Volume 1 — ISAIAH. (continued 11)

II. The peculiar qualities by which this foundation is distinguished. 1. It is a stone, denoting strength. 2. It is a living stone. Possessing life in Himself, He is able to communicate it (John i. 4, v. 26; Rom. viii. 2). 3. A tried stone. The Father tried it, earth tried it, hell tried it. 4. A precious corner-stone. Corner-stones are generally placed for three purposes for (a.) union; for (b.) beauty; for (c.) direction or example. 5. A sure foundation.

III. The safety and blessedness of all those who depend upon this foundation.—J. Sherman: British Pulpit, ii. 185–193.

Whatever subordinate reference there may be in these words to the Jews, the principle reference is to the Messiah. For this view we have apostolic authority. St. Paul says: “As it is written.” Where? In our text. “Whosoever believeth in Him shall not be ashamed.” And St. Peter quotes from Isaiah the same text.

I. The Emblem of the Lord Jesus. “A stone.” Whether we consider Him “a stone” for solidity, or for strength, or for duration, He is all these; for whatever changes may take place among men, with Him “there is no variableness nor shadow of turning.” Peter calls Him—1. A “living stone,” meaning that He has life in Himself, that He procures and dispenses it to others. So Paul (Col. iii. 4). 2. He is a tried stone. Everything in regard to Him was tried in the days of His flesh: His wisdom, His meekness, His love. 3. He is a precious stone. Precious to God the Father, to angels, to Christians (1 Pet. ii. 7). 4. A precious corner-stone. The corner-stone stands to unite. He unites in His person deity and manhood. We see in Him united the Old and New Testament dispensations. He unites Jews and Gentiles (Eph. ii. 14).

II. His destination. “Behold I lay in Zion,” &c. 1. Who lays this foundation? God. 2. Where does He lay this foundation? “In Zion.” Jesus was a Jew, of the family of David. To the woman at the well He said, “Salvation is of the Jews.” See Ps. cx. 2; and Isa. ii. 2, 3, xxv. 6.

III. How well He answers the purpose and end. “A sure foundation.” He is a sure foundation for all. Myriads have trusted in Him, and to the whole world it may be said (Isa. xxvi. 4).

IV. The blessedness of those who make use of it. “He that believeth shall not make haste.” This declaration is not opposed to diligence; now, for “the King’s business requireth haste.” No (Ps. cxix. 60). But—1. To impatience (see chap. v. 19). “Blessed are they that wait on Him.” 2. To confusion. Terror will overwhelm the godless (Rev. i. 7). But believers (1 John ii. 28).

V. Observe the ushering in of the whole scene. “Behold.” Angels pause before the great work of redemption, and “desire to look unto these things.” “Herein is His love made manifest.” Behold He “hath commended His love, that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” Be not of those who “Behold and wonder and perish;” but let the command inspire you with gratitude, admiration, obedience, and zeal. “Hear, and your souls shall live.”—William Jay: Sunday Evening Discourses, pp. 18–25.

I. The prominent idea of the text. Christ a foundation-stone. 1. The Builder is Jehovah Himself. He drew the plan of the spiritual building, determined the materials of which it should be constructed, the stone on which it should rest, and then with His own hand laid that foundation. 2. The Site of the building was “Zion.” This is generally explained as referring to the Church. But is not the Church the building? Is there not an incongruity in saying, I lay in the Church a foundation-stone on which the Church is to be built? Is there any reason why the passage might not be understood literally as referring to Jerusalem? Is there not a very appropriate sense in which it was true that the foundation on which the Church rests was laid in Jerusalem? Was it not there that the Son of God offered up Himself as a sacrifice, and made atonement for man? Was it not there that the Holy Spirit descended and gave effect to the finished work of redemption? Was it not there the gospel was first preached by the apostles? And was not all this in accordance with the pre-arrangements of God’s plan? As Zechariah’s fountain was to be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and as Ezekiel’s waters were to flow forth from the temple, so Isaiah’s foundation-stone was laid in Jerusalem. 3. The building to be reared on this stone was to be composed of Christian men of all ages and all nations. They are being collected now; they will all as lively stones by gathered in, fitly framed together, and built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone.

