clauses: 'O Lord! the hope of Israel,' and, +regarding the whole as one long exclamation of adoring contemplation, 'A +glorious throne,' or '_Thou_ glorious throne, high from the beginning; +the place of our sanctuary, O Lord! the hope of Israel.' + +I. If we look at the words so, we have here, to begin with, a wonderful +vision of what God is. + +'A glorious throne,' or, as the original has it, 'a throne of glory,'-- +which is not quite the same thing--' high from the beginning, the place +of our sanctuary.' There are three clauses. Now they all seem to me to +have reference to the Temple in Jerusalem, which is taken, by a very +natural figure of speech, as a kind of suggestive description of Him who +is worshipped there. There is the same kind of use of the name of a +place to stand for the person who occupies or inhabits it, in many +familiar phrases. For instance, 'The Sublime Porte' is properly the name +of a lofty gateway which belonged to the palace in Constantinople, and +so has come to mean the Turkish Government if Government it can be +called. So we talk of the 'Papal See' having done this or that, and +scarcely remember that a 'see' is a bishop's seat, or, again, the +decision of 'the Chair' is final in the House of Commons. Or, if you +will accept a purely municipal parallel, if any one were told that 'the +Town Hall' had issued a certain order, he would know that our +authorities, the Mayor and Corporation, had decreed so and so. So, in +precisely the same way here, the prophet takes the outward facts of the +Temple as symbolising great and blessed spiritual thoughts of the God +that filled the Temple with His own lustre. + +'A glorious throne'--that is grand, but that is not what Jeremiah +means--'A throne of glory' is the true rendering. And to what does that +refer? Now, in the greater number of cases, you will find that in the +Old Testament, where 'glory' is ascribed to God, the word has a very +distinct and specific meaning, viz. the light which was afterwards +called the 'Shekinah,' and dwelt between the cherubim, and was the +symbol of the divine presence and the assurance that that presence would +be self-revealing and would manifest Himself to His people. So here the +throne on which glory rests is what we call the _mercy-seat_ within the +veil, where, above the propitiatory table on which once a year the High +Priest sprinkled the blood of sacrifice, and beneath which were shut up +the tables of the covenant which constituted the bond between God and +Israel, shone the Light in the midst of the darkness of the enclosed +inner shrine, the token of the divine presence. The throned glory, the +glory that reigns and rules as King in Israel, is the idea of the words +before us. It is the same throne that a later writer in the New +Testament speaks of when he says, 'Let us come boldly to the Throne of +Grace.' For that light of a manifested divine presence was no malign +lustre that blinded or slew those who gazed upon it, but though no eye +but that of the High Priest dared of old to look, yet he, the +representative and, as it were, the concentration of the collective +Israel, could stand, unshrinking and unharmed, before that piercing +light, because he bore in his hand the blood of sacrifice and sprinkled +it on the mercy-seat. So was it of old, but now we all can draw near, +through the rent veil, and wall rejoicingly in the light of the Lord. +His glory is grace; His grace is glory. + +This, then, is the first of Jeremiah's great thoughts of God, and it +means--'The Lord God omnipotent reigneth,' there is none else but He, +and His will runs authoritative and supreme into all corners of the +universe. But it is 'glory' that is throned. That is equivalent to the +declaration that our God has never spoken in secret, in the dark places +of the earth, nor said to any seeking heart, 'Seek ye My face in vain.' +For the light which shone in that Holy Place as His symbol, had for its +message to Israel the great thought that, as the sun pours out its +lustre into all the corners of its system, so He, by the self- +communication which is inherent in His very nature, manifests Himself to +every gazing eye, and is a God who is Light, 'and in whom is no darkness +at all.' + +But reigning glory is also redeeming grace. For the light of the bright +cloud, which is the glory of the Lord, shines still, with no thunder in +its depths, nor tempests in its bosom, above the mercy-seat, where +spreads the blood of sprinkling by which Israel's sins are all taken +away. Well may the prophet lift up his heart in adoring wonder, and +translate the outward symbol into this great word, 'The throne of glory; +Jehovah, the hope of Israel.' + +Then the next clause is, I think, equally intelligible by the same +process of interpretation--' High from the beginning.' It was a piece of +the patriotic exaggeration of Israel's prophets and psalmists that they +made much of the little hill upon which the Temple was set. We read of +the 'hill of the Lord's house' being 'exalted above the tops of the +mountains.' We read of it being a high hill, 'as the hill of Bashan.' +And though to the eye of sense it is a very modest elevation, to the eye +of faith it was symbolical of much. Jeremiah felt it to be a material +type, both of the elevation and of the stable duration of the God whom +he would commend to Israel's and to all men's trust. 'High from the +beginning,' separated from all creatural limitation and lowness, He +whose name is the Most High, and on whose level no other being can +stand, towers above the lowness of the loftiest creature, and from that +inaccessible height He sends down His voice, like the trumpet from +amidst the darkness of Sinai, proclaiming, 'I am God, and there is none +beside Me.' Yet while thus 'holy'--that is, separate from creatures--He +makes communion with Himself possible to us, and draws near to us in +Christ, that we in Christ may be made nigh to Him. + +And the loftiness involves, necessarily, timeless and changeless Being; +so that we can turn to Him, and feel Him to be 'the same yesterday, and +to-day, and for ever.' No words are needed, and no human words are +anything but tawdry attempts to elaborate, which only result in +weakening, these two great thoughts. 'High--from the beginning.' + +The last of this series of symbols, even more plainly than the other +two, refers originally to the Temple upon the hill of Zion; and +symbolically, to the God who filled the Temple. He is 'the place of our +sanctuary.' That is as though the prophet would point, as the wonderful +climax of all, to the fact that He of whom the former things were true +should yet be accessible to our worship; that, if I might so say, our +feet could tread the courts of the great Temple; and we draw near to Him +who is so far above the loftiest, and separate from all the +magnificences which Himself has made, and who yet is 'our sanctuary,' +and accessible to our worship. + +Ay! and more than that--'Lord! Thou hast been our _dwelling-place_ in +all generations.' In old days the Temple was more than a place of +worship. It was a place where a man coming had, according to ancient +custom, guest rights with God; and if he came into the Temple of the +Most High as to an asylum, he dwelt there safe and secure from avengers +or foes. + +'The place of our sanctuary,' then, declares that God Himself, like some +ancestral dwelling-place in which generation after generation of fathers +and children have abode, whence they have been carried, and where their +children still live, is to all generations their home and their +fortress. The place of our sanctuary implies access to the inaccessibly +High, communion with the infinitely Separate, security and abode in God +Himself. He that dwelleth in God dwelleth in peace. These, then, are the +points of the prophet's vision of God. + +II. Note, further, the soul rapt in meditation and this vision of God. + +To me, this long-drawn-out series of linked clauses without grammatical +connection, this succession of adoring exclamations of rapture, wonder, +and praise, is very striking. It suggests the manner in which we should +vivify all our thoughts of God, by turning them into material for devout +reverence; awe-struck, considering meditation. There is nothing told us +in the Bible about God simply in order that we may know it. It is all +meant to be fuel to the fire of our divine affection; to kindle in us +the sentiments of faith and love and rapturous adoration. It is easy to +know the theology of the Old and the New Testaments, and a man may +rattle over the catalogue of the divine 'attributes,' as they are +called, with perfect accuracy, and never be a hair the better for +knowing all of them. So I urge, on you and on myself, the necessity of +warming our thoughts and kindling our conceptions of what God is until +they melt us into fluidity and adoration and love. + +I believe that there are few things which we Christian people more lack +in this generation, and by the lack of which we suffer more, than the +comparative decay of the good old habit of frequent and patient +meditation on the things that we most surely believe. We are so busy in +adding to our stock of knowledge, in following out to their latest +consequence the logical effects of our Christianity, and in defending +it, or seeking to be familiar with the defences, against modern +assaults, or in practical work on its behalf, that the last thing that a +great many of us do is to feed upon the truth which we know already. We +should be like ruminant animals who first crop the grass--which, being +interpreted, means, get Scripture truth into our heads--and then chew +the cud, which being interpreted is, then put these truths through a +second process by meditation on them, so that they may turn into +nourishment and make flesh. 'He that eateth Me,' said Jesus Christ (and +He used there the word which is specially applied to rumination), 'shall +live by Me.' It does us no good to know that God is 'the Throne of +Glory, high from the beginning, the place of our sanctuary,' unless we +turn theology into devotion by meditation upon it. 'Suffer the word of +exhortation '--in busy, great communities like ours, where we are all +driven so hard, there is need for some voices sometimes to be lifted up +in pressing upon Christian people the duty of quiet rumination upon the +truths that they have. + +III. We may see in our text, further, the meditative soul going out to +grasp God thus revealed, as its portion and hope. + +As I have already said, the text is best understood as part of a series +of exclamations which extends into the following verse. If we take +account of the whole series, and regard the subsequent part of it as led +up to, by the part which is our text, we get an important thought as to +what should be the outcome of the truths concerning God, and of our +meditative contemplation of them. + +My relation to these truths is not exhausted even when I have meditated +upon them, and they have touched me into a rapture of devotion. I can +conceive that to have been done, and yet the next necessary step not to +have been taken. What is that step? The next verse tells us, when it +goes on to exclaim, 'O Lord! _the hope of Israel_.' I must cast myself +upon Him by faith as my only hope, and turn away from all other +confidences which are vain and impotent. So we are back upon that +familiar Christian ground, that the bond which knits a man to God, and +by which all that God is becomes that man's personal property, and +available for the security and the shaping of his life, is the simple +flinging of himself into God's arms, in sure and certain trust. Then, +every one of these characteristics of which I have been speaking will +contribute its own special part to the serenity, the security, the +godlikeness, the blessedness, the righteousness, the strength of the man +who thus trusts. + +But such confidence which makes all these things my own possessions, +which makes Him 'a throne of glory,' to which I have access; which makes +Him a place in which I dwell by this exercise of personal faith; which +makes Him my hope, has for its other side the turning away from all +other grounds of confidence and security. The subsequent context tells +us how wise it is thus to turn away, and what folly it is to make +anything else our hope except that 'throne of glory.' 'They that depart +from Me shall be written in the earth,' because 'they have forsaken the +Lord, the fountain of living waters.' If we say, 'O Lord! Thou art my +hope,' we shall have the 'anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast, which +entereth within the veil,' and fixes on Him who is within it, the +throned Grace between the cherubim, our Brother and our Hope. So we may +dwell in God, and from the secure height of our house look down serenely +on impotent foes, and never know the bitterness of vain hopes, nor +remove from the safe asylum of our home in God. + + + + +TWO LISTS OF NAMES + +'They that depart from Me shall be written in the earth'--JER. xvii. 13. +'Rejoice that your names are written in heaven.'--LUKE x. 20. + + +A name written on earth implies that the bearer of the name belongs to +earth, and it also secondarily suggests that the inscription lasts but +for a little while. Contrariwise, a name written in heaven implies that +its bearer belongs to heaven, and that the inscription will abide. + +We find running throughout Scripture the metaphor of books in which +men's names are written. Moses thought of a book which God has written, +and in which his name was enrolled. A psalmist speaks of the 'book of +the living,' and Isaiah of those who are 'written among the living in +Jerusalem.' Ezekiel threatens the prophets who speak lies in Jehovah's +name that they 'shall not be written in the writing of the house of +Israel.' The Apocalypse has many references to the book which is +designated as 'the Lamb's book of life,' and which is opened at the +final judgment along with the books in which each man's life-history is +written, and only 'they who are written in the Lamb's book of life' +enter into the city that comes down out of heaven. + +I. The principle on which the two lists are made up. + +It is commonly supposed that the idea of unconditional predestination is +implied in the writing of the names in the book of life. There is +nothing in the figure itself to lead to that, and the text from Jeremiah +suggests, on the contrary, that the voluntary attitude of men to God +determines their being or not being inscribed in the book of heaven, +since it is 'they who depart from God' whose 'names are written on +earth.' + +Then, since in the New Testament the book of life is called 'the +Lamb's,' we are led to think of Christ as writing in it, and hence of +our faith in Him as being the condition of enrolling our names. + +II. The significance of the lists. + +They are lists of the living and of the dead. + +True life is in fellowship with God. The other is the register of the +burials in a graveyard. + +They are lists of the citizens of two cities. + +The idea is that the one class have relations and affinities with the +celestial, are 'fellow-citizens with the saints,' and have heaven as +their metropolis, their mother city. Therefore they are but as aliens +here, and should not wish to be naturalised. The other class are +citizens of the earthly, belonging to the present, with all their +thoughts and desires bounded by this visible diurnal sphere. + +They are lists of those who shall be forgotten, and their works +annihilated, and of those who shall be remembered and their work +crowned. + +The names written on earth are swiftly obliterated, like a child's +scrawl on the sand which is washed away by the next tide, or covered up +by the next storm that blows about the sand-hills. What a contrast is +that of the names written on the heavens, high up above all earthly +mutations! + +In one sense oblivion soon seizes on us all. In another none of us is +ever forgotten by God, but good and bad alike live in His thought. Still +this idea of a special remembrance has place, as suggesting that, +however unnoticed or forgotten on earth, God's children live in the true +'Golden Book.' Their names are in the book of life. 'Of so much fame, in +heaven expect the meed.' Ay, and as, too, suggesting how brief after all +is the honour that comes from men. + +Also, there will be annihilation or perpetuation of their life's work. +Nothing lasts but the will of God. Men who live godless lives are +engaged in true Sisyphean labour. They are running counter to the whole +stream of things, and what can be left at the end but frustrated +endeavours covered with a gloomy pall? + +Is your life to be wasted? + +They are lists of those who are accepted in judgment, and of those who +are not. + +Rev. xx. 12, 15; xxi. 27. + +The books of men's lives are to be opened, and also the book of life. +What is written in the former can only bring condemnation. If our names +are written in the latter, then He will 'confess our names before His +Father and the holy angels.' And He will joyfully inscribe them there if +we say to Him, like the man in _Pilgrim's Progress_, 'Set down my name.' +He will write them not only there, but on the palms of His hands and the +tablets of His heart. + + + + +YOKES OF WOOD AND IRON + +'Go and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord; Thou hast broken the +yokes of wood; but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron.'--JER. +xxviii. 13. + + +I suppose that I had better begin by a word of explanation as to the +occasion of this saying. One king of Judah had already been carried off +to Babylon, and the throne refilled by his brother, a puppet of the +conquerors. This shadow of a king, with the bulk of the nation, was +eager for revolt. Jeremiah had almost single-handed to stem the tide of +the popular wish. He steadfastly preached submission, not so much to +Nebuchadnezzar as to God, who had sent the invaders as chastisement. The +lesson was a difficult one to learn, and the people hated the teacher. +In the Jerusalem of Jeremiah's day, as in other places and at other +times, a love of country which is not blind to its faults and protests +against a blatant militarism, was scoffed at as 'unpatriotic,' 'playing +into the hands of the enemy,' 'seeking peace at any price,' whilst an +insane eagerness to rush to arms without regard to resources or +righteousness was called a 'spirited foreign policy.' So Jeremiah had +plenty of enemies. + +He had adopted a strange way of enforcing his counsel, which would be +ridiculous to-day, but was natural and impressive then and there. He +constantly for months went about with an ox-yoke on his neck, as a +symbol of the submission which he advocated. One day, in the temple, +before a public assembly, a certain Hananiah, a member of the opposite +faction, made a fierce attack on the prophet and his teaching, and +uttered a counter-prophecy to the effect that, in two years, the foreign +invasion would be at an end, and all would be as it used to be. Our +prophet answered very quietly, saying in effect, 'I hope to God that it +may be true; the event will show.' And then Hananiah, encouraged by his +meekness, proceeded to violence, tore the yoke off his shoulders and +snapped it in two, reiterating his prophecy. Then Jeremiah went away +home. + +Soon after, the voice which he knew to be God's, and not his own +thoughts, spoke within him, and gave a much sharper answer. God +declared, through Jeremiah, the plain truth that, for a tiny kingdom +like Judah to perk itself up in the face of a world-conquering power +like Babylon, could only bring down greater severity from the conqueror. +And then he declared that Hananiah, for rebellion--not against Babylon, +but against God, the true King of Israel--would be taken from the earth. +He died in a couple of months. + +My text forms the first word of this divine message. I have nothing more +to do with its original application. It gives a picturesque setting to a +very impressive and solemn truth; very familiar, no doubt, but none the +less because of its familiarity needing to be dinned into people's ears. +It is that to throw off legitimate authority is to bind on a worse +tyranny. To some kind of yoke all of us must bend our necks, and if we +slip them out we do not thereby become independent, but simply bring +upon ourselves a heavier pressure of a harder bondage. The remainder of +my remarks will simply go to illustrate that principle in two or three +cases of ascending importance. I begin at the bottom. + +I. We have the choice between the yoke of law and the iron yoke of +lawlessness. + +We all know that society could not be held together without some kind of +restraints upon what is done, and some stimulus to do what is apt to be +neglected. Even a band of brigands, or a crew of pirates, must have some +code. I have read somewhere that the cells in a honeycomb are circles +squeezed by the pressure of the adjacent cells into the hexagonal shape +which admits of contiguity. If they continued circles there would be +space and material lost, and no complete continuity. So, in like manner, +you cannot keep five men together without some mutual limitations which +are shaped into a law. Now, as long as a man keeps inside it, he does +not feel its pressure. A great many of us, for instance, who are in the +main law-abiding people, do not ever remember that there is such a thing +as restrictions upon our licence, or as obligations to perform certain +duties; for we never think either of taking the licence or of shirking +the duties. The yoke that is accepted ceases to press. Once let a man +step outside, and what then? Why, then, he is an outlaw; and the rough +side of the law is turned to him, and all possible terrors, which people +within the boundary have nothing to do with, gather themselves together +and frown down upon him. The sheep that stops inside the pasture is +never torn by the barbed wires of the fence. If you think of the life of +a criminal, with all its tricks and evasions, taking 'every bush to be +an officer,' as Shakespeare says; or as the first of the brood who was +the type of them all said, 'Every man that seeth me shall kill me': if +you think of the sword that hangs over the head of every law-breaker, +and which he knows is hanging by a hair; if you think of men in +counting-houses who have manipulated the books of the firm, and who +durst not be away from their desks for a day lest all should come to +light; and if you think of the punishment that follows sooner or later, +you will see that it is better to bear the light yoke of the law than +the heavy yoke of crime. Some men buy their ruin very dearly. + +So much for the individual. But there is another aspect of this same +principle on which I venture to say a word, although it is only a word, +in passing. I do not suppose that there are many of my hearers who are +likely to commit overt breaches of the law. But there are a great many +of us who are apt to neglect the obligations of citizenship. In a +community like ours, laziness, fastidiousness, absorption in our own +occupations, and a number of other more or less reputable reasons, tempt +many to stand aloof from the plain imperative obligations of every +citizen in a free country. Every man who thus neglects to do his part +for the common weal does his part in handing over the rule of the +community to the least worthy. You will find--as you see in some +democratic countries to-day, where the cultivated classes, and the +classes with the sternest morality, have withdrawn in disgust from the +turmoil--the mob having the upper hand, the least worthy scrambling into +high places, and the community suffering, and bearing a heavier yoke, by +reason of the unwillingness of some to bear the yoke and do the duty of +a citizen. Vice lifts up its head, morality is scouted, self-interest is +pursued unblushingly, and the whole tone of public opinion is lowered. +Christian men and women, remember that you are members of a community, +and you bear the yoke of responsibility therefore; and if you do not +discharge your obligation, then you will have a heavier burden still to +bear. + +I need not remind you, I suppose, of how this same thesis--that we have +to choose between the yoke of law and the iron yoke of lawlessness--is +illustrated in the story of almost all violent revolutions. They run the +same course. First a nation rises up against intolerable oppression, +then revolution devours its own children, and the scum rises to the top +of the boiling pot. Then comes, in the language of the picturesque +historian of the French Revolution, the type of them all--then comes at +the end 'the whiff of grapeshot' and the despot. First the government of +a mob, and then the tyranny of an emperor, crush the people that shake +off the yoke of reasonable law. That is my first point. + +II. Let me take a higher illustration;--we have to choose between the +yoke of virtue and the iron yoke of vice. + +We are under a far more spiritual and searching law than that written in +any statute-book, or administered by any court. Every man carries within +his own heart the court, the tribunal; the culprit and the judge. And +here too, if law is not obeyed, the result is not liberty, but the +slavery of lawlessness. + +No man can ponder his own nature and make without feeling that on every +fibre of him is stamped a great law which he is bound to obey, and that +on every fibre of him is impressed the necessity of part of his nature +coercing, restraining, or spurring other parts of it. For, if we take +stock of ourselves, what do we find? The broad basis of the pyramid, as +it were, is laid in the faculties nearest the earth, the appetites which +are inseparable from our corporeal being, and these know nothing about +right or wrong, but are utterly blind to such distinctions. Put a loaf +before a hungry man, and his mouth waters, whether the loaf belongs to +himself or whether it is inside a baker's window. + +Then above these, as the next course of the pyramid, there are other +desires, sentiments, affections, and emotions, less grossly sensuous +than those of which I have been speaking, but still equally certain to +be excited by the presence of their appropriate object, without any +consideration of whether law is broken or kept in securing of it. Above +these, which are, so to speak, branded on their very foreheads with the +iron of slavery, stand certain faculties which are as clearly anointed +to rule as the others are intended to serve. There is reason or +intelligence, which is evidently meant to be eyes to these blind +instincts and emotions of desire, and there is what we call the power of +will, that stands like an engine-driver with his hand upon the lever +which will either stop the engine or accelerate its revolutions. It says +to passions and desires 'Go!' and they go; and, alas! it sometimes says +'Halt!' and they will not halt. Then there is conscience, which brings +to light for every man something higher than himself. A great +philosopher once said that the two sublimest things in the universe were +the moral law and the starry heavens; and that law 'I ought' bends over +us like the starry heavens with which he associated it. No man can +escape from the pressure of duty, and on every man is laid, by his very +make, the twofold obligation, first to look upwards and catch the +behests of that solemn law, and then to turn his eyes and his strength +inwards and coerce or spur, as the case may be, the powers of his +nature, and rule the kingdom within himself. + +Now, as long as a man lets the ruling parts of his nature guide the +lower faculties, he feels comparatively no pressure from the yoke. But, +if he once allows beggars to ride on horseback whilst princes walk-- +sense and appetite and desire, and more or less refined forms of +inclination, to take the place which belongs only to conscience +interpreting duty--then he has exchanged the easy yoke for one that is +heavy indeed. + +What does a man do when, instead of loyally accepting the conditions of +his nature, and bowing himself to serve the all-embracing and all- +penetrating law of duty, he sets up inclination of any sort in its +place? What does he do? I will tell you. He unships the helm; he flings +compass and sextant overboard; he fires up the furnaces, and screws down +the safety-valve, and says, 'Go ahead!' And what will be the end of +that, think you? Either an explosion or a crash upon a reef; and you may +take your choice of which is the better kind of death--to be blown up or +to go down. Keep within the law of conscience, and let it govern all +inclinations, and most of all the animal part of your nature; and you +will feel little pressure, and no pain, from the yoke. Shake it off, and +there is fulfilled in the disobedient man the threatening of my text, +which rightly translated ought to be, 'Thou hast broken the yokes of +wood, and thou _hast_ made instead of them yokes of iron.' + +For do you think it will be easy to serve the base-born parts of your +nature, when you set them on the throne and tell them to govern you? Did +you never hear of such a thing as a man's vices getting such a hold on +him that, when his weakened will tried to shake them off, they laughed +in his face and said, 'Here we are still'? Did you never hear of that +other solemn truth--and have you never experienced how true it is?--that +no man can say, 'I will let my inclination have its fling this once'? +There are never 'this onces.' or very, very seldom. When you are +glissading down a snowy Alpine slope, you cannot stop when you like, +though you strike your alpenstock ever so deep into the powdery snow. If +you have started, away you must go. God be thanked! the illustration +does not altogether apply, for a man can stop if he will repent, but he +cannot stop unless he does. Did you never hear that a teaspoonful of +narcotic to-day will have to be a tablespoonful in a week or two, to +produce the same effect? Are there not plenty of men who have said with +all the force that a weakened will has left in it, 'I will never touch a +drop of drink again, as long as I live, God helping me'?--and they have +gone down the street, and they have turned in, not at the first or the +second public-house, but at the fourth or the fifth. Ah! brother, 'they +promised them liberty, but they are the servants of corruption.' Fix +this in your minds. 'He that committeth sin is the slave of sin,' of the +sin that he commits. Do not put off the easy yoke of obedience to +conscience and duty, or you will find that there is an iron one, with +many a sharp point in its unpolished surface rubbing into your skin and +wounding your shoulders. 'It's wiser to be good than bad. It's safer to +be meek than fierce.' 'Thou hast broken the yokes of wood'; it is not +difficult to do that; 'thou hast made instead of them yokes of iron.' +That is my second point. + +III. Lastly, we have the choice between the yoke of Christ and the iron +yoke of godlessness. + +You may think that to be a very harsh saying, and much too vehement an +antithesis. Let me vindicate it according to my own belief in a sentence +or two. It seems to me that for civilised and cultivated Europe at this +day, the choice lies between accepting Jesus Christ as the _Revealer_ of +God, or wandering away out into the wastes of uncertainty, or as they +call it nowadays, agnosticism and doubt. I believe myself, and I venture +to state it here--though there is not time to do more than state +it--that no form of what is now called Theism, which does not accept the +historic revelation of God in Jesus Christ as the 'master-light of all +our seeing,' will ever be able to sustain itself permanently in the face +of present currents of opinion. If you do not take Christ for your +Teacher, you are handed over either to the uncertainty of your own +doubts, or to pinning your faith to some man and enrolling yourself as a +disciple who is prepared to swallow down whole whatsoever the rabbi may +say, and so giving to him what you will not give to Jesus; or else you +will sink back into utter indolence and carelessness about the whole +matter; or else you will go and put your belief and your soul into the +hands of a priest, and shut your eyes and open your mouth and take +whatever tradition may choose to send you. The one refuge from all +these, as I believe, is to go to Him and learn of Him, and so take His +yoke upon your shoulders. + +But, let me say further, it is better to obey Christ's _commandments_ +than to set ourselves against them. For if we will take His will for our +law, and meekly assume the yoke of loyal and loving obedience to Him, +the door into an earthly paradise is thrown open to us. His yoke is +easy, not because its prescriptions and provisions lower the standard of +righteousness and morality, but because love becomes the motive; and it +is always blessed to do that which the Beloved desires. When 'I will' +and 'I ought' cover exactly the same ground, then there is no kind of +pressure from the yoke. Christ's yoke is easy because, too, He gives the +power to obey His commandments. His burden is such a burden (as I think +one of the old fathers puts it) as sails are to a ship or wings to a +bird. They add to the weight, but they carry that which carries them. So +Christ's yoke bears the man that bears it. It is easy, too, because +'in,' and not only after or for, 'keeping of it there is great reward'; +seeing that He commands nothing which is not congruous with the highest +good, and bringing along with it the purest blessing. Instead of that +yoke, what has the world to offer, or what do we get to dominate us, if +we cast off Christ? Self, the old anarch self, and that is misery. To be +self-ruled is to be self-destroyed. + +There is no need that I should remind you of how it is better to accept +Christ's _providences_ than to kick against them. Sorrow to which we +submit loses all its bitterness and much of its sadness. Kicking against +the affliction makes its sharp point penetrate our limbs. The bird that +will dash itself against the wires of its cage beats itself all bloody +and torn. Let us take the providence and it ceases to be hard. + +One last word;--we all carry an iron yoke upon our shoulders. For, hard +as it is for us preachers to get our friends that listen to us to +believe and realise it, 'We all have sinned and come short of the glory +of God.' That yoke is on us all. And I, for my part, believe that no man +by his own efforts can cast it off, but that the attempt to do so often +brings greater strength to the sins that we seek to cast out, just as +the more you mow the grass, the thicker and the stronger it grows. So I +come with the great message which Jesus Christ Himself struck as the +keynote and prelude of His whole ministry, when in the synagogue He +said, 'The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me ... to preach deliverance +to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.' +He, and He only, will break every yoke and let the oppressed go free. +And then He addresses us, after He has done that, with the immortal +words, the sweetness of whose sound, sweet as it is, is less than the +sweetness of their sense: 'Take My yoke upon you ... and ye shall find +rest to your souls.' Oh, brother! will you not answer, 'O Lord! truly I +am Thy servant. Thou hast loosed my bonds, and thereby bound me for ever +to wear Thy yoke'; as the slave clings to his ransomer, and delights to +serve him all the days of his life? + + + + +WHAT THE STABLE CREATION TEACHES + +'If those ordinances depart from before Me, saith the Lord, then the +seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me for +ever.'--JER. xxxi. 36. + + +This is the seal of the new covenant, which is to be made in days future +to the prophet and his contemporaries, with the house of Israel and of +Judah. That new covenant is referred to in Hebrews as the fundamental +law of Christ's kingdom. Therefore we have the right to take to +ourselves the promises which it contains, and to think of 'the house of +Israel' and 'the seed of Jacob' as including us, 'though Abraham be +ignorant of us.' + +The covenant and its pledge are equally grand. The very idea of a +covenant as applied to God is wonderful. It is meant to teach us that, +from all the infinite modes of action possible to Him, He has chosen +One; that He has, as it were, marked out a path for Himself, and +confined the freedom of His will and the manifold omnipotences of His +power to prescribed limits, that He has determined the course of His +future action. It is meant to teach us, too, the other grand thought +that He has declared to us what that course is, not leaving us to learn +it piecemeal by slow building up of conclusions about His mind from His +actions as they come forth, but inversely telling us His mind and +purpose in articulate and authentic words by which we are to interpret +each successive work of His. He makes known His purposes. 'Before they +spring forth I tell you of them.' + +It is meant to teach us, too, that He regards Himself as bound by the +declaration which He has made, so that we may rest secure on this strong +foundation of His faithfulness and His truth, and for all doubts and +fears find the sufficient cure in His own declaration: 'My covenant will +I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of My lips.' No wonder +that the dying king found the strength of his failing heart in the +thought, 'He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all +things and sure.' + +The weighty promises of this solemn bond of God's cover the whole ground +of our spiritual necessities--forgiveness of sins, true, personal, +direct acquaintance with God, an intercommunion of mutual possession +between Him who is ours and us who are His, and an inward sanctification +by which His precepts shall coincide with our desires. These are the +blessings which He binds Himself to bestow. + +And of this transcendent pact, the seal and guarantee is worthy. God +descends to ratify a bond with man. By it He binds Himself to give all +possible good for the soul. And to confirm it heaven and earth are +called in. He points us to all that is august, stable, immense, +inscrutable in the works of His hands, and bids us see there His pledge +that He will be a faithful, covenant-keeping God. Sun, moon and stars, +heaven, earth and sea--'ye are My witnesses,' saith the Lord. + +God's unchangeable love is the true lesson from the stable regularity of +the universe. The tone in which Scripture speaks of external nature in +all its parts is very remarkable, altogether peculiar. It does not take +the aesthetic or the scientific, but the purely religious point of view. + +I. The facts. All nature is directly the effect of God's will and power. +'He giveth,' 'He divideth' (v. 35). + +The physical universe presents a spectacle of stable regularity. + +This regularity is the consequence of sovereign, divine will. These +ordinances are not laws of _nature_, but of God. + +II. The use commonly made of the facts. + +Ordinary unthinking worldliness sees nothing noticeable in them because +they come uniformly. Earthquakes startle, but the firmness of the solid +earth attracts no observation. God is thought to speak in the +extraordinary, but most men do not hear His voice in the normal. + +Scientific godlessness formularises this tendency into a system, and +proclaims that laws are everything and God a mere algebraical _x_. + +III. The lesson which they are meant to teach. + +God's works are a revelation of God. + +There is nothing in effect which is not in cause, and the stability of +these ordinances carries our thoughts back to an unchanging Ordainer. + +They witness to His constancy of purpose or will. His acts do not come +from caprice, nor are done as experiments, but are the stable expression +of uniform and unchanging will. + +They witness to His unfailing energy of power, which 'operates unspent' +and is to-day as fresh as at creation's birth. + +They witness to a single end pursued through all changes, and by all +varieties of means. Darkness and light, sun rising and setting, storm +and sunshine, summer and winter, all serve one end. As a horizontal +thrust may give rise to opposite circular motions which all issue in +working out an onward progress, so the various dealings of Providence +with us are all adapted to 'work together,' and that 'for good.' + +They witness that life, joy, beauty, flow from obedience. + +Thus, then, these ordinances in their stability are witnesses. But they +are inferior witnesses. The noblest revelation of the divine +faithfulness and unchangeable purpose of good is in Jesus. And these +witnesses will one day pass. Even now they have their changes, slow and +unmarked by a short-lived man. Stars burn out, there have been violent +convulsions, shocks and shatterings in the heavens, and a time comes, as +even physical science predicts, when 'the heavens shall vanish away like +smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment,' but that to which +they witnessed shall endure, 'My salvation shall be for ever, and My +righteousness shall not be abolished.' The created lights grow dim and +die out, but in 'the Father of lights' is 'no variableness, neither +shadow that is cast by turning.' + +Hence we see what our confidence should be. It should stand firm and +changeless as the Covenant, and we should move in our orbits as the +stars and hearken to the voice of His word as do they. Let us see to it +that we have faith to match His faithfulness, and that our confidence +shall be firmer than the mountains, more stable than the stars. + + + + +WHAT THE IMMENSE CREATION TEACHES + +'If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth +searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for +all that they have done, saith the Lord.'