II. The qualities attributed to this foundation-stone. 1. A tried stone. 2. A precious corner-stone. How shall we estimate its worth? By its intrinsic value? Precious beyond all price. By its scarceness? No other stone like it in the universe. By the importance of the service it renders in the building? Precious to the Builder, to the holy angels, to the redeemed before the throne, to believers on earth. 3. A sure foundation. Firm, solid, safe.

III. The import of the promise annexed.[2] 1. Shall not make haste, or be in haste. 2. Shall not be put to shame (Rom. ix. 33, x. 11, &c.)

Conclusion.—If not on the foundation, get on it. If on it, keep on it. Be not content to build on it yourself, but try to induce others to do so.—John Corbin.

I. Sinful, dying man needs a foundation on which he may securely rest his immortal hopes. Every man who studies his own nature and destiny as immortal and accountable instinctively feels that he needs something to give him support under the trials of life, and peace and hope as he is about to enter upon the invisible world. This feeling may exert no decisive influence over his conduct; it may be counteracted by other influences; but it is in him; and he cannot get rid of it.

II. Such a foundation is laid for him in Zion. This foundation is our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Pet. ii. 4–6). It is described 1. as a stone, indicating the solidity and durableness of that on which we are invited to rest our immortal interests. In rearing a building of any importance, we deem it essential that the foundation be laid in the most enduring materials. How much more should we look for this when we build for eternity! 2. As a tried stone. It has been tested in every possible way, and in the severest manner, and therefore justly claims our full and unhesitating confidence.[3] Other grounds of hope have been resorted to by men—philosophy, infidelity, self-righteousness—but they have always failed in the day of trial. But a countless multitude, as they have risen from earth to heaven, have testified to the perfect safety of trusting in Christ. Hence it is called 3. a precious stone. How precious none can know but such as have made trial of it in their times of need—the sinner, burdened with a sense of guilt, and sinking in despair; the believer, rejoicing in hope, and looking forward to heaven as his eternal home; the dying Christian, as he closes his eyes on this world, in joyful hope of another and a better; the redeemed in glory, as they cast their crowns at His feet. Ask them what they think of Christ. 4. As a corner-stone. The principal weight of an edifice rests on the corners; and hence, in building, the largest and firmest blocks are selected and placed there as best adapted to unite and support the whole structure. This is the idea intended to be expressed when Christ is spoken of as a corner-stone. It is He who, by His truth, His grace, and His spirit, converts and sustains the whole living temple (Eph. ii. 20–22). 5. As summing up the whole—a sure foundation. Hence it is said, “He that believeth shall not make haste.”[4] The specific idea is that of a man on whose house the tempest beats, and who apprehends that the foundation is insecure, or feels it to be giving way beneath him, and therefore makes haste to flee from his dwelling to seek a more safe position. The foundation laid in Zion is so firm and secure that if a man trusts himself on it, he shall have no cause of alarm, however the storms may beat, and the waves dash and foam around him. Amid the wreck of matter and the crash of dissolving worlds, he shall not be confounded, but shall come forth at last unharmed and victorious over all, and find in his Judge a friend, and in the kingdom of His Father and God an everlasting home.

III. It is the duty and privilege of all to build their hopes on this foundation without delay.

—Joel Hawes, D.D.: Sermons, pp. 307–317.

FOOTNOTES:

Our Trust and our Test.

xxviii. 16. A tried stone.

This phrase may be more literally rendered “a stone for proof,” and so rendered admits of two interpretations. The commonly received opinion, that it means a stone which has been tried and found sufficient is probably correct, and is more in harmony with the context; but Calvin understands by it a stone which was to be the test or standard of comparison for others. However this may be, we have inspired authority for saying that the stone is no other than our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Pet. ii. 6); and we may profitably consider Him in these two aspects, as our Trust and our Test.

I. He is our Trust, because He has been tried. “Tried in the days of His humanity by all the vehemence of temptations, and the weight of afflictions, yet, like gold from the furnace, rendered more shining and illustrious by the fiery scrutiny.“—(Hervey.) [For further amplifications, see the other outlines on this text.—R.A.B.]

II. He is our Test. In Him we have the true touchstone of character. All men naturally divide themselves into good or bad, saved or lost, by their acceptance or rejection of Him. By this touch-stone strange discoveries have been made in every age. The Pharisees and Scribes had a high character for piety until this trying stone was applied to them, and then it appeared what they were—the most inveterate enemies of God on earth. The reception which men gave to Jesus Christ is the great criterion of their character, as Simeon predicted (Luke ii. 34). This is the supreme test by which God is trying you, and by which your eternal destiny will be determined.—Samuel Davies, A.M., Sermons, ii. 29–33.

A Tested Saviour.

xxviii. 16. A tried stone.

This is perhaps an allusion to the custom of builders who are about to lay the foundation for some massive structure. Before they raise the edifice they test the character of the substratum on which they think of building. Is not our blessed Lord in every way a tried, a tested, an approved Saviour! I. Did not the Father try Him and find Him faithful in every way?—in His willingness, His obedience, His love? II. Did not Satan try Him and find Him upright? Tried by temptations addressed to His natural appetite, to pride, and to ambition. III. Was He not tried by wicked and unbelieving men? By Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians in His own day, and by sceptics in ours. IV. By the afflicted, the poor, the destitute in His own day and in ours? and in each case only to bring out more clearly the marvellousness of His resources. V. By the contrite and broken-hearted? VI. By believers in every generation? And what has been their unanimous testimony? Is it not that they found Him more than equal to all their wants and able to do for them all that they could ask or think? Could so many millions of witnesses, in other respects trustworthy, be mistaken on this point? VII. Have you tried him?—R. Bingham, M.A.: Sermons, pp. 208–215.

False Refuges.

xxviii. 17. And the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies.

Numerous are the stratagems of Satan to ruin souls. In some he effects this by hurrying them on in the broad way of open transgression; in others, by rendering them the victims of some peculiar constitutional sin—pride, avarice, &c.; in others, by inciting a spirit of disbelief of the truth (Ps. xiv. 1); in others, by inducing inattention to the things of the soul. But our text leads us to contemplate the false refuges to which he causes others to betake themselves.

I. Sinners often feel the necessity of a refuge. This arises sometimes from—1. An internal sense of guilt. Unless in cases of utter obduracy, transgression and remorse are ever wedded together. Even pagans have these pangs of guilty torture. Under these, men sigh for peace, long for rest, and earnestly desire a refuge. 2. The calamitous events of life. Sudden adversity, domestic bereavement, visiting the open grave of some friend, bodily indisposition, mental disquietude, &c. 3. The supposed nearness of death. Men who mock at religion in health, quail at the approach of death. Voltaire trembled in a storm, anxious then to have deliverance, to obtain a refuge. 4. Under the alarming influence of the preached word. When the truth has flashed across the mind and startled the conscience. Thus Felix, and thus thousands. How lamentable that these impressions and convictions are often so fleeting; but still more so, when the convicted sinner flees to sources of false security.

II. Sinners frequently betake themselves to refuges of lies. Of these notice—1. Partial reformation of life. Giving up the grosser sins of which they have been guilty, intemperance, profanity, fraud, &c. When the whole body is diseased, the amputation of one member is fruitless. 2. A general regard to Christian morality, to the outward acts of obedience, and the decencies of society. 3. An outward profession of religion. Punctual regard to public worship, a proper regard to ordinances, a name among the people of God. 4. A prominent and public sectarian spirit. Rigid adherence to party, sect, and creed; violent anathematising all others; great ardour in the public events of the Church to which they belong. “Come, see my zeal,” &c. 5. Distinguished generosity. Liberality to the poor, works of beneficence, co-operation with the compassionate and benevolent. All these things are good in their legitimate sphere and extent, but they are all often only refuges of lies; they may engage a man’s anxious attention, while the root of the matter has yet no place in his heart (1 Cor. xiii. 1–3; Matt. vii. 22, 23). 6. A still more commonly frequent refuge of lies: a general reliance on the mercy of God. A kind of self-confident persuasion that God is good, that He will not punish, an indefinite resting on His clemency, forgetting His righteousness, purity, truth, &c.