--JER. xxxi. 37. + +In the former sermon we considered the previous verse as presenting the +stability of creation as a guarantee of the firmness of God's gracious +covenant. Now we have to consider these grand closing words which bring +before us another aspect of the universe as a guarantee for another side +of God's gracious character. The immensity of creation is a symbol of +the inexhaustibleness of the forgiving love of God. + +I. A word or two as to the fact here used as a symbol of the divine +long-suffering. + +The prophet had very likely no idea at all beyond the ordinary one that +presents itself to the senses--a boundless vault above an endless plain +on which we stand, deep, sunless foundations, the Titanic substructions +on which all rests, going down who knows where, resting on who knows +what. We may smile at the rude conception, but it will be well for us if +we can get as vivid an impression of the fact as He had. + +We thankfully avail ourselves of modern science to tell us something +about the dimensions of this awful universe of ours. We learn to know +that there are millions of miles between these neighbour orbs, that +light which has been travelling for thousands of years may not yet have +fallen on some portion of the mighty whole, that the planetary masses of +our system are but tiny specks in the whole, that every fresh stride +which astronomical observation takes but opens up new nebulae to be +resolved, where suns and constellations and systems are dwarfed by +distance into hazy brightness which hardly deserves the name of light. +We know all this, and can find all about the distances in any book. So +much for space. Then the geologist comes to bewilder us still more, with +extension in time. + +But while all this may serve to give definiteness to the impression, +after all, perhaps, it is the eye alone, as it gazes, that really feels +the impression. Astronomy is really a very prosaic science. + +II. The effects which this immensity often produces on men. + +Very commonly in old days it led to actual idolatry, bowing down before +these calm, unreachable brightnesses. In our days it too often leads to +forgetting God altogether, and not seldom to disbelief that man can be +of any account in such a universe. We are told that the notions of a +covenant, a redemption, or that God cares about us are presumptuous. We +all know the talk of men who are so modestly conscious of their own +insignificance that they rebuke God for saying that He loves us, and +Christians for believing Him. + +III. The true lesson. + +The immensity of the material universe is for us a symbol of the +infinity of God's long-suffering love. + +The creation proceeds from a greater Creator. That gigantic and +overwhelming magnitude, that hoary and immemorial age, that complicated +and innumerable multitude of details, what less can they show than ONE +Eternal and Infinite? + +The immense suggests the infinite. + +Granted that you cannot from the immense creation rise logically to the +Infinite Creator, still the facts that the soul conceives that there is +an infinite God, and is conscious of the spontaneous evoking of that +thought by the contemplation of the immeasurable, are strong reasons for +believing that it is a legitimate process of thought which hears the +name of God thundered from the far-off depths of the silent heavens. The +heavens cannot be measured, no plummet can reach to the deep foundations +of the earth. We are surrounded by a universe which to our apprehensions +is boundless. How much more so from expansions of our conceptions of +celestial magnitudes since Jeremiah's days, and what is to be the lesson +from that? That we are insignificant atoms in this mighty whole? that +God is far away from us? that the material stretches so far that perhaps +there is nothing beyond? + +The thought of faith is that the material immensity teaches me my God's +infinity, and especially His inexhaustible patience with us sinners. It +teaches us the unfathomed depths of His gracious heart, and the abysses +of His mysterious providence, and the unbounded sweep of His long- +suffering forgiveness. His forgiving forbearance reaches further than +the limits of the heavens. Not till these can be measured will it be +exhausted, and the seed of Israel cast off for what they have done. + +He, the Infinite Father, above all creation, mightier than it, is our +true home, and living in Him we have an abode which can never be +'dissolved,' and above us stretch far-shining glories, unapproached +masses of brightness, nebulae of blessedness, spaces where the eye fails +and the imagination faints. All is ours, our eternal possession, the +inexhaustible source of our joy. Astronomers tell of light which has +been travelling for millenniums and has not yet reached this globe; but +what is that to the flashing glories which through eternity shall pour +on us from Him? So, then, our confidence should be firm and +inexhaustible. + +God has written wondrous lessons in His creation. But they are +hieroglyphs, of which the key is lost, till we hear Christ and learn of +Him. God has set His glories in the heavens and the earth is full of His +mercy, but these are lesser gifts than that which contains them all and +transcends them all, even His Son by whom He made the worlds, and-- +mightier still--by whom He redeemed man. God has written His mercy in +the heavens and His faithfulness in the clouds, but His mercy and His +faithfulness are more commended to us in Him who was before all things, +and of whom it is written: 'As a vesture shalt Thou fold them up, but +Thou art the same and Thy years shall not fail.' God has confirmed the +covenant of His love to us by the faithful witnesses in the heavens, but +the love shall abide when they have perished. The heavens bend above us +all, and over the head of every man the zenith stands. Every spot of +this low earth is smiled upon by that serene apocalypse of the loving +will of God. No lane is so narrow and foul in the great city, no spot is +so bare and lonely in the waste desert, but that thither the sunlight +comes, and there some patch of blue above beckons the downcast eye to +look up. The day opens its broad bosom bathed in light, and shows the +sun in the heavens, the Lord of light, to preach to us of the true +light. The night opens deeper abysses and fills them with stars, to +preach to us how fathomless and immense His loving kindnesses and tender +mercy are. They are witnesses to thee, dear friend, whatsoever thy +heart, whatsoever thy sins, whatsoever thy memories. No iniquity can +shut out God's forgiving love. You cannot build out the heavens. He will +not be sent away; you cannot measure, you cannot conceive, you cannot +exhaust, His pardoning love. No storms disturb that serene sky. It is +always there, blazing down upon us unclouded with all its orbs. Trust +Christ; and then as years roll on, you will find that infinite love +growing ever greater to your loving eyes, and through eternity will move +onwards in the happy atmosphere and boundless heaven of the +inexhaustible, deep heart and changeless love of God. + + + + +A THREEFOLD DISEASE AND A TWOFOLD CURE. + +'I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned +against Me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have +sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against Me.'--JER. xxxiii. 8. + + +Jeremiah was a prisoner in the palace of the last King of Judah. The +long, national tragedy had reached almost the last scene of the last +act. The besiegers were drawing their net closer round the doomed city. +The prophet had never faltered in predicting its fall, but he had as +uniformly pointed to a period behind the impending ruin, when all should +be peace and joy. His song was modulated from a saddened minor to +triumphant jubilation. In the beginning of this chapter he has declared +that the final struggles of the besieged will only end in filling the +land with their corpses, and then, from that lowest depth, he soars in a +burst of lyrical prophecy conceived in the highest poetic style. The +exiles shall return, the city shall be rebuilt, its desolate streets +shall ring with hymns of praise and the voices of the bridegroom and the +bride. The land shall be peopled with peaceful husbandmen, and white +with flocks. There shall be again a King upon the throne; sacrifices +shall again be offered. 'In those days, and at that time, will I cause +the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David.... In those days +shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely; and this is the +name wherewith she shall be called, the Lord our righteousness.' That +fair vision of the future begins with the offer of healing and cure, and +with the exuberant promise of my text. The first thing to be dealt with +was Judah's sin; and that being taken away, all good and blessing would +start into being, as flowerets will spring when the baleful shadow of +some poisonous tree is removed. Now, my text at first reading seems to +expend a great many unnecessary words in saying the same thing over and +over again, but the accumulation of synonyms not only emphasises the +completeness of the promise, but also presents different aspects of that +promise. And it is to these that I crave your attention in this sermon. +The great words of my text are as true a gospel for us--and as much +needed by us, God knows!--as they were for Jeremiah's contemporaries; +and we can understand them better than either he or they did, because +the days that were to come then have come now, and the King who was to +reign in righteousness is reigning to-day, and His Name is Christ. My +object now is, as simply as I can, to draw your attention to the two +points in this text: a threefold view of our sad condition, and a +twofold bright hope. + +Now for the first of these. There is here-- + +I. A threefold view of the sad condition of humanity. + +Observe the recurrence of the same idea in our text in different words: +'Their iniquity whereby they have sinned against Me.' ... 'Their +iniquity whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed +against Me.' You see there are three expressions which roughly may be +taken as referring to the same ugly fact, but yet not meaning quite the +same--'iniquity, or iniquities, sin, transgression.' These three all +speak of the same sad element in your experience and mine, but they +speak it from somewhat different points of view, and I wish to try to +bring out that difference for you. + +Suppose that three men were to describe a snake. One of them fixes his +attention on its slimy coils, and describes its sinuous gliding +movements. Another of them is fascinated by its wicked beauty, and talks +about its livid markings and its glittering eye. The third thinks only +of the swift-darting fangs, and of the poison-glands. They all three +describe the snake, but they describe it from different points of view; +and so it is here. 'Iniquity,' 'sin,' 'transgression' are synonyms to +some extent, but they do not cover the same ground. They look at the +serpent from different points of view. + +First, a sinful life is a twisted or warped life. The word rendered +'iniquity,' in the Old Testament, in all probability literally means +something that is not straight, but is bent, or, as I said, twisted or +warped. That is a metaphor that runs through a great many languages. I +suppose 'right' expresses a corresponding image, and means that which is +straight and direct; and I suppose that 'wrong' has something to do with +'wrung'--that which has been forcibly diverted from a right line. We all +know the conventional colloquialism about a man being 'straight,' and +such-and-such a thing being 'on the straight.' All sin is a twisting of +the man from his proper course. Now there underlies that metaphor the +notion that there is a certain line to which we are to conform. The +schoolmaster draws a firm, straight line in the child's copybook; and +then the little unaccustomed hand takes up on the second line its +attempt, and makes tremulous, wavering pot-hooks and hangers. There is a +copyhead for us, and our writing is, alas! all uneven and irregular, as +well as blurred and blotted. There is a law, and you know it. You carry +in yourself--I was going to say, the standard measure, and you can see +whether when you put your life by the side of that, the two coincide. It +is not for me to say; I know about my own, and you may know about yours, +if you will be honest. The warped life belongs to us all. + +The metaphor may suggest another illustration. A Czar of Russia was once +asked what should be the course of the railway from St. Petersburg to +Moscow, and he took up a ruler and drew a straight line upon the chart, +and said, 'There; that is the course.' There is a straight road marked +out for us all, going, like the old Roman roads, irrespective of +physical difficulties in the contour of the country, climbing right over +Alps if necessary, and plunging down into the deepest valleys, never +deflecting one hairsbreadth, but going straight to its aim. And we--what +are we? what are 'our crooked, wandering ways in which we live,' by the +side of that straight path? This very prophet has a wonderful +illustration, in which he compares the lives of men who have departed +from God to the racing about in the wilderness of a wild dromedary, +'entangling her ways,' as he says, crossing and recrossing, and getting +into a maze of perplexity. Ah, my friend, is that not something like +your life? Here is a straight road, and there are the devious footpaths +that we have made, with many a detour, many a bend, many a coming back +instead of going forward. 'The labour of the foolish wearieth every one +of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city.' All sin is +deflection from the straight road, and we are all guilty of that. + +Let me urge you to consult the standard that you carry within +yourselves. If you never have done it before, do it now; or, better, +when you are alone by yourselves. It is easy to imagine that a line is +straight. But did you ever see the point of a needle under a microscope? +However finely it is polished, and apparently tapering regularly, the +scrutinising investigation of the microscope shows that it is all rough +and irregular. What would a builder do if he had not a T-square and a +level? His wall would be ever so far out, whilst he thought it perfectly +perpendicular. And remember that a line at a very acute angle of +deflection only needs to be carried out far enough to diverge so widely +from the other line that you could put the whole solar system in between +the two. The smallest departure from the line of right will end, unless +it is checked, away out in the regions of darkness beyond. That is the +lesson of the first of the words here. + +The second of them, rendered in our version 'sin,' if I may recur to my +former illustration, looks at the snake from a different point of view, +and it declares that all sin misses the aim. The meaning of the word in +the original is simply 'that which misses its mark.' And the meaning of +the prevalent word in the New Testament for 'sin' means, in accordance +with the ethical wisdom of the Greek, the same thing. Now, there are two +ways in which that thought may be looked at. Every wrong thing that we +do misses the aim, if you consider what a man's aim ought to be. We have +grown a great deal wiser than the Puritans nowadays, and people make +cheap reputations for advanced thought by depreciating their theology. +We have not got beyond the first answer of the Shorter Catechism, 'Man's +chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever.' That is the +only aim which corresponds to our constitution, to our circumstances. A +palaeontologist will pick up part of a skeleton embedded in the rocks, +and from the study of a bone or two will tell you whether that creature +was meant to swim, or to fly, or to walk; whether its element was sea, +or sky, or land. Our destination for God is as plainly stamped on heart, +mind, will, practical powers, as is the destination of such a creature +deducible from its skeleton. 'Whose image and superscription hath it?' +God's, stamped deep upon us all. And so, brother, whatever you win, +unless you win God, you have missed the aim. Anything short of knowing +Him and loving Him, serving Him, being filled and inspired by Him, is +contrary to the destiny stamped upon us all. And if you have won God, +then, whatever other human prizes you may have missed, you have made the +best of life. Unless He is yours, and you are His, you have made a miss, +and if I might venture to add, a mess, of yourself and of your life. + +Then there is another side to this. The solemn teaching of this word is +not confined to that thought, but also opens out into this other, that +all godlessness, all the low, sinful lives that so many of us live, miss +the shabby aim which they set before themselves. I do not believe that +any men or women ever got as much good, even of the lowest kind, out of +a wrong thing as they expected to get when they ventured on it. If they +did, they got something else along with it that took all the gilt off +the gingerbread. Take the lowest kind of gross evil--sins of lust or of +drunkenness. Well, no doubt the physical satisfaction desired is +secured. Yes; and what about what comes after, in addition, that was not +aimed at? The drunkard gets his pleasurable oblivion, his desired +excitement. What about the corrugated liver, the palsied hand, the +watery eye, the wrecked life, the broken hearts at home, and all the +other accompaniments? There is an old Greek legend about a certain +messenger that came to earth with a box, in which were all manner of +pleasant gifts, and down at the bottom was a speckled pest that, when +the box was emptied, crawled out into the sunshine and infected the +land. That Pandora's box is like 'the good things' that sin brings to +men. You gain, perhaps, your advantage, and you get something that +spoils it all. Is not that your experience? I do not deny that you may +satisfy your lower desires by a godless life. I know only too well how +hard it is to get people to have higher tastes, and how all we ministers +of religion are spending our efforts in order to win people to love +something better than the world can give them. I also know that, if I +could get to the very deepest recess of your hearts, you would admit +that pleasures or advantages that are complete, that is to say, that +satisfy you all round, and that are lasting, and that can front +conscience and God who is at the back of conscience, are not to be won +on the paths of sin and godlessness. + +There is an old story that speaks of a knight and his company who were +travelling through a desert, and suddenly beheld a castle into which +they were invited and hospitably welcomed. A feast was spread before +them, and each man ate and drank his fill. But as soon as they left the +enchanted halls, they were as hungry as before they sat at the magic +table. That is the kind of food that all our wrongdoing provides for us. +'He feedeth on ashes,' and hungers after he has fed. So, dear friends, +learn this ancient wisdom, which is as true today as it ever was; and be +sure, of this, that there is only one course in this world which will +give a man true, lasting satisfaction; that there is only one life, the +life of obedience to and love of God, about which, at the end, there +will not need to be said, 'This their way is their folly.' + +And now, further, there is yet another word here, carrying with it +important lessons. The expression which is translated in our text +'transgressed,' literally means 'rebelled.' And the lesson of it is, +that all sin is, however little we think it, a rebellion against God. +That introduces a yet graver thought than either of the former have +brought us face to face with. Behind the law is the Lawgiver. When we do +wrong, we not only blunder, we not only go aside from the right line, +but also we lift up ourselves against our Sovereign King, and we say, +'Who is the Lord that we should serve Him? Our tongues are our own. Who +is Lord over us? Let us break His bands asunder, and cast away His cords +from us.' There are crimes against law; there are faults against one +another. Sins are against God; and, dear friends, though you do not +realise it, this is plain truth, that the essence, the common +characteristic, of all the acts which, as we have seen, are twisted and +foolish, is that in them we are setting up another than the Lord our God +to be our ruler. We are enthroning ourselves in His place. Do you not +feel that that is true, and that in some small thing in which you go +wrong, the essence of it is that you are seeking to please yourself, no +matter what duty--which is only a heathen name for God--says to you? + +Does not that thought make all these apparently trivial and +insignificant deeds terribly important? Treason is treason, no matter +what the act by which it is expressed. It may be a little thing to haul +down a union-jack from a flagstaff, or to tear off a barn-door a +proclamation with the royal arms at the top of it, but it may be +rebellion. And if it is, it is as bad as to turn out a hundred thousand +men in the field, with arms in their hands. There are small faults, +there are trivial crimes; there are no small sins. An ounce of arsenic +is arsenic, just as much as a ton; and it is a poison just as surely. + +Now I have enlarged perhaps unduly on this earlier part of my subject, +and can but briefly turn to the second division which I suggested, +viz.:-- + +II. The twofold bright hope which shines through this darkness. + +'I will cleanse ... I will pardon.' + +If sin combines in itself all these characteristics that I have touched +upon, then clearly there is guilt, and clearly there are stains; and the +gracious promise of this text deals with both the one and the other. + +'I will pardon.' What is pardon? Do not limit it to the analogy of a +criminal court. When the law of the land pardons, or rather when the +administrator of the law pardons, that simply means that the penalty is +suspended. But is that forgiveness? Certainly it is only a part of it, +even if it is a part. What do you fathers and mothers do when you +forgive your child? You may use the rod or you may not, that is a +question of what is best for the child. Forgiveness does not lie in +letting him off the punishment; but forgiveness lies in the flowing to +the child, uninterrupted, of the love of the parent heart, and that is +God's forgiveness. Penalties, some of them, remain--thank God for it! +'Thou wast a God that forgavest them, though Thou tookest vengeance of +their inventions,' and the chastisement was part of the sign of the +forgiveness. The great penalty of all, which is separation from God, is +taken away; but the essence of that pardon, which it is my blessed work +to proclaim to all men, is, that in spite of the prodigal's rags and the +stench of the sty, the Father's love is round about him. It is round +about you, brother. + +Do you need pardon? Do you not? What does conscience say? What does the +sense of remorse that sometimes blesses you, though it tortures, say? +There are tendencies in this generation, as always, but very strong at +present, to ignore the fact that all sin must necessarily lead to +tremendous consequences of misery. It does so in this world, more or +less. A man goes into another world as he left this one, and you and I +believe that 'after death is the judgment.' Do you not require pardon? +And how are you to get it? 'Himself bore our sins in His own body on the +tree.' Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died that the loving forgiveness of +God might find its way to every heart, and might take all men to its +bosom, whilst yet the righteousness of God remained untarnished. I know +not any gospel that goes deep enough to touch the real sore place in +human nature, except the gospel that says to you and me and all of us, +'Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.' + +But forgiveness is not enough, for the worst results of past sin are the +habits of sin which it leaves within us; so that we all need cleansing. +Can we cleanse ourselves? Let experience answer. Did you ever try to +cure yourself of some little trick of gesture, or manner, or speech? And +did you not find out then how strong the trivial habit was? You never +know the force of a current till you try to row against it. 'Can the +Ethiopian change his skin?' No; but God can change it for him. So, +again, we say that Jesus Christ who died for 'the remission of sins that +are past,' lives that He may give to each of us His own blessed life and +power, and so draw us from our evil, and invest us in His good. Dear +brother, I beseech you to look in the face the fact of your rebellion, +of your missing your aim, of your perverted life, and to ask yourself +the question, 'Can I deal either with the guilt of the past, or with the +imperative tendency to repeated sin in the future?' You may have your +leprous flesh made 'like the flesh of a little child.' You may have your +stained robe washed and made lustrous 'white in the blood of the Lamb.' +Pardon and cleansing are our two deepest needs. There is one hand from +which we can receive them both, and one only. There is one condition on +which we shall receive them, which is that we trust in Him, 'Who was +crucified for our offences, and lives to hallow us into His own +likeness.' + + + + +THE RECHABITES + +'The sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have performed the commandment of +their father, which he commanded them; but this people have not +hearkened unto Me.'--JER. xxxv. 16. + + +The Rechabites had lived a nomad life, dwelling in tents, not practising +agriculture, abstaining from intoxicants. They were therein obeying the +command of their ancestor, Jonadab. They had been driven by the +Babylonian invasion to take refuge in Jerusalem, and, no doubt, were a +nine days' wonder there, with their strange ways. Jeremiah seized on +their loyalty to their dead ancestor's command as an object-lesson, by +which he put a still sharper edge on his rebukes. The Rechabites gave +their ancestral law an obedience which shamed Judah's disobedience to +Jehovah. God asks from us only what we are willing to give to one +another, and God is often refused what men have but to ask and it is +given. The virtues which we exercise to each other rebuke us, because we +so often refuse to exercise them towards God. + +I. Men's love to men condemns their lovelessness towards God. + +These Rechabites witnessed to the power of loyal love to their ancestor. +Think of the wealth of love which we have all poured out on husbands, +wives, parents, children, and of the few drops that we have diverted to +flow towards God. What a full flood fills the one channel; what a +shrunken stream the other! + +Think of the infinitely stronger reasons for loving God than for loving +our dearest. + +II. Men's faith in men condemns their distrust of God. + +However you define faith, you find it abundantly exercised by us on the +low plane of earthly relations. Is it belief in testimony? You men of +business regulate your course by reports of markets on the other side of +the world, and in a hundred ways extend your credence to common report, +with but little, and often with no examination of the evidence. 'If we +believe the witness of men, the witness of God is greater.' And how do +we treat it? We are ready to accept and to act on men's testimony; we +are slow to believe God's, and still slower to act on it, and to let it +mould our lives. + +Is faith the realising of the unseen? We exercise it in reference to the +earthly unseen; we are slow to do so in reference to the heavenly things +which are invisible. + +Is faith the act of trust? Life is impossible without it. Not only is +commerce a great system of credit, but no relations of life could last +for a day without mutual confidence. We depend on one another, like a +row of slightly built houses that help to hold each other up. These +earthly exercises of trust should make it easier for us to rise to +trusting God as much as we do each other. They ought to reveal to us the +heavenly things. For indeed our human trust in one another should be a +sample and shadow of our wise trust in the adequate Object of trust. + +III. Men's obedience to human authority condemns their rebellion against +God. + +Jonadab's commandment evoked implicit obedience from his descendants for +generations. Side by side in man's strange nature, with his self-will +and love of independence, lies an equally strong tendency to obey and +follow any masterful voice that speaks loudly and with an assumption of +authority. The opinions of a clique, the dogmas of a sect, the habits of +a set, the sayings of a favourite author, the fashions of our class--all +these rule men with a sway far more absolute than is exercised on them +by the known will of God. The same man is a slave to usurped authority +and a rebel against rightful and divine dominion. + +Whether we consider the law of God in its claims or its contents, or its +ultimate object, it is worthy of entire obedience. And what does it +receive? + +God asks from us only what we willingly give to men. Even the qualities +and acts, such as love, trust, obedience, which as exercised towards men +give dignity and beauty and strength, rise up in judgment to condemn us. +There is a sense in which Augustine's often-denounced saying that they +are 'splendid vices' is true, for they are turned in the wrong +direction, and very often their being directed so completely towards men +and women is the reason why they are not directed towards God, who alone +deserves and alone can satisfy and reward them. Then they become sins +and condemn us. + + + + +JEREMIAH'S ROLL BURNED AND REPRODUCED + +'Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it to Baruch ... who wrote +therein ... all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had +burned in the fire, and there were added besides unto them many like +words.'--JER. xxxvi. 32. + + +This story brings us into the presence of the long death agony of the +Jewish monarchy. The wretched Jehoiakim, the last king but two who +reigned in Jerusalem, was put on the throne by the King of Egypt, as his +tributary, and used by him as a buffer to bear the brunt of the +Babylonian invasion. He seems to have had all the vices of Eastern +sovereigns. He was covetous, cruel, tyrannous, lawless, heartless, +senseless. He was lavishing money on a grand palace, built with cedar +and painted in vermilion, when the nation was in its death-throes. He +had neither valour nor goodness, and so little did he understand the +forces at work in his times that he held by the rotten support of Egypt +against the grim power of Babylon, and of course, when the former was +driven like chaff before the assault of the latter, he shared the fate +of his principal, and Judaea was overrun by Babylon, Jerusalem captured, +and the poor creature on the throne bound in chains to be carried to +Babylon, but, as would appear, discovered by Nebuchadnezzar to be +pliable enough to make it safe to leave him behind, as his vassal. His +capture took place but a few months after the incident with which I am +dealing now. It would appear probable that the confusion and alarm of +the Babylonian assault on Egypt had led to a solemn fast in Jerusalem, +at which the nation assembled. Jeremiah, who had been prophesying for +some thirty years, and had already been in peril of his life from the +godless tyrant on the throne, was led to collect, in one book, his +scattered prophecies and read them in the ears of the people gathered +for the fast. That reading had no effect at all on the people. The roll +was then read to the princes, and in them roused fear and interested +curiosity, and kindly desire for the safety of Jeremiah and Baruch, his +amanuensis. It was next read to the king, and he cut the roll leaf by +leaf and threw it on the brasier, not afraid, nor penitent, but enraged +and eager to capture Jeremiah and Baruch. The burnt roll was reproduced +by God's command, 'and there were added besides ... many like words.' + +I. The love of God necessarily prophesying evil. + +As a matter of fact, the prophets of the Old Testament were all prophets +of evil. They were watchmen seeing the sword and giving warning. No one +ever spoke more plainly of the penalties of sin than did Christ. The +authoritative revelation of the consequences of wrongdoing is an +integral part of the gospel. + +It is not the highest form of appeal. It would be higher to say, 'Do +right because it is right; love Christ because Christ is lovely.' The +purpose of such an appeal is to prepare us for the true gospel. But the +appeal to a reasonable self-love, by warnings of the death which is the +wages of sin, is perfectly legitimate. Dehortations from sin on the +ground of its consequences is part of God's message. + +Further, the warning comes from love. Punishment must needs follow on +sin. Even His love must compel God to punish, and to warn before He +does. Surely that is kind. His punishments are made known beforehand +that we may be sure that caprice and anger have no part in inflicting +them, but that they are the settled order of an inviolable law, and +constitutional procedure of a just kind. Whether is it better to live +under a despot who smites as he will, or under a constitutional king +whose code is made public. + +Surely it is needful to have clearly set forth the consequences of sin, +in view of the sophistries buzzing round us all and nestling in our own +hearts, of the deceitfulness of sin, of siren voices whispering, 'Ye +shall not surely die.' + +God's prophecies of evil are all conditional. They are sent on purpose +that they may not be fulfilled. + +II. The loving warnings disregarded and disliked. Jehoiakim's behaviour +is very human and like what we all do. We see the same thing repeated in +all similar crises. Cassandra. Jewish prophets. Christ. English +Commonwealth. French Revolution. Blindness to all signs and hostility to +the men that warn. + +We see it in the attitude to the gospel revelation. The Scripture +doctrine of punishment always rouses antagonism, and in this day revolts +men. There is much in present tendencies to weaken the idea of future +retribution. Modern philanthropy makes it hard sometimes to administer +even human laws. The feeling is good, but this exaggeration of it bad. +It is a reaction to some extent against an unchristian way of preaching +Christian truth, but even admitting that, it still remains true that an +integral part of the Christian revelation is the revelation of death as +the wages of sin. + +We see the same recoil of feeling operating in individual cases. How +many of you are quite indifferent to the preaching of a judgment to +come, or only conscious of a movement of dislike! But how foolish this +is! If a man builds a house on a volcano, is it not kind to tell him +that the lava is creeping over the side? Is it not kind to wake, even +violently, a traveller who has fallen asleep on the snow, before +drowsiness stiffens into death? + +III. The impotent rejection and attempted destruction of the message. + +The roll is destroyed, but it is renewed. You do not alter facts by +neglecting them, nor abrogate a divine decree by disbelieving it. The +awful law goes on its course. It is not pre-eminent seamanship to put +the look-out man in irons because he sings out, 'Breakers ahead.' The +crew do not abolish the reef _so_, but they end their last chance of +avoiding it, and presently the shock comes, and the cruel coral tears +through the hull. + +IV. The neglected message made harder and heavier. + +Every rejection makes a man more obdurate. Every rejection increases +criminality, and therefore increases punishment. Every rejection brings +the punishment nearer. + +The increased severity of the message comes from love. + +Oh, think of the infinite 'treasures of darkness' which God has in +reserve, and let the words of warning lead you to Jesus, that you may +only hear and never experience the judgments of which they warn. Give +Christ the roll of judgment and He will destroy it, nailing it to His +cross, and instead of it will give you a book full of blessing. + + + + +ZEDEKIAH + +'Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned as king ... whom Nebuchadnezzar king +of Babylon made king'--JER. xxxvii. 1. + + +Zedekiah was a small man on a great stage, a weakling set to face +circumstances that would have taxed the strongest. He was a youth at his +accession to the throne of a distracted kingdom, and if he had had any +political insight he would have seen that his only chance was to adhere +firmly to Babylon, and to repress the foolish aristocracy who hankered +after alliance with the rival power of Egypt. He was mad enough to form +an alliance with the latter, which was constructive rebellion against +the former, and was strongly reprobated by Jeremiah. Swift vengeance +followed; the country was ravaged, Zedekiah in his fright implored +Jeremiah's prayers and made faint efforts to follow his counsels. The +pressure of invasion was lifted, and immediately he forgot his terrors +and forsook the prophet. The Babylonian army was back next year, and the +final investment of Jerusalem began. The siege lasted sixteen months, +and during it, Zedekiah miserably vacillated between listening to the +prophet's counsels of surrender and the truculent nobles' advice to +resist to the last gasp. The miseries of the siege live for ever in the +Book of Lamentations. Mothers boiled their children, nobles hunted on +dunghills for food. Their delicate complexions were burned black, and +famine turned them into living skeletons. Then, on a long summer day in +July came the end. The king tried to skulk out by a covered way between +the walls, his few attendants deserted him in his flight, he was caught +at last down by the fords of the Jordan, carried prisoner to +Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah away up in the north beyond Baalbec, and there +saw his sons slain before his eyes, and, as soon as he had seen that +last sight, was blinded, fettered, and carried off to Babylon, where he +died. His career teaches us lessons which I may now seek to bring out. + +I. A weak character is sure to become a wicked one. + +Moral weakness and inability to resist strong pressure was the keynote +of Zedekiah's character. There were good things in him; he had kindly +impulses, as was shown in his emancipation of the slaves at a crisis of +Jerusalem's fate. Left to himself, he would at least have treated +Jeremiah kindly, and did rescue him from lingering death in the foul +dungeon to which the ruffian nobility had consigned him, and he provided +for his being at least saved from dying of starvation during the siege. +He listened to him secretly, and would have accepted his counsel if he +had dared. But he yielded to the stronger wills of the nobles, though he +sometimes bitterly resented their domination, and complained that 'the +king is not he that can do anything against you.' + +Like most weak men, he found that temptations to do wrong abounded more +than visible inducements to do right, and he was afraid to do right, and +fancied that he was compelled by the force of circumstances to do wrong. +So he drifted and drifted, and at last was smashed to fragments on the +rocks, as all men are who do not keep a strong hand on the helm and a +steady eye on the compass. The winds are good servants but bad masters. +If we do not coerce circumstances to carry us on the course which +conscience has pricked out on the chart, they will wreck us. + +II. A man may have a good deal of religion and yet not enough to mould +his life. + +Zedekiah listened to the prophet by fits and starts. He was eager to +have the benefit of the prophet's prayers. He liberated the slaves in +Jerusalem. He came secretly to Jeremiah more than once to know if there +were any message from God for him. Yet he had not faith enough nor +submission enough to let the known will of God rule his conduct, +whatever the nobles might say. + +Are there not many of us who have a belief in God and a general +acquiescence in Christ's precepts, who order our lives now and then by +these, and yet have not come up to the point of full and final +surrender? Alas, alas, for the multitudes who are 'not far from the +kingdom,' but who never come near enough to be actually _in_ it! To be +not far from _is_ to be out of, and to be out of is to be, like +Zedekiah, blinded and captived and dead in prison at last. + +III. God's love is wonderfully patient. + +Jeremiah was to Zedekiah the incarnation of God's unwearied pleadings. +During his whole reign, the prophet's voice sounded in his ears, through +all the clamours and cries of factions, and mingled at last with the +shouts of the besiegers and the groans of the wounded, like the +sustained note of some great organ, persisting through a babel of +discordant noises. It was met with indifference, and it sounded on. It +provoked angry antagonism and still it spoke. Violence was used to +stifle it in vain. And it was not only Jeremiah's courageous pertinacity +that spoke through that persistent voice, but God's unwearied love, +which being rejected is not driven away, being neglected becomes more +beseeching, 'is not easily provoked 'to cease its efforts, but 'beareth +all' despite, and hopeth for softened hearts till the last moment before +doom falls. + +That patient love pleads with each of us as persistently as Jeremiah did +with Zedekiah. + +IV. The long-delayed judgment falls at last. + +With infinite reluctance the divine love had to do what God Himself has +called 'His strange work.' Divine Justice travels slowly, but arrives at +last. Her foot is 'leaden' both in regard to its tardiness and its +weight. There is no ground in the long postponement of retribution for +the fond dream that it will never come, though men lull themselves to +sleep with that lie. 'Because sentence against an evil work is not +executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is thoroughly +set in them to do evil.' But the sentence will be executed. The pleading +love, which has for many returning autumns spared the barren tree and +sought to make it fit to bear fruit, does not prevent the owner saying +at last to his servant with the axe in his hand, 'Now! thou shalt cut it +down.' + + + + +THE WORLD'S WAGES TO A PROPHET + +'And it came to pass, that when the army of the Chaldeans was broken up +from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh's arm, 12. Then Jeremiah went forth +out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin, to separate himself +thence in the midst of the people. 13. And when he was in the gate of +Benjamin, a captain of the ward was there, whose name was Irijah, the +son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he took Jeremiah the prophet, +saying, Thou fallest away to the Chaldeans. 14. Then said Jeremiah, It +is false; I fall not away to the Chaldeans. But he hearkened not to him: +so Irijah took Jeremiah, and brought him to the princes. 15. Wherefore +the princes were wroth with Jeremiah, and smote him, and put him in +prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe: for they had made that the +prison. 16. When Jeremiah was entered into the dungeon, and into the +cabins, and Jeremiah had remained there many days; 17. Then Zedekiah the +king sent, and took him out: and the king asked him secretly in his +house, and said, Is there any word from the Lord? And Jeremiah said, +There is: for, said he, thou shalt be delivered into the hand of the +king of Babylon. 18. Moreover, Jeremiah said unto king Zedekiah, What +have I offended against thee, or against thy servants, or against this +people, that ye have put me in prison? 19. Where are now your prophets +which prophesied unto you, saying, The king of Babylon shall not come +against you, nor against this land? 20. Therefore hear now, I pray thee, +O my lord the king: let my supplication, I pray thee, be accepted before +thee; that thou cause me not to return to the house of Jonathan the +scribe, lest I die there. 21. Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they +should commit Jeremiah into the court of the prison, and that they +should give him daily a piece of bread out of the bakers' street, until +all the bread in the city were spent. Thus Jeremiah remained in the +court of the prison.'--JER. xxxvii. 11-21. + + +SOME sixteen years had passed since Jehoiakim had burned the roll, +during all of which the slow gathering of the storm, which was to break +over the devoted city, had been going on, and Jeremiah had been vainly +calling on the people to return to Jehovah. The last agony was now not +far off. But there came a momentary pause in the siege, produced by the +necessity of an advance against a relieving army from Egypt, which +created fallacious hopes in the doomed city. It was only a pause. Back +came the investing force, and again the terrible, lingering process of +starving into surrender was resumed. Our text begins with the raising of +the siege, and extends to some point after its resumption. It needs +little elucidation, so clearly is the story told, and so natural are the +incidents; but perhaps we shall best gather its instruction if we look +at the three sets of actors separately, and note the hostile +authorities, the patient prophet and prisoner, and the feeble king. The +play of these strongly contrasted characters is full of vividness and +instruction. + +I. We have that rough 'captain of the ward,' who laid hands on the +prophet at the gate on the north side of the city, leading to the road +to the territory of Benjamin. No doubt there was a considerable exodus +from Jerusalem when the Assyrian lines were deserted, and common +prudence would have facilitated it, as reducing the number of mouths to +be fed, in case the siege were renewed; but malice is not prudent, and, +instead of letting the hated Jeremiah slip quietly away home to +Anathoth, and so getting rid of his prophecies and him, Irijah ('the +Lord is a beholder') arrested him on a charge of meditating desertion to +the enemy. It was a colourable accusation, for Jeremiah's constant +exhortation had been to 'go out to the Chaldeans,' and so secure life +and mild treatment. But it was clearly false, for the Chaldeans were for +the moment gone, and the time was the very worst that could have been +chosen for a contemplated flight to their camp. + +The real reason for the prophet's wish to leave the city was only too +simple. It was to see if he could get 'a portion'--some of his property, +or perhaps rather some little store of food--to take back to the +famine-scourged city, which, he knew, would soon be again at +starvation-point. There appears to have been a little company of +fellow-villagers with him, for 'in the midst of the people' (v. 12) is +to be construed with 'to go into the land of Benjamin.' The others seem +to have been let pass, and only Jeremiah detained, which makes the +charge more evidently a trumped-up excuse for laying hands on him. +Jeremiah calls it in plain words what it was--'a lie'--and protests his +innocence of any such design. But the officious Irijah knew too well how +much of a feather in his cap his getting hold of the prophet would be, +to heed his denials, and dragged him off to the princes. + +Sixteen years ago 'the princes' round Jehoiakim had been the prophet's +friends; but either a new generation had come with a new king, or else +the tempers of the men had changed with the growing misery. Their +behaviour was more lawless than the soldiers' had been. They did not +even pretend to examine the prisoner, but blazed up at once in anger. +They had him in their power now, and did their worst, lawlessly +scourging him first, and then thrusting him into 'the house of the +pit'--some dark, underground hole, below the house of an official, where +there were a number of 'cells'--filthy and stifling, no doubt; and there +they left him. What for? + +The charge of intended desertion was a mere excuse for wreaking their +malice on him. They hated Jeremiah because he had steadily opposed the +popular determination to fight, and had foretold disaster. Add to this +that he had held up a high standard of religion and morality to a +corrupt and idolatrous people, and his 'unpopularity' is sufficiently +explained. + +Would that the same causes did not produce the same effects now! +Individuals still think an honest rebuke of their faults an insult, and +a plain statement of their danger a sign of ill-feeling. Try to warn a +drunkard or a profligate by telling him of the disease and misery which +will dog his sins, or by setting plainly before him God's law of purity +and sobriety, and you will find that the prophet's function still brings +with it, in many cases, the prophet's doom. But still more truly is this +the case with masses, whether nations or cities. A spurious patriotism +resents as unpatriotic the far truer love of country which sets a +trumpet to its mouth to tell the people their sins. In all democratic +communities, whether republican or regal in their form of government, a +crying evil is flattery of the masses, exalting their virtues and +foretelling their prosperity, while hiding their faults and slurring +over the requirements of morality and religion, which are the +foundations of prosperity. What did England do with her prophets? What +did America do with hers? What wages do they get to-day? The men who +dare to tell their countrymen their faults, and to preach temperance, +peace, civic purity, personal morality, are laid hold of by the Irijahs +who preside over the newspapers, and are pilloried as deserters and half +traitors at heart. + +II. We see the patient, unmoved prophet. One flash of honest indignation +repels the charge of deserting, and then he is silent. 'As a sheep +before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.' It is useless +to plead before lawless violence. A silent martyr eloquently condemns an +unjust judge. So, without opposition or apparent remonstrance, Jeremiah +is cast into the foul den where he lies for 'many days,' patiently +bearing his fate, and speaking his complaint to God only. How long his +imprisonment lasted does not appear; but the context implies that during +it the siege was resumed, and that there was difficulty in procuring +bread. Then the king sent for him secretly. + +Zedekiah's temper at the time will be considered presently. Here we have +to do with Jeremiah's answer to his question. In it we may note, as +equally prominent and beautifully blended, respect, submission, +consciousness of peril and impending death, and unshaken boldness. He +knew that his life was at the disposal of the capricious, feeble +Zedekiah. He bows before him as his subject, and brings his +'supplication'; but not one jot of his message will he abate, nor smooth +down its terribleness an atom. He repeats as unfalteringly as ever the +assurance that the king of Babylon will take the city. He asserts his +own innocence as regards king and courtiers and people; and he asks the +scornful question what has become of all the smooth-tongued prophets of +prosperity, as if he were bidding the king look over the city wall and +see the tokens of their lies and of Jeremiah's truth in the investing +lines of the all but victorious enemy. + +Such a combination of perfect meekness and perfect courage, unstained +loyalty to his king, and supreme obedience to his God, was only possible +to a man who lived in very close communion with Jehovah, and had learned +thereby to fear none less, because he feared Him so well, and to +reverence all else whom He had set in places of reverence. True courage, +of the pattern which befits God's servants, is ever gentle. Bluster is +the sign of weakness. A Christian hero--and no man will be a Christian +as he ought to be, who has not something of the hero in him--should win +by meekness. Does not the King of all such ride prosperously 'because of +truth and meekness,' and must not the armies which follow Him do the +same? Faithful witnessing to men of their sins need not be rude, harsh, +or self-asserting. But we must live much in fellowship with the Lord of +all the meek and the pattern of all patient sufferers and faithful +witnesses, if we are ever to be like Him, or even like His pale shadow +as seen in this meek prophet. The fountains of strength and of patience +spring side by side at the foot of the cross. + +III. We have the weak Zedekiah, with his pitiable vacillation. He had +been Nebuchadnezzar's nominee, and had served him for some years, and +then rebelled. His whole career indicates a feeble nature, taking the +impression of anything which was strongly laid on it. He was a king of +putty, when the times demanded one of iron. He was cowed by the +'princes.' Sometimes he was afraid to disobey Jeremiah, and then afraid +to let his masters know that he was so. Thus he sends for the prophet +stealthily, and his first question opens a depth of conflict in his +soul. He did believe that the prophet spoke the word of Jehovah, and yet +he could not muster up courage to follow his convictions and go against +the princes and the mob. He wanted another 'word' from Jehovah, by which +he meant a word of another sort than the former. He could not bring his +mind to obey the word which he had, and so he weakly hoped that perhaps +God's word might be changed into one that he would be willing to obey. +Many men are, like him, asking, 'Is there any word from the Lord?' and +meaning, 'Is there any change in the condition of receiving His favour?' + +He had interest enough in the prophet to interfere for his comfort, and +to have him put into better quarters in the palace and provided with a +'circle' (a round loaf) of bread out of Baker Street, as long as there +was any in the city--not a very long time. But why did he do so much, +and not do more? He knew that Jeremiah was innocent, and that his word +was God's; and what he should have done was to have shaken off his +masterful 'servants,' followed his conscience, and obeyed God. Why did +he not? Because he was a coward, infirm of purpose, and therefore +'unstable as water.' + +He is another of the tragic examples, with which all life as well as +scripture is studded, of how much evil is possible to a weak character. +In this world, where there are so many temptations to be bad, no man +will be good who cannot strongly say 'No.' The virtue of strength of +will may be but like the rough fence round young trees to keep cattle +from browsing on them and east winds from blighting them. But the fence +is needed, if the trees are to grow. 'To be weak is to be miserable,' +and sinful too, generally. 'Whom resist' must be the motto for all +noble, God-like, and God-pleasing life. + + + + +THE LAST AGONY + +'In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came +Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and +they besieged it. 2. And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth +month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up. 3. And all +the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate, +even Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarse-chim, Rab-saris, +Nergal-sharezer, Rab-mag, with all the residue of the princes of the +king of Babylon. 4. And it came to pass, that when Zedekiah the king of +Judah saw them, and all the men of war, then they fled, and went forth +out of the city by night, by the way of the king's garden, by the gate +betwixt the two walls: and he went out the way of the plain. 5. But the +Chaldeans' army pursued after them, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains +of Jericho; and when they had taken him, they brought him up to +Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he +gave judgment upon him. 6. Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of +Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes: also the king of Babylon slew all +the nobles of Judah. 7. Moreover he put out Zedekiah's eyes, and bound +him with chains, to carry him to Babylon. 8. And the Chaldeans burned +the king's house, and the houses of the people, with fire, and brake +down the walls of Jerusalem. 9. Then Nebuzar-adan the captain of the +guard carried away captive into Babylon the remnant of the people that +remained in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to him, with +the rest of the people that remained. 10. But Nebuzar-adan the captain +of the guard left of the poor of the people, which had nothing, in the +land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time.'-- +JER. xxxix. 1-10. + + +Two characteristics of this account of the fall of Jerusalem are +striking,--its minute particularity, giving step by step the details of +the tragedy, and its entire suppression of emotion. The passionless +record tells the tale without a tear or a sob. For these we must go to +the Book of Lamentations. This is the history of God's judgment, and +here emotion would be misplaced. But there is a world of repressed +feeling in the long-drawn narrative, as well as in the fact that three +versions of the story are given here (chap, lii., 2 Kings xxv.). Sorrow +curbed by submission, and steadily gazing on God's judicial act, is the +temper of the narrative. It should be the temper of all sufferers. 'I +was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.' But we may note +the three stages in the final agony which this section distinguishes. + +I. There is the entrance of the enemy. Jerusalem fell not by assault, +but by famine. The siege lasted eighteen months, and ended when 'all the +bread in the city was spent.' The pitiful pictures in Lamentations fill +in the details of misery, telling how high-born women picked garbage +from dung-heaps, and mothers made a ghastly meal of their infants, while +the nobles were wasted to skeletons, and the little children piteously +cried for bread. At length a breach was made in the northern wall (as +Josephus tells us, 'at midnight'), and through it, on the ninth day of +the fourth month (corresponding to July), swarmed the conquerors, +unresisted. The commanders of the Babylonians planted themselves at 'the +middle gate,' probably a gate in the wall between the upper and lower +city, so securing for them the control of both. + +How many of these fierce soldiers are named in verse 3? At first sight +there seem to be six, but that number must be reduced by at least two, +for Rab-saris and Rab-mag are official titles, and designate the offices +(chief eunuch and chief magician) of the two persons whose names they +respectively follow. Possibly Samgar-Nebo is also to be deducted, for it +has been suggested that, as that name stands, it is anomalous, and it +has been proposed to render its first element, _Samgar_, as meaning +_cup-bearer_, and being the official title attached to the name +preceding it; while its second part, _Nebo_, is regarded as the first +element in a new name obtained by reading _shashban_ instead of +Sarsechim, and attaching that reading to Nebo. This change would bring +verse 3 into accord with verse 13, for in both places we should then +have Nebo-shashban designated as chief of the eunuchs. However the +number of the commanders is settled, and whatever their names, the point +which the historian emphasises is their presence there. Had it come to +this, that men whose very names were invocations of false gods ('Nergal +protect the king,' 'Nebo delivers me' if we read 'Nebo-shashban,' or 'Be +gracious, Nebo,' if Samgar-nebo) should sit close by the temple, and +have their talons fixed in the Holy City? + +These intruders were all unconscious of the meaning of their victory, +and the tragedy of their presence there. They thought that they were +Nebuchadnezzar's servants, and had captured for him, at last, an +obstinate little city, which had given more trouble than it was worth. +Its conquest was but a drop in the bucket of his victories. How little +they knew that they were serving that Jehovah whom they thought that +Nebo had conquered in their persons! How little they knew that they were +the instruments of the most solemn act of judgment in the world's +history till then! + +The causes which led to the fall of Jerusalem could be reasonably set +forth as purely political without a single reference to Israel's sins or +God's judgment; but none the less was its capture the divine punishment +of its departure from Him, and none the less were Nergal-sharezer and +his fellows God's tools, the axes with which He hewed down the barren +tree. So does He work still, in national and individual history. You +may, in a fashion, account for both without bringing Him in at all; but +your philosophy of either will be partial, unless you recognise that +'the history of the world is the judgment of the world.' It was the same +hand which set these harsh conquerors at the middle gate of Jerusalem +that sent the German armies to encamp in the Place de la Concorde in +Paris; and in neither case does the recognition of God in the crash of a +falling throne absolve the victors from the responsibility of their +deeds. + +II. We have the flight and fate of Zedekiah and his evil advisers (vs. +4-7). His weakness of character shows itself to the end. Why was there +no resistance? It would have better beseemed him to have died on his +palace threshold than to have skulked away in the dark between the +shelter of the 'two walls.' But he was a poor weakling, and the curse of +God sat heavy on his soul, though he had tried to put it away. +Conscience made a coward of him; for he, at all events, knew who had set +the strangers by the middle gate. Men who harden heart and conscience +against threatened judgments are very apt to collapse, when the threats +are fulfilled. The frost breaks up with a rapid thaw. + +Ezekiel (Ezek. xii. 12) prophesied the very details of the flight. It +was to be 'in the dark,' the king himself was to 'carry' some of his +valuables, they were to 'dig through' the earthen ramparts; and all +appears to have been literally fulfilled. The flight was taken in the +opposite direction from the entrance of the besiegers; two walls, which +probably ran down the valley between Zion and the temple mount, afforded +cover to the fugitives as far as to the south city wall, and there some +postern let them out to the king's garden. That is a tragic touch. It +was no time then to gather flowers. The forlorn and frightened company +seems to have scattered when once outside the city; for there is a +marked contrast in verse 4 between 'they fled' and 'he went.' In the +description of his flight Zedekiah is still called, as in verses 1 and +2, the king; but after his capture he is only 'Zedekiah.' + +Down the rocky valley of the Kedron he hurried, and had a long enough +start of his pursuers to get to Jericho. Another hour would have seen +him safe across Jordan, but the prospect of escape was only dangled +before his eyes to make capture more bitter. Probably he was too much +absorbed with his misery and fear to feel any additional humiliation +from the mighty memories of the scene of his capture; but how solemnly +fitting it was that the place which had seen Israel's first triumph, +when 'by faith the walls of Jericho fell down,' should witness the +lowest shame of the king who had cast away his kingdom by unbelief! The +conquering dead might have gathered in shadowy shapes to reproach the +weakling and sluggard who had sinned away the heritage which they had +won. The scene of the capture underscores the lesson of the capture +itself; namely, the victorious power of faith, and the defeat and shame +which, in the long-run, are the fruits of an 'evil heart of unbelief, +departing from the living God.' + +That would be a sad march through all the length of the fair land that +had slipped from his slack fingers, up to far-off Riblah, in the great +valley between the Lebanon and the anti-Lebanon. Observe how, in verses +5 and 6, the king of Babylon has his royal title, and Zedekiah has not. +The crown has fallen from his head, and there is no more a king in +Judah. He who had been king now stands chained before the cruel +conqueror. Well might the victor think that Nebo had overcome Jehovah, +but better did the vanquished know that Jehovah had kept his word. + +Cruelty and expediency dictated the savage massacre and mutilation which +followed. The death of Zedekiah's sons, and of the nobles who had +scoffed at Jeremiah's warnings, and the blinding of Zedekiah, were all +measures of precaution as well as of savagery. They diminished the +danger of revolt; and a blind, childless prisoner, without counsellors +or friends, was harmless. But to make the sight of his slaughtered sons +the poor wretch's last sight, was a refinement of gratuitous delight in +torturing. Thus singularly was Ezekiel's enigma solved and harmonised +with its apparent contradictions in Jeremiah's prophecies: 'Yet shall he +not see it, though he shall die there' (Ezek. xii. 13). + +Zedekiah is one more instance of the evil which may come from a weak +character, and of the evil which may fall on it. He had good impulses, +but he could not hold his own against the bad men round him, and so he +stumbled on, not without misgivings, which only needed to be attended to +with resolute determination, in order to have reversed his conduct and +fate. Feeble hands can pull down venerable structures built in happier +times. It takes a David and a Solomon to rear a temple, but a Zedekiah +can overthrow it. + +III. We have the completion of the conquest (vs. 8-10). The first care +of the victors was, of course, to secure themselves, and fires and +crowbars were the readiest way to that end. But the wail in the last +chapter of Lamentations hints at the usual atrocities of the sack of a +city, when brutal lust and as brutal ferocity are let loose. Chapter +lii. shows that the final step in our narrative was separated from the +capture of the city by a month, which was, no doubt, a month of nameless +agonies, horrors, and shame. Then the last drop was added to the bitter +cup, in the deportation of the bulk of the inhabitants, according to the +politic custom of these old military monarchies. What rending of ties, +what weariness and years of long-drawn-out yearning, that meant, can +easily be imagined. The residue left behind to keep the country from +relapsing into waste land was too weak to be dangerous, and too cowed to +dare anything. One knows not who had the sadder lot, the exiles, or the +handful of peasants left to till the fields that had once been their +own, and to lament their brethren gone captives to the far-off land. + +Surely the fall of Jerusalem, though all the agony is calmed ages ago, +still remains as a solemn beacon-warning that the wages of sin is death, +both for nations and individuals; that the threatenings of God's Word +are not idle, but will be accomplished to the utmost tittle; and that +His patience stretches from generation to generation, and His judgments +tarry because He is not willing that any should perish, but that for all +the long-suffering there comes a time when even divine love sees that it +is needful to say 'Now!? and the bolt falls. The solemn word addressed +to Israel has application as real to all Christian churches and +individual souls: 'You only have I known of all the inhabitants of the +earth; therefore I will punish you for your iniquities.' + + + + +EBEDMELECH THE ETHIOPIAN + +'For I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, +but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee: because thou hast put thy +trust in Me, saith the Lord.'--JER. xxxix. 18. + + +Ebedmelech is a singular anticipation of that other Ethiopian eunuch +whom Philip met on the desert road to Gaza. It is prophetic that on the +eve of the fall of the nation, a heathen man should be entering into +union with God. It is a picture in little of the rejection of Israel and +the ingathering of the Gentiles. + +I. The identity in all ages of the bond that unites men to God. + +It is a common notion that faith is peculiar to the New Testament. But +the Old Testament 'trust' is identical with the New Testament 'faith,' +and it is a great pity that the variation in translation has obscured +that identity. The fact of the prominence given to law in the Old +Testament does not affect this. For every effort to keep the law must +have led to consciousness of imperfection, and that consciousness must +have driven to the exercise of penitent trust. The difference of degrees +of revelation does not affect it, for faith is the same, however various +the contents of the creed. + +Note further the personal object of Faith--'in ME.' The object of Faith +is not a proposition but a Person. That Person is the same in the Old +Testament and in the New. The Jehovah of the one is the God in Christ of +the other. Consequently faith must be more than intellectual assent, it +must be voluntary and emotional, the act of the whole man, 'the +synthesis of the reason and the will.' + +II. The contrast of a formal and real union with God. + +The king, prophets, priests, the whole nation, had an outward connection +with Him, but it meant nothing. And this foreigner, a slave, perhaps not +even a proselyte, a eunuch, had what the children of the covenant had +not, a true union with God through Faith. + +Judaism was not an exclusive system, but was intended to bring in the +nations to share in its blessings. Outward descent gave outward place +within the covenant, but the distinction of real and formal place there +was established from the beginning. What else than this is the meaning +of all the threatenings of Deuteronomy? What else did Isaiah mean when +he called the rulers in Jerusalem 'Rulers of Sodom'? Here the fates of +Ebedmelech and of Zedekiah illustrate both sides of the truth. The +danger of trusting in outward possession and of thinking that God's +mercy is our property besets all Churches. Organisations of Christianity +are necessary, but it is impossible to tell the harm that formal +connection with them has done. There is only one bond that unites men to +God--personal trust in Him as 'in Christ reconciling the world to +Himself.' + +III. The possibility of exercising uniting faith even in most +unfavourable circumstances. + +This Ebedmelech had everything against him. The contemptuous exclusion +of him from any share in the covenant might well have discouraged him. +The poorest Jew treated him as a heathen dog, who had no right even to +crumbs from the table spread for the children only. He was plunged into +a sea of godlessness, and saw examples enough of utter carelessness as +to Jehovah in His professed servants to drive him away from a religion +which had so little hold on its professed adherents. The times were +gloomy, and the Jehovah whom Judah professed to worship seemed to have +small power to help His worshippers. It would have been no wonder if the +conduct of the people of Jerusalem had caused the name of Jehovah to be +blasphemed by this Gentile, nor if he had revolted from a religion that +was alleged to be the special property of one race, and that such a +race! But he listened to the cry of his own heart, and to the words of +God's prophet, and his faith pierced through all obstacles--like the +roots of some tree feeling for the water. He found the vitalising +fountain that he sought, and His name stands to all ages as a witness +that no seeking heart, that longs for God, is ever balked in its search, +and that a faith, very imperfect as to its knowledge, may be so strong +as to its substance that it unites him who exercises it with God, while +the possessors of ecclesiastical privileges and of untarnished and +full-orbed orthodox knowledge have no fellowship with Him. + +IV. The safety given by such uniting faith. + +To Ebedmelech, escape from death by the besiegers' swords was promised. +To us a more blessed safety and exemption from a worse destruction are +assured. 'The life which is life indeed' may be ours, and shall +assuredly be ours, if our trust knits us to Him who is the Life, and who +has said 'He that liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.' + + + + +GOD'S PATIENT PLEADINGS + +'I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending +them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate.'--JER. xliv. +4. + + +The long death-agony of the Jewish kingdom has come to an end. The +frivolous levity, which fed itself on illusions and would not be sobered +by facts, has been finally crushed out of the wretched people. The +dreary succession of incompetent kings--now a puppet set up by Egypt, +now another puppet set up by Babylon, has ended with the weak Zedekiah. +The throne of David is empty, and the long line of kings, which numbered +many a strong, wise, holy man, has dwindled into a couple of captives, +one of them blind and both of them paupers on an idolatrous monarch's +bounty. The country is desolate, the bulk of the people exiles, and the +poor handful, who had been left by the conqueror, flitting like ghosts, +or clinging, like domestic animals, to their burnt homes and wasted +plains, have been quarrelling and fighting among themselves, murdering +the Jewish ruler whom Babylon had left them, and then in abject terror +have fled _en masse_ across the border into Egypt, where they are living +wretched lives. What a history that people had gone through since they +had lived on the same soil before! From Moses to Zedekiah, what a story! +From Goshen till now it had been one long tragedy which seems to have at +last reached its fifth act. Nine hundred years have passed, and this is +the issue of them all! + +The circumstances might well stir the heart of the prophet, whose +doleful task it had been to foretell the coming of the storm, who had +had to strip off Judah's delusions and to proclaim its certain fall, and +who in doing so had carried his life in his hand for forty years, and +had never met with recognition or belief. + +Jeremiah had been carried off by the fugitives to Egypt, and there he +made a final effort to win them back to God. He passed before them the +outline of the whole history of the nation, treating it as having +accomplished one stadium--and what does he find? In all these days since +Goshen there has been one monotonous story of vain divine pleadings and +human indifference, God beseeching and Israel turning away--and now at +last the crash, long foretold, never credited, which had been drawing +nearer through all the centuries, has come, and Israel is scattered +among the people. + +Such are the thoughts and emotions that speak in the exquisitely tender +words of our text. It suggests-- + +I. God's antagonism to sin. + +II. The great purpose of all His pleadings. + +III. God's tender and unwearied efforts. + +IV. The obstinate resistance to His tender pleadings. + + * * * * * + +I. God's antagonism to sin. + +It is the one thing in the universe to which He is opposed. Sin is +essentially antagonism to God. People shrink from the thought of God's +hatred of sin, because of-- + +An underestimate of its gravity. Contrast the human views of its +enormity, as shown by men's playing with it, calling it by half-jocose +names and the like, with God's thought of its heinousness. + +A false dread of seeming to attribute human emotions to God. But there +is in God what corresponds to our human feelings, something analogous to +the attitude of a pure human mind recoiling from evil. + +The divine love must necessarily be pure, and the mightier its energy of +forth-going, the mightier its energy of recoil. God's 'hate' is Love +inverted and reverted on itself. A divine love which had in it no +necessity of hating evil would be profoundly immoral, and would be +called devilish more fitly than divine. + +II. The great purpose of the divine pleadings. + +To wean from sin is the main end of prophecy. It is the main end of all +revelation. God must chiefly desire to make His creatures like Himself. +Sin makes a special revelation necessary. Sin determines the form of it. + +III. God's tender and unwearied efforts. + +'Rising early' is a strong metaphor to express persistent effort. The +more obstinate is our indifference, the more urgent are His calls. He +raises His voice as our deafness grows. Mark, too, the tenderness of the +entreaty in this text, 'Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate!' +His hatred of it is adduced as a reason which should touch any heart +that loves Him. He beseeches as if He, too, were saying, 'Though I might +be bold to enjoin thee' that which is fitting, 'yet for love's sake I +rather beseech thee.' The manifestation of His disapproval and the +appeal to our love by the disclosure of His own are the most powerful, +winning and compelling dehortations from sin. Not by brandishing the +whip, not by a stern law written on tables of stone, but by unveiling +His heart, does God win us from our sins. + +IV. The obstinate resistance to God's tender pleadings. + +The tragedy of the nation is summed up in one word, 'They hearkened +not.' + +That power of neglecting God's voice and opposing God's will is the +mystery of our nature. How strange it is that a human will should be +able to lift itself in opposition to the Sovereign Will! But stranger +and more mysterious and tragic still is it that we should choose to +exercise that power and find pleasure, and fancy that we shall ever find +advantage, in refusing to listen to His entreaties and choosing to flout +His uttered will. + +Such opposition was Israel's ruin. It will be ours if we persist in it. +'If God spared not the natural branches, neither will He spare thee.' + + + + +THE SWORD OF THE LORD + +'O thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? put up +thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still. 7. How can it be quiet, +seeing the Lord hath given it a charge?'--JER. xlvii. 6, 7. + + +The prophet is here in the full tide of his prophecies against the +nations round about. This paragraph is entirely occupied with +threatenings. Bearing the cup of woes, he turns to one after another of +the ancestral enemies of Israel, Egypt and Philistia on the south and +west, Moab on the south and east, then northwards to Ammon, south to +Edom, north to Damascus, Kedar, Hagor, Elam, and finally to the great +foe--Babylon. In the hour of Israel's lowest fortunes and the foe's +proudest exultation these predictions are poured out. Jeremiah stands as +if wielding the sword of which our text speaks, and whirls and points +the flashing terror of its sharpened edge against the ring of foes. It +turns every way, like the weapon of the angelic guard before the lost +paradise, and wherever it turns a kingdom falls. + +In the midst of his stern denunciations he checks himself to utter this +plaintive cry of pity and longing. A tender gleam of compassion breaks +through the heart of the thunder-cloud. It is very beautiful to note +that the point at which the irrepressible welling up of sweet waters +breaks the current of his prophecy is the prediction against Israel's +bitterest, because nearest, foe, 'these uncircumcised Philistines.' He +beholds the sea of wrath drowning the great Philistine plain, its rich +harvests trampled under foot by 'stamping of hoofs of his strong ones,' +and that desolation wrings from his heart the words of our text. I take +them to be spoken by the prophet. That, of course, is doubtful. It may +be that they are meant to give in a vivid dramatic form the effect of +the judgments on the sufferers. They recognise these as 'the sword of +the Lord.' Their only thought is an impatient longing that the judgments +would cease,--no confession of sin, no humbling of them selves, but +only--'remove Thy hand from us.' + +And the answer is either the prophet's or the divine voice; spoken in +the one case to himself, in the other to the Philistines; but in either +setting forth the impossibility that the sweeping sword should rest, +since it is the instrument in God's hand, executing His charge and +fulfilling His appointment. + +I. The shrinking from the unsheathed sword of the Lord. + +We may deal with the words as representing very various states of mind. + +They may express the impatience of sufferers. Afflictions are too often +wasted. Whatever the purpose of chastisement, the true lesson of it is +so seldom learned, even in regard to the lowest wisdom it is adapted to +teach. In an epidemic, how few people learn to take precautions, such as +cleanliness or attention to diet! In hard times commercially, how slow +most are to learn the warning against luxury, over-trading, haste to be +rich! And in regard to higher lessons, men have a dim sense sometimes +that the blow comes from God, but, like Balaam, go on their way in spite +of the angel with the sword. It does not soften, nor restrain, nor drive +to God. The main result is, impatient longing for its removal. + +The text may express the rooted dislike to the thought and the fact of +punishment as an element in divine government. This is a common phase of +feeling always, and especially so now. There is a present tendency, good +in many aspects, but excessive, to soften away the thought of +punishment; or to suppose that God's punishments must have the same +purposes as men's. We cannot punish by way of retribution, for no +balance of ours is fine enough to weigh motives or to determine +criminality. Our punishments can only be deterrent or reformatory, but +this is by reason of our weakness. He has other objects in view. + +Current ideas of the love of God distort it by pitting it against His +retributive righteousness. Current ideas of sin diminish its gravity by +tracing it to heredity or environment, or viewing it as a necessary +stage in progress. The sense of God's judicial action is paralysed and +all but dead in multitudes. + +All these things taken together set up a strong current of opinion +against any teaching of punitive energy in God. + +The text may express the pitying reluctance of the prophet. + +Jeremiah is remarkable for the weight with which 'the burden of the +Lord' pressed upon him. The true prophet feels the pang of the woes +which he is charged to announce more than his hearers do. + +Unfair charges are made against gospel preachers, as if they delighted +in the thought of the retribution which they have to proclaim. + +II. The solemn necessity for the unsheathing of the sword. + +The judgments must go on. In the text the all-sufficient reason given is +that God has willed it so. But we must take into account all that lies +in that name of 'Lord' before we understand the message, which brought +patience to the heart of the prophet. If a Jewish prophet believed +anything, he believed that the will of the Lord was absolutely good. +Jeremiah's reason for the flashing sword is no mere beating down human +instincts, by alleging a will which is sovereign, and there an end. We +have to take into account the whole character of Him who has willed it, +and then we can discern it to be inevitable that God should punish evil. + +His character makes it inevitable. God's righteousness cannot but hate +sin and fight against it. To leave it unpunished stains His glory. + +God's love cannot but draw and wield the sword. It is unsheathed in the +interests of all that is 'lovely and of good report.' If God is God at +all, and not an almighty devil, He must hate sin. The love and the +righteousness, which in deepest analysis are one, must needs issue in +punishment. There would be a blight over the universe if they did not. + +The very order of the universe makes it inevitable. All things, as +coming from Him, must work for His lovers and against His enemies, as +'the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.' + +The constitution of men makes it inevitable. Sin brings its own +punishment, in gnawing conscience, defiled memories, incapacity for +good, and many other penalties. + +It is to be remembered that the text originally referred to retribution +on nations for national sins, and that what Jeremiah regarded as the +strokes of the Lord might be otherwise regarded as political +catastrophes. Let us not overlook that application of the principles of +the text. Scripture regards the so-called 'natural consequences' of a +nation's sins as God's judgments on them. The Christian view of the +government of the world looks on all human affairs as moved by God, +though done by men. It takes full account of the responsibility of men +the doers, but above all, recognises 'the rod and Him who hath appointed +it.' We see exemplified over and over again in the world's history the +tragic truth that the accumulated consequences of a nation's sins fall +on the heads of a single generation. Slowly, drop by drop, the cup is +filled. Slowly, moment by moment, the hand moves round the dial, and +then come the crash and boom of the hammer on the deep-toned bell. Good +men should pray not, 'Put up thyself into thy scabbard,' but, 'Gird Thy +sword on Thy thigh, O thou most mighty... on behalf of truth and +meekness and righteousness.' + +III. The sheathing of the sword. + +The passionate appeal in the text, which else is vain, has in large +measure its satisfaction in the work of Christ. + +God does not delight in punishment. He has provided a way. Christ bears +the consequence of man's sin, the sense of alienation, the pains and +sorrows, the death. He does not bear them for Himself. His bearing them +accomplishes the ends at which punishment aims, in expressing the divine +hatred of sin and in subduing the heart. Trusting in Him, the sword does +not fall on us. In some measure indeed it still does. But it is no +longer a sword to smite, but a lancet to inflict a healing wound. And +the worst punishment does not fall on us. God's sword was sheathed in +Christ's breast. So trust in Him, then shall you have 'boldness in the +day of judgment.' + + + + +THE KINSMAN-REDEEMER + +'Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of Hosts is His name: He shall +thoroughly plead their cause.'--JER. l. 34. + + +Among the remarkable provisions of the Mosaic law there were some very +peculiar ones affecting the next-of-kin. The nearest living blood +relation to a man had certain obligations and offices to discharge, +under certain contingencies, in respect of which he received a special +name; which is sometimes translated in the Old Testament 'Redeemer,' and +sometimes 'Avenger' of blood. What the etymological signification of the +word may be is, perhaps, somewhat doubtful. It is taken by some +authorities to come from a word meaning 'to set free.' But a +consideration of the offices which the law prescribed for the 'Goel' is +of more value for understanding the peculiar force of the metaphor in +such a text as this, than any examination of the original meaning of the +word. Jehovah is represented as having taken upon Himself the functions +of the next-of-kin, and is the Kinsman-Redeemer of His people. The same +thought recurs frequently in the Old Testament, especially in the second +half of the prophecies of Isaiah, and it were much to be desired that +the Revised Version had adopted some means of showing an English reader +the instances, since the expression suggests a very interesting and +pathetic view of God's relation to His people. + +I. Let me state briefly the qualifications and offices of the kinsman- +redeemer, _'the Goel.'_ + +The qualifications may be all summed up in one--that he must be the +nearest blood relation of the person whose Goel he was. He might be +brother, or less nearly related, but this was essential, that of all +living men, he was the most closely connected. That qualification has to +be kept well in mind when thinking of the transference of the office to +God in His relation to Israel, and through Israel to us. + +Such being his qualification, what were his duties? Mainly three. The +first was connected with property, and is thus stated in the words of +the law, 'If thy brother be waxen poor, and sell some of his possession, +then shall his _kinsman_ that is next unto him come, and shall redeem +that which his brother hath sold' (Lev. xxv. 25, R. V.). The Mosaic law +was very jealous of large estates. The prophet pronounced a curse upon +those who joined 'land to land, and field to field... that they may be +alone in the midst of the earth.' One great purpose steadily kept in +view in all the Mosaic land-laws was the prevention of the alienation of +the land from its original holders, and of its accumulation in a few +hands. The idea underlying the law was that of the tribal or family +ownership--or rather occupancy, for God was the owner and Israel but a +tenant--and not individual possession. That thought carries us back to a +social state long since passed away, but of which traces are still left +even among ourselves. It was carried out thoroughly in the law of Moses, +however imperfectly in actual practice. The singular institution of the +year of Jubilee operated, among other effects, to check the acquisition +of large estates. It provided that land which had been alienated was to +revert to its original occupants, and so, in substance, prohibited +purchase and permitted only the lease of land for a maximum term of +fifty years. We do not know how far its enactments were a dead letter, +but their spirit and intention were obviously to secure the land of the +tribe to the tribe for ever, to keep the territory of each distinct, to +discourage the creation of a landowning class, with its consequent +landless class, to prevent the extremes of poverty and wealth, and to +perpetuate a diffused, and nearly uniform, modest wellbeing amongst a +pastoral and agricultural community, and to keep all in mind that the +land was 'not to be sold for ever, for it is Mine,' saith the Lord. + +The obligation on the next-of-kin to buy back alienated property was +quite as much imposed on him for the sake of the family as of the +individual. + +The second of his duties was to buy back a member of his family fallen +into slavery. 'If a stranger or sojourner with thee be waxen rich, and +thy brother be waxen poor beside him, and sell himself unto the +stranger... after that he is sold, he may be redeemed; one of his +brethren may redeem him.' The price was to vary according to the time +which had to elapse before the year of Jubilee, when all slaves were +necessarily set free. So Hebrew slavery was entirely unlike the thing +called by the same name in other countries, and by virtue of this power +of purchase at any time, which was vested in the nearest relative, taken +along with the compulsory manumission of all 'slaves' every fiftieth +year, came to be substantially a voluntary engagement for a fixed time, +which might be ended even before that time had expired, if compensation +for the unexpired term was made to the master. + +It is to be observed that this provision applied only to the case of a +Hebrew who had sold himself. No other person could sell a man into +slavery. And it applied only to the case of a Hebrew who had sold +himself to a foreigner. No Jew was allowed to hold a Jew as a slave. 'If +thy brother be waxen poor with thee, and sell himself unto thee, thou +shalt not make him to serve as a bondservant: as an hired servant, and +as a sojourner, he shall be with thee.' (Lev. xxv. 39, R. V.). + +The last of the offices of the kinsman-redeemer was that of avenging the +blood of a murdered relative. If a man were stricken to death, it became +a solemn obligation to exact life for life, and the blood-feud incumbent +on all the family was especially binding on the next-of-kin. The +obligation shocks a modern mind, accustomed to relegate all punishment +to the action of law which no criminal thinks of resisting. But customs +and laws are unfairly estimated when the state of things which they +regulated is forgotten or confused with that of today. The law of +blood-feud among the Hebrews was all in the direction of restricting the +wild justice of revenge, and of entrusting it to certain chosen persons +out of the kindred of the murdered man. The savage vendetta was too +deeply engrained in the national habits to be done away with altogether. +All that was for the time possible was to check and systematise it, and +this was done by the institution in question, which did not so much put +the sword into the hand of the next-of-kin as strike it out of the hand +of all the rest of the clan. + +These, then, were the main parts of the duty of the Goel, the kinsman- +redeemer--buying back the alienated land, purchasing the freedom of the +man who had voluntarily sold himself as a slave, and avenging the +slaying of a kinsman. + +II. Notice the grand mysterious transference of this office to Jehovah. + +This singular institution was gradually discerned to be charged with +lofty meaning and to be capable of being turned into a dim shadowing of +something greater than itself. You will find that God begins to be +spoken of in the later portions of Scripture as the Kinsman-Redeemer. I +reckon eighteen instances, of which thirteen are in the second half of +Isaiah. The reference is, no doubt, mainly to the great deliverance from +captivity in Egypt and Babylon, but the thought sweeps a much wider +circle and goes much deeper down than these historical facts. There was +in it some dim feeling that though God was separated from them by all +the distance between finitude and infinitude, yet they were nearer to +Him than to any one else; that the nearest living relation whom these +poor persecuted Jews had was the Lord of Hosts, beneath whose wings they +might come to trust. Therefore does the prophet kindle into rapture and +triumphant confidence as he thinks that the Lord of Hosts, mighty, +unspeakable, high above our thoughts, our words, or our praise, is +Israel's Kinsman, and, therefore, their Redeemer. How profound a +consciousness that man was made in the image of God, and that, in spite +of all the gulf between finite and infinite, and the yet deeper gulf +between sinful man and righteous God, He was closer to a poor struggling +soul than even the dearest were, must have been at all events dawning on +the prophet who dared to think of the Holy One in the Heavens as +Israel's Kinsman. No doubt, he was dwelling mostly on historical outward +deliverances wrought for the nation, and his idea of Israel's kinship to +God applied to the people, not to individuals, and meant chiefly that +the nation had been chosen for God's. But still the thought must have +been felt to be great and wonderful, and some faint apprehension of the +yet deeper sense in which it is true that God is the next-of-kin to +every soul and ready to be its Redeemer, would no doubt begin to be +felt. + +The deepening of the idea from a reference to external and national +deliverances, and the large, dim hopes which clustered round it, may be +illustrated by one or two significant instances. Take, for example, that +mysterious and very beautiful utterance in the Book of Job, where the +man, in the very depth of his despair, and just because there is not a +human being that has any drop of pity for him, turns from earth, and +striking confidence out of his very despair, like fire from flint, sees +there his Kinsman-Redeemer. 'I know that my Redeemer liveth.' Men may +mock him, friends may turn against him, the wife of his bosom may tempt +him, comforters may pour vitriol instead of oil into his wounds, yet he, +sitting on his dunghill there, poverty-stricken and desolate, knows that +God is of kin to him, and will do the kinsman's part by him. The very +metaphor implies that the divine intervention which he expects is to +take place after his death. It was a dead man whose blood the Goel +avenged. Thus the view which sees in the subsequent words a hope, +however dim and undefined, of an experience of a divine manifestation on +his behalf beyond the grave is the only one which gives its full force +to the central idea of the passage, as well as to the obscure individual +expressions. Most strikingly, then, he goes on to say, carrying out the +allusion, 'and that he shall stand at the last upon the dust.' Little +did it boot the murdered man, lying there stark, with the knife in his +bosom, that the murderer should be slain by the swift justice of his +kinsman-avenger, but Job felt that, in some mysterious way, God would +appear for him, after he had been laid in the dust, and that he would +somehow share in the gladness of His manifestation--for he believes that +'without his flesh' he will see God, 'whom I shall see for myself, and +mine eyes shall behold, and not another.' Large and mysterious hopes are +gathering round the metaphor, which flash some light into the darkness +of the grave, and give to the troubled soul the assurance that when life +with all its troubles is past, and flesh has seen corruption, the inmost +personal being of every man who commits his cause to God will behold Him +coming forth his Kinsman-Redeemer. + +Another illustration of the hopes which gathered round this image is +found in the great psalm which prophesies of the true King of Peace, in +language too wide for any poetical licence to warrant if intended only +to describe a Jewish king (Ps. lxxii. 14). The universal dominion of +this great King is described in terms which, though they may be partly +referred to the Jewish monarchy at its greatest expansion, sweep far +beyond its bounds in exulting anticipation that 'all kings shall fall +down before Him, all nations shall serve Him.' The reason for this +world-wide dominion is not military power, as was the case with the +warrior kings of old, who bound nations together for a little while in +an artificial unity with iron chains, but His dominion is universal, +'_for_ He shall deliver the needy when he crieth,...He shall _redeem_ +their souls from oppression and violence, and precious shall their blood +be in His sight.' Two of the functions of the Kinsman-Redeemer are here +united. He buys back slaves from their tyrannous masters, and He avenges +their shed blood. And because His Kingdom is a kingdom of gentle pity +and loving help, because He is of the same blood with His subjects, and +brings liberty to the captives, therefore it is universal and +everlasting. For the strongest thing in all the world is love, and He +who can staunch men's wounds, and will hear their cries and help them, +will rule them with authority which conquerors cannot wield. + +This universal King, the kinsman and the sovereign of all the needy, is +not God. A human figure is rising before the prophet-psalmist's eye, +whose meekness as well as His majesty, and whose kingdom as well as His +redeeming power, seem to pass beyond human limits. Divine offices seem +to be devolved on a man's shoulders. Dim hopes are springing which point +onwards. So that great psalm leads us a step further. + +III. See the perfect fulfilment of this divine office by the man Christ +Jesus. + +Job's anticipation and the psalmist's rapturous vision are fulfilled in +the Incarnate Word, in whom God comes near to us all and makes Himself +kindred to our flesh, that He may discharge all those blessed offices, +of redeeming from slavery, of recovering our alienated inheritance, and +of guarding our lives, which demand at once divine power and human +nearness. Christ is our Kinsman. True, the divine nature and the human +are nearly allied, so that even apart from the Incarnation, men may feel +that none is so truly and closely akin to them as their Father in Heaven +is. But how much more blessed than even that kinship is the +consanguinity of Christ, who is doubly of kin to each soul of man, both +because in His true manhood He is bone of our bone and flesh of our +flesh, and because in His divinity He is nearer to us than the closest +human kindred can ever be. By both He comes so near to us that we may +clasp Him by our faith, and rest upon Him, and have Him for our nearest +friend, our brother. He is nearer to each of us than our dearest is. He +loves us with the love of kindred, and can fill our hearts and wills, +and help our weakness in better, more inward ways than all sympathy and +love of human hearts can do. Between the atoms of the densest of +material bodies there is an interspace of air, as is shown by the fact +that everything is compressible if you can find the force sufficient to +compress it. That is to say, in the material universe no particle +touches another. And so in the spiritual region, there is an awful film +of separation between each of us and all others, however closely we may +be united. We each live on our own little island in the deep, 'with +echoing straits between us thrown.' We have a solemn consciousness of +personality, of responsibility unshared by any, of a separate destiny +parting us from our dearest. Arms may be twined, but they must be +unlinked some day, and each in turn must face the awful solitude of +death, as each has really faced that scarcely less awful solitude of +life, alone. But 'he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit,' and our +kinsman, Christ, will come so near to us, that we shall be in Him and He +in us, one spirit and one life. He is your nearest relation, nearer than +husband, wife, parent, brother, sister, or friend. He is nearer to you +than your very selves. He is your better self. That is His qualification +for His office. + +Because He is man's kinsman, He buys back His enslaved brethren. The +bondage from which 'one of His brethren' might 'redeem' the Israelite +was a voluntary bondage into which he had sold himself. And such is our +slavery. None can rob us of our freedom but ourselves. The world and the +flesh and the devil cannot put their chains on us unless our own wills +hold out our hands for the manacles. + +And, alas! it is often an unsuspected slavery. 'How sayest thou, ye +shall be made free. We were never in bondage to any man,' boasted the +angry disputants with Christ. And if they had lifted up their eyes they +might have seen from the Temple courts in which they stood, the citadel +full of Roman soldiers, and perhaps the golden eagles gleaming in the +sunshine on the loftiest battlements. Yet with that strange power of +ignoring disagreeable facts they dared to assert their freedom. 'Never +in bondage to any man!'--what about Egypt, and Assyria, and Babylon? Had +there never been an Antiochus? Was Rome a reality? Did it lay no yoke on +them? Was it all a dream? + +Some of us are just as foolish, and try as desperately to annihilate +facts by ignoring them, and to make ourselves free by passionately +denying that we are slaves. But 'he that committeth sin is the slave of +sin.' That sounds a paradox. I am master of my own actions, you may say, +and never freer than when I break the bonds of right and duty and choose +to do what is contrary to them, for no reason on earth but because I +choose. That is liberty, emancipation from the burdensome restraints +which your narrow preaching about law and conscience would impose. Yes, +you are masters of your actions, and your sinful actions very soon +become masters of you. Do we not know that that is true? You fall into, +or walk into a habit, and then it gets the mastery of you, and you +cannot get rid of it. Whosoever sets his foot upon that slippery +inclined plane of wrongdoing, after he has gone a little way, +gravitation is too much for him and away he goes down the hill. +'Whosoever committeth sin is the slave of sin.' Did you ever try to kill +a bad habit, a vice? Did you find it easy work? Was it not your master? +You thought that a chain no stronger than a spider's web was round your +wrist till you tried to break it; and then you found it a chain of +adamant. Many men who boast themselves free are 'tied and bound with the +cords of their sins.' + +Dreaming of freedom, you have sold yourself, and that 'for nought.' Is +that not true, tragically true? + +What have you made out of sin? Is the game worth the candle? Will it +continue to be so? Ye shall be redeemed without money, for Jesus Christ +laid down His life for you and me, that by His death we might receive +forgiveness and deliverance from the power of sin. And so your Kinsman, +nearer to you than all else, has bought you back. Do not refuse the +offered emancipation, but 'if thou mayest be made free, use it rather.' +Be not like the spiritless slaves, for whose servile choice the law +provided, who had rather remain bond than go out free. Surely when +Christ calls you to liberty, you will not turn from Him to the tyrannous +masters whom you have served, and, like the Hebrew slave, let them +fasten you to their door-posts with their awl through your ear. Do you +hug your chains and prefer your bondage? + +Your Kinsman-Redeemer brings back your squandered inheritance, which is +God. God is the only possession that makes a man rich. He alone is worth +calling 'my portion.' It is only when we have God in our hearts, God in +our heads, God in our souls, God in our life--it is only when we love +Him, and think about Him, and obey Him, and bring our characters into +harmony with Him, and so possess Him--it is only then that we become +truly rich. No other possession corresponds to our capacities so as to +fill up all our needs and satisfy all our being. No other possession +passes into our very substance and becomes inseparable from ourselves. +So the mystical fervour of the psalmist's devotion spoke a simple prose +truth when he exclaimed, 'The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance +and of my cup.' + +We have squandered our inheritance. We have sinned away fellowship with +God. We have flung away our true wealth, 'wasted our substance in +riotous living.' And here is our Elder Brother, our nearest relative, +who has always been with the Father; but who, instead of grudging the +prodigals their fatted calf and their hearty welcome when they come +back, has Himself, by the sacrifice of Himself, won for them the +inheritance, its earnest in the possession of God's spirit here and its +completion in the broad fields of 'the inheritance of the saints in +light,' the entire fruition and possession of the divine in the life to +come. 'If children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with +Christ.' + +Your Kinsman-Redeemer will keep your lives under His care, and be ready +to plead your cause. 'He that touches you, touches the apple of Mine +eye.' 'He reproved kings for their sake, saying, Touch not Mine +anointed.' Not in vain does the cry go up to Him, 'Avenge, O Lord, Thy +slaughtered saints,'--and if no apparent retribution has followed, and +if often His servant's blood seems to have been shed in vain, still we +know that it has often been the seed of the Church, and that He who puts +our tears into His bottle will not count our blood less precious in His +sight. So we may rest confident that our Kinsman-Redeemer will charge +Himself with pleading our cause and intervening in our behalf, that He +will compass us about with His protection, and that we are knit so close +to Him that our woes and foes are His, and that we cannot die as long as +He lives. + +So, dear brethren, be sure of this, that if only you will take Christ +for your Saviour and brother, your Helper and Friend, if only you will +rest yourself upon that complete sacrifice which He has made for the +sins of the world, He will give you liberty, and restore your lost +inheritance, and your blood shall be precious in His sight, and He will +keep His hand around you and preserve you; and finally will bring you +into His home and yours. 'In Him we have redemption through His blood,' +and He comes to every one of you now, even through my poor lips, with +His ancient word of merciful invitation: 'Behold! I have blotted out as +a cloud thy sins and as a thick cloud thy transgressions. Turn unto Me, +for I have redeemed thee.' + + + + +'AS SODOM' + +'Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he +reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal the +daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 2. And he did that which was evil in the +eyes of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. 3. For +through the anger of the Lord it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, +till he had cast them out from his presence, that Zedekiah rebelled +against the king of Babylon. 4. And it came to pass, in the ninth year +of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that +Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against +Jerusalem, and pitched against it, and built forts against it round +about. 5. So the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king +Zedekiah. 6. And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the +famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people +of the land. 7. Then the city was broken up, and all the men of war +fled, and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate +between the two walls, which was by the king's garden; (now the +Chaldeans were by the city round about) and they went by the way of the +plain. 8. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and +overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was +scattered from him. 9. Then they took the king, and carried him up unto +the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; where he gave +judgment upon him. 10. And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah +before his eyes: he slew also all the princes of Judah in Riblah. 11. +Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him +in chains, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the +day of his death.'--JER. lii. 1-11. + + +This account of the fall of Jerusalem is all but identical with that in +2 Kings xxv. It was probably taken thence by some editor of Jeremiah's +prophecies, perhaps Baruch, who felt the appropriateness of appending to +these the verification of them in that long-foretold and disbelieved +judgment. + +The absence of every expression of emotion is most striking. In one +sentence the wrath of God is pointed to as the cause of all; and, for +the rest, the tragic facts which wrung the writer's heart are told in +brief, passionless sentences, which sound liker the voice of the +recording angel than that of a man who had lived through the misery +which he recounts. The Book of Lamentations weeps and sobs with the +grief of the devout Jew; but the historian smothers feeling while he +tells of God's righteous judgment. + +Zedekiah owed his throne to 'the king of Babylon,' and, at first, was +his obedient vassal, himself going to Babylon (Jer. li. 59) and swearing +allegiance (Ezek. xvii. 13). But rebellion soon followed, and the +perjured young king once more pursued the fatal, fascinating policy of +alliance with Egypt. There could be but one end to that madness, and, of +course, the Chaldean forces soon appeared to chastise this presumptuous +little monarch, who dared to defy the master of the world. Our narrative +curtails its account of Zedekiah's reign, bringing into strong relief +only the two facts of his following Jehoiakim's evil ways, and his +rebellion against Babylon. But behind the rash, ignorant young man, it +sees God working, and traces all the insane bravado by which he was +ruining his kingdom and himself to God's 'wrath,' not thereby +diminishing Zedekiah's responsibility for his own acts, but declaring +that his being 'given over to a reprobate mind' was the righteous divine +punishment for past sin. + +An eighteen months' agony is condensed into three verses (Jer. lii. 4- +6), in which the minute care to specify dates pathetically reveals the +depth of the impression which the first appearance of the besieging army +made, and the deeper wound caused by the city's fall. The memory of +these days has not faded yet, for both are still kept as fasts by the +synagogue. We look with the narrator's eye at the deliberate massing of +the immense besieging force drawing its coils round the doomed city, +like a net round a deer, and mark with him the piling of the mounds, and +the erection on them of siege-towers. We hear of no active siege +operations till the final assault. Famine was Nebuchadnezzar's best +general. 'Sitting down they watched' _her_ 'there,' and grimly waited +till hunger became unbearable. We can fill up much of the outline in +this narrative from the rest of Jeremiah, which gives us a vivid and +wretched picture of imbecility, divided counsels, and mad hatred of +God's messenger, blind refusal to see facts, and self-confidence which +no disaster could abate. And, all the while, the monstrous serpent was +slowly tightening its folds round the struggling, helpless rabbit. We +have to imagine all the misery. + +The narrative hurries on to its close. What widespread and long-drawn- +out privation that one sentence covers: 'The famine was sore in the +city, so that there was no bread for the people'! Lamentations is full +of the cries of famished children and mothers who eat the fruit of their +own bodies. At last, on the memorable black day, the ninth of the fourth +month (say July), 'a breach was made,' and the Chaldean forces poured in +through it. Jeremiah xxxix. 3 tells the names of the Babylonian officers +who 'sat in the middle gate' of the Temple, polluting it with their +presence. There seems to have been no resistance from the enfeebled, +famished people; but apparently some of the priests were slain in the +sanctuary, perhaps in the act of defending it from the entrance of the +enemy. The Chaldeans would enter from the north, and, while they were +establishing themselves in the Temple, Zedekiah 'and all the men of war' +fled, stealing out of the city by a covered way between two walls, on +the south side, and leaving the city to the conqueror, without striking +a blow. They had talked large when danger was not near; but braggarts +are cowards, and they thought now of nothing but their own worthless +lives. Then, as always, the men who feared God feared nothing else, and +the men who scoffed at the day of retribution, when it was far off, were +unmanned with terror when it dawned. + +The investment had not been complete on the southern side, and the +fugitives got away across Kedron and on to the road to Jericho, their +purpose, no doubt, being to put the Jordan between them and the enemy. +One can picture that stampede down the rocky way, the anxious looks cast +backwards, the confusion, the weariness, the despair when the rush of +the pursuers overtook the famine-weakened mob. In sight of Jericho, +which had witnessed the first onset of the irresistible desert-hardened +host under Joshua, the last king of Israel, deserted by his army, was +'taken in their pits,' as hunters take a wild beast. The march to +Riblah, in the far north, would be full of indignities arid of physical +suffering. The soldiers of that 'bitter and hasty' nation would not +spare him one insult or act of cruelty, and he had a tormentor within +worse than they. 'Why did I not listen to the prophet? What a fool I +have been! If I had only my time to come over again, how differently I +would do!' The miserable self-reproaches, which shoot their arrows into +our hearts when it is too late, would torture Zedekiah, as they will +sooner or later do to all who did not listen to God's message while +there was yet time. The sinful, mad past kept him company on one hand; +and, on the other, there attended him a dark, if doubtful, future. He +knew that he was at the disposal of a fierce conqueror, whom he had +deeply incensed, and who had little mercy. 'What will become of me when +I am face to face with Nebuchadnezzar? Would that I had kept subject to +him!' A past gone to ruin, a present honey-combed with gnawing remorse +and dread, a future threatening, problematical, but sure to be penal-- +these were what this foolish young king had won by showing his spirit +and despising Jeremiah's warnings, It is always a mistake to fly in the +face of God's commands. All sin is folly, and every evildoer might say +with poor Robert Burns: + + 'I backward cast my e'e + On prospects drear! + An' forward, tho' I canna see, + I guess an' fear.' + +Nebuchadnezzar was in Riblah, away up in the north, waiting the issue +of the campaign. Zedekiah was nothing to him but one of the many +rebellious vassals of whom he had to make an example lest rebellion +should spread, and who was especially guilty because he was +Nebuchadnezzar's own nominee, and had sworn allegiance. Policy and his +own natural disposition reinforced by custom dictated his barbarous +punishment meted to the unfortunate kinglet of the petty kingdom that +had dared to perk itself up against his might. How little he knew that +he was the executioner of God's decrees! How little the fact that he was +so, diminished his responsibility for his cruelty! The savage practice +of blinding captive kings, so as to make them harmless and save all +trouble with them, was very common. Zedekiah was carried to Babylon, and +thus was fulfilled Ezekiel's enigmatical prophecy, 'I will bring him to +Babylon,... yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there' (Ezek. +xii. 13). + +The fall of Jerusalem should teach us that a nation is a moral whole, +capable of doing evil and of receiving retribution, and not a mere +aggregation of individuals. It should teach us that transgression does +still, though not so directly or certainly as in the case of Israel, sap +the strength of kingdoms; and that to-day, as truly as of old, +'righteousness exalteth a nation.' It should accustom us to look on +history as not only the result of visible forces, but as having behind +it, and reaching its end through the visible forces, the unseen hand of +God. For Christians, the vision of the Apocalypse contains the ultimate +word on 'the philosophy of history.' It is 'the Lamb before the Throne,' +who opens the roll with the seven seals, and lets the powers of whom it +speaks loose for their march through the world. It should teach us God's +long-suffering patience and loving efforts to escape the necessity of +smiting, and also God's rigid justice, which will not shrink from +smiting when all these efforts have failed. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Expositions of Holy Scripture +by Alexander Maclaren + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE *** + +This file should be named isjer10.txt or isjer10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, isjer11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, isjer10a.txt + +Produced by Charles Franks, Michelle Shephard +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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