III. Such refuges of lies will be ultimately swept away. They will be so—1. In a dying hour. Then the mental vision often becomes peculiarly acute, the moral sense keen and distinct, and the honesty of the spirit throws off the tinsel mask, which is now manifestly worse than useless. How poor and worthless is self-righteousness, in all its possible extent, to a spirit just stepping into the presence of the holy God. A queen of England, although professing to be “Defender of the Faith,” and having bishops at her control, felt this, and died in circumstances of unutterable alarm. 2. In the morning of the resurrection. Then all classes and distinctions will be reduced to two. None but the righteous will have a part in the first resurrection. Others will rise with shame, confusion, and horror to everlasting contempt. 3. In the decisions of the judgment. God will judge all men in righteousness. The wicked and the righteous will be separated (Matt. xxv. 32, 33); no pretence, disguise, plea, stratagem, importunity, or effort, will avail. All refuges of lies will be swept away.

Application.—1. Warn against these destructive schemes and wiles of Satan. 2. Exhibit the one only refuge, Jesus Christ, who delivers from the wrath to come. 3. Urge instant faith in Him. “Count all things but loss,” &c. All who believe in Him are secure for both worlds. To this Refuge let all repair, earnestly, and now.—Jabez Burns, D.D.: Pulpit Cyclopædia, iii. 153–156.

The Short Bed and the Narrow Covering.

xxviii. 20. For the bed is shorter, &c.

Of all the striking images made use of in this chapter, none was so likely to catch the ear, and impress itself on the memory, and become a seed of useful reflection, as that embodied in this proverbial saying. Epigrams have done much to guide popular movements. Lord Bacon speaks of them as “the edge-tools which cut and penetrate the knots of business and affairs.” The adage before us is homely, but forcible and expressive. To a fastidious taste and a false refinement it may appear undignified; but where one has to deal with reckless folly and obstinacy, he selects what best serves his purpose of exposing it. Lifted out of the occasions which gave the birth, these pithy and sententious sayings admit of manifold applications. They refute error, and make truth visible.

I. Apply this aphorism to the shifts of diplomacy. This is the use which the prophet makes of it. No words could better expose the folly of the Egyptian alliance. The “scornful” politicians of Jerusalem “had not only secured themselves by a treaty with that personification of death and hell, the Assyrian, but they had outwitted him; for what chance could a mere barbarian soldier have against the deep-laid policy of an old, long-civilised state? They were in communication with Egypt and Ethiopia, and at the proper time would bring the armies of Tirhakah to free them from the power of Sennacherib.” This was the plausible but imprudent and deceitful scheme which the prophet denounced; and all such measures will in due time land their short-sighted and dishonest authors in the short bed with the narrow covering.

II. Apply it to the dishonesties of trade and the reckless extravagance of living. The rash speculator and the careless spendthrift will soon find out its truth. If they do not live within their means, and regulate dress and diet according to their income, they will soon find themselves in the short bed, vainly seeking warmth and comfort under a scanty covering. How much society has suffered from reckless speculation! Many a promising youth has foolishly squandered his means, and has grown so enormously in his luxurious habits, that he has no room to stretch himself on the short bed of his income. Visions of sequestration disturb his repose; pinching poverty hinders his comfort.

III. The same imprudent miscalculation is seen in the plans of worldly-minded men. Their purpose is to make a fortune, and then retire to enjoy it. They imagine that thus they shall have constructed an ample bed with abundant covering, in which they may comfortably spend the evening of life’s day. But they have made their bed without measuring its occupant at his full height. Providing for the body, but neglecting the soul, they are cribbed and confined within the narrow boundaries of time, and it will be well for them if they discover their mistake when the chill frosts of old age seize upon their uncovered limbs.

IV. Apply it to the expedients by which men seek spiritual rest. There are many short beds on which they seek repose, and narrow coverings in which they try to wrap themselves. What apologies do they find for their sin!—how earnestly they work out a righteousness of their own in which to find shelter, forgetting that “all have sinned and come short,” and “the one thing” they lack is a fatal defect! They will soon shiver with cold under this insufficient covering. Nothing but the saving work of Christ can answer man’s need as a sinful creature. Here is both room and warmth (Matt. xi. 28). As the fond mother lays her child to sleep, so will He provide for our comfort (Isa. lxvi. 13). The word “hap” is dear to a Scotch ear, expressing “the care with which the bed-clothes are laid upon the little forms, and carefully tucked in about the round sleeping cheeks.” Seek rest in Christ. He will support you in sickness and sooth you in pain; and when laid down on your last bed, rejoicing in the fulness and all-sufficiency of His grace, you will fall asleep in Him. A common proverb runs, “He has made his bed, and now he must lie on it,” sometimes harshly used, yet expressing a solemn truth (Gal. vi. 7; Isa. l. 11).—William Guthrie, M.A.

An end is proposed to be accomplished; the first consideration will be the suitability and sufficiency of means. The kingdom of Judah was trusting in inadequate defences against the Assyrians, whose approach was feared. False gods. Words of false prophets. Alliance with Egypt. Warned against all these. True defence in faithful adherence to God as covenant God. If they continued to look elsewhere they would find themselves in the position of a man in a bed too short for him, or with a covering too narrow to wrap himself. Instead of comfort and rest, weariness, discomfort, unrest. The bed does not answer its end. It is inadequate.

This thought is capable of another application. Men’s religious beliefs and practices may be inadequate. A religion for man must be true in itself, be evidenced as true, be adapted to and sufficient for his religious necessities, capacities, and susceptibilities. Otherwise, it is inadequate.

Point out the inadequacy of some religious ideas that are in vogue.

I. Scepticism is inadequate. There is not only the unbelief that denies the truth of Christianity, but the more subtle unbelief which refuses to affirm while it does not exactly deny. It says we know nothing, and may act on the assumption that there is nothing—as to God, Christ, a future state. Now we might show that there is sufficient evidence, but at present only show that this theory is not adequate to the demands of human nature. It is a fair inference from the almost universal experience of mankind that the doctrines of God, conscience, responsibility, prayer, a future state of existence, are congenial to human nature. Education does not account for them, although it may give them shape. Without them human nature is short of something which it needs. It is adapted to them. Without them its deepest needs are inadequately supplied.

The religion of the Bible supplies the need of man in all these respects. It reveals the Divine Being and character. It tells of a Father on whom, in his helplessness, man may call. It guides his conscience so that it may fitly guide him. It acquaints us with the nature of the life to come.

II. Self-righteousness is inadequate. There are necessities which did not exist in man’s original constitution, self-created necessities. The state of sinfulness is a second nature, superinduced on the original nature. Overlooking this, many imagine the Divine favour can be won and the religious life prosecuted by obedience to God and kindness to man. They proceed on the supposition that it is only necessary to continue such a course from any given commencement. If the sinful part is recognised, it is assumed that it will be condoned in consideration of the new service. It is assumed that the long-standing debt of former sin will be gradually paid by goodness in excess of ordinary demands, or that God, in some unknown way, will remit it.

This bed is too short. This covering too narrow. The religion for a fallen creature must deal seriously with the state of sin, guilt, condemnation. The question meets you at the outset. If every farthing of your present income is absolutely required to meet your barest necessities, how can you out of it pay back debts? Does not the law require a perfect obedience? Do you at present render more than it requires? Do you ever, with your best endeavour, come up to the law?

It is hopelessly inadequate. The religion for man must provide a free forgiveness; one also honourable to God. It is not in our power. It is in God. And He has made such a provision. The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is that provision. His obedience, death, righteousness. Freely given without works to the believing sinner. This is the only adequate ground. This bed is long enough. This covering wide enough.

III. Ceremonialism is inadequate. Human nature is impure. It needs cleansing as well as pardon. Some imagine this is accomplished by sacramental grace, through baptism, which is supposed to regenerate; and the mysterious influence of the consecrated bread and wine. All this is inadequate. No outward rite can effect an inward and spiritual change. There must be a new nature. There must be a love of holiness and a living growth into holiness. There must be a new birth. There must be the conviction of sinfulness; the acceptance of Christ; the surrender to the authority of Christ. For this the Gospel provision is adequate. There is the word of God which proclaims the mercy and offers the inducement. There is the Holy Spirit which changes the heart.

Be not satisfied with inadequate religion. Remember the solemn importance of possessing an adequate religion.—J. Rawlinson.

Irreligious Mockery.

xxviii. 22. Now, therefore, be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong.

The sense of the ludicrous is excited by words, ideas, images, or objects in which unexpected resemblances are seen in things previously considered incongruous, or in which incongruity is perceived where complete resemblance was supposed. The perception of the ludicrous varies. Where it exists in connection with the ability to convey the ludicrous idea in language, it is called wit. It is one of God’s gifts. There is no reason why it should not be exercised. The evil is in untimeliness and excess. It is dispiriting and sad to be with people who are always and only see the dismal side of everything. It is equally pitiable to observe people who are ever in search of something laughable. The latter is a present-day danger. We have publications whose aim is to present the ludicrous side of everything. The popular taste encourages such writing. Even grand themes are not exempt for this kind of treatment. Some mock deliberately that they may injure; others thoughtlessly for the amusement of the moment. Of all wit it is the most gratuitous the easiest, the most mischievous and dangerous.

I. The objects by which it is excited.

Religious persons; their peculiarities, especially their foibles. Christian ministers as to their style and manner. In their impatience of the warnings addressed to them by the prophet, the people of Judah mocked his teaching as characterised by the repetition that is only suitable to children (9–13). Some find food for mockery in the doctrines of the Gospel. Others in the demand of holiness (Prov. xiv. 9). Others in the observances of worship. Others find the language of Scripture the most convenient point to their jests.

II. The motives in which it originates.

Many do it from mere inconsiderateness. It is sometimes indulged in from the wish to please. Mockery of religious persons and things is so palatable to many that there is great temptation to it. More frequently it originates in the rooted hostility of the carnal mind against all earnest religion. Mockery is the most annoying form of attack; it is most keenly felt; it is most difficult to answer. It serves the purpose when argument fails. One grinning Voltaire may do more execution than many reasoning Humes. Many a time since the days of Nehemiah have Sanballat and his Samaritans mocked the builders of the wall of Jerusalem.

III. The dangers which it involves.

1. To those who hear it. They become less susceptible of religious impression. If the head of a family habitually refer to religious persons and subjects in a mocking and disrespectful manner, his children will probably grow up with a dislike of religion.

2. To those who indulge in it. They lose their own respect for religion, if they had any, by associating it with the ideas of a low and ludicrous nature. They lose the elevating mental influence of having their minds in earnest contact with its grand truths. They lose the spiritual improvement which might have been the result of such contact.

3. And the warning of the text points to direct punishment. The “consumption determined.” It points to the bands of captivity which would be more strong because of their unbelieving mockery. The mocker is preparing strong bands of distress for his conscience, if the day should ever come when he is awakened to a sense of sin and an earnest desire for salvation. How bitterly will he repent the injury his levities did to his own mind and the mind of others. Still more saddening is the thought that the mocker is likely so to harden his heart into insensibility to serious impression, that even on the bed of death, and with the solemnities of eternity before him, it will be impossible to awaken serious concern.

Follow the mocking soul to the bar of God where it must answer for its mockeries, and for all the state of mind which rendered it possible to mock. There will be no mockery in hell!

Do not brave these bands. Young men, do not sit in the seat of the scorner. Do not be among the mockers. Let the mocker hear the solemn warning of the text, and repent and seek mercy through the cross, and relinquish his folly.—J. Rawlinson.

The Parable of the Husbandman.

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

Means adapted to the end must be used if any end is to be accomplished. The physician knows this. So does the general. So does the manufacturer. So does the farmer. He is not always ploughing. Nor always sowing. Nor always threshing. Nor does he treat every kind of produce in the same way. And God employs various methods in dealing with men. He aims to turn them from evil, and He adapts His methods. The teaching of the text may be applied to the Divine dealing with men generally.

I. God intended to open a way of salvation. Man needs salvation because he is a sinner. Can conceive a state of things in which he would not need it, as of one who needs no physician. If he had continued holy and obedient. But that is not his case. He is a sinner, characterised by impurity, and exposed to perdition.—Now God, in His pitying love, would save us. How shall He proceed? Shall He, by His arbitrary will, sweep away the facts? Such a procedure would be entirely inconsistent with the existence of moral government and the rectitude of the Divine character. 1. One part of the case to be dealt with was the condemned state of man under the Divine law. Forgiveness could not righteously be given without some satisfaction. Man could not make it. God in Christ, in His whole personality and work, has made the satisfaction. The method adopted is exactly adapted to the nature of the case. 2. But the other part of the case was also to be dealt with. Sinfulness is deep-seated in man’s nature. He loves it. Until he is changed, he is not even inclined to sue for mercy, still less to escape from sin. The Lord Jesus Christ was sent to turn us from our iniquities. How does He do this? (1.) By moral motive. The law was inadequate. He introduces a new motive. Not only the mercy, but the fact that it has been procured at such a cost, that the love was equal to such a sacrifice. It appeals directly to the heart, as well as to the judgment, for a condemnation of sin. (2.) By spiritual influence. The influence of the Holy Spirit strives with those to whom the gospel is preached, with a view to the overcoming their indifference, reluctance, and sin.—The method is adapted, in both its sides, to the end in view. It only requires the sinner’s consent. Hence—

II. God intended the way of salvation to be made known to men. If consent to it and faith in it is requisite to participation of its blessings, it must be understood—1. The information might have been imparted in a separate revelation by the Holy Spirit to every man. Would supersede all evidence, and all exercise of human faculty. Would not be adapted to man as a reasonable being. 2. Angelic ministry might have been employed. Open to similar objection. Would have made miracle the rule instead of the exception. It would have changed the order of nature. 3. The method adopted is the simple arrangement that those who are acquainted with it, believe it, consent to it, make the Gospel known. A method exactly adopted to the nature of the case. According to the constitution of human nature, the Gospel thus approaches it for the purpose of gaining the understanding, the heart, and the will. Bear in mind the power of sympathy between human beings. He who has received a truth desires to impart it. He who has experienced the salvation pities those who need it as he did. He who speaks from his own experience speaks with tenderness, and earnestness, and influence. The sick heed the recommendation of a physician by those whom he has cured. On this principle of adaptation the Lord Jesus instituted the living ministry of apostles, evangelists, pastors, parents, all Christians. He inspired some to put on permanent record the truth as He revealed it, as a standard of appeal. They are to study it. They are to use the same principle of adaptation. There is youth, age, different measure of instruction, different classes, spheres, circumstances.

III. God intended to train those whom He saved. Believers are already saved, because pardoned and sanctified. But they require training into riper holiness, greater usefulness, greater fitness for the future heaven. Therefore the Saviour instituted such means as are adapted to secure these ends. Church fellowship, public worship, pastoral teaching, Christian habits of watchfulness, thoughtfulness, prayer. All these are adapted to the training of the spiritual plant.

Are you in sympathy with God’s end? In yourselves? In the world? Then adapt yourselves to its realisation.—J. Rawlinson.

In these verses there are three kinds of seed mentioned; fitches, cummin, and corn. The fitches and cummin were small seeds like the caraway or chickpea. When these smaller herbs had to be threshed, this was done by hand; but when the corn had to be threshed, that was thrown on the floor, and men would fasten horses or oxen to a cart with iron-dented wheels; that cart would be drawn round the threshing-floor, and so the work would be accomplished. And so the idea expressed is different kinds of threshing for different products.

I. We must all go through some kind of threshing process. The fact that you are devoting your life to honourable and noble purposes will not win you any escape. Wilberforce, the Christian Emancipator, was in his day derisively called “Doctor Cantwell.” Thomas Babington Macaulay, the advocate of all that was good long before he became the most conspicuous historian of his day, was caricatured in one of the Quarterly Reviews as “Bubble-tongued Macaulay.” Norman McLeod, the great friend of the Scotch poor, was industriously maligned in all quarters. As the small wits of London took after John Wesley, the father of Methodism. If such men could not escape the maligning of the world, neither can you expect to get rid of the sharp, keen stroke of the tribulum. All who will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution. II. It is not compliment to us if we escape great trial. There are men who suppose they are the Lord’s favourites, simply because their barns are full, and their bank account is flush, and there are no funerals in the house. It may be because they are fitches and cummin, while down at the end of the lane, the poor widow may be the Lord’s corn. You are little pounded, because you are little worth, and she bruised and ground, because she is the best part of the harvest. By carefulness of the threshing, you may always conclude the value of the grain. (H. E. I., 186–196, 3692–3695). III. God proportions our trials to what we can bear. The rod for the cummin, the staff for the fitches, the iron wheel for the corn. (H. E. I., 179–188, 3674–3695). IV. God continues trials until we let go. As soon as the farmer sees that the straw has let go the grain, he stops the threshing. We hold on to this world with its pleasures, riches, and emoluments, as though for ever. God comes along with some threshing trouble, and beats us loose. Oh, let go! Depend upon it that God will keep upon you the staff, or the rod, or the iron wheel until you do let go. V. Christian sorrow is going to have a sure terminus. “Bread corn is bruised, because He will not be ever threshing it.” So much of us as is wheat will be separated from so much of us as is chaff, and there will be no more need of pounding. “He will not ever be threshing it.” Blessed be God for that! (Rev. xxi. 4).—T. De Witt Talmage, D.D.

FOOTNOTES:

A Feast for Faith.

xxviii. 29. This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.

The sentiment of the text is that the art, and science, and skill of man are the gifts of God. The prophet instances only agriculture, but the same principle applies to all the arts and manufactures, and in a higher degree still to those sublimer sciences which elevate the human mind, and make us acquainted with the majestic and mysterious powers of nature. The drift of the writer of the text is this, if God thus instructs man in wisdom, how wise must He be Himself! If the mere rays which come from Him convey to us so much light that we are perfectly astonished at what man can do, what must be the infinite wisdom in counsel and the excellence of working which are to be discovered in God Himself! There are two things which shall occupy our attention. The first is, the vision of God which the text presents to us; and the second is, the lesson which such a vision is calculated to teach us.

I. The vision of God which is presented to us in the text. The great principle of the text is that God has a plan, and that this plan is wonderful in itself, and is found to be excellent when it is carried out. This is illustrated 1. in nature. All creation is full of traces of design. “He weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance.” Nothing was made without the most accurate calculation. The stars seem cast about on the floor of heaven as men might fling at random gold-dust from their hands; yet there is not a single star whose place might be altered without mischief to the whole arrangement. In the meanest animal and minutest insect there are the most admirable contrivances to suit its habits and make its condition happy. And apparent irregularity is only undiscovered order. 2. From providence. The great providential operations of God are all the results of His foredetermined purpose and decree. All through human history every lover of the Lord will see that the awful wheels of providence have worked with excellent regularity. Empires have fallen, but the truth has risen. Dynasties have perished, but immortal principles have conquered. 3. Your own personal experience of that providence goes to prove this with equal clearness. How often have you seen that God overrules all things for your good! (H. E. I. 4015–4022). 4. The wonderful planning of the excellent Worker is seen in the great economy of Redemption. How marvellous that God, the Mighty Maker, should appear in human flesh and become a man, that so fallen, sinful, miserable man might be lifted up and become the son of God! When I see this great sight these words of Isaiah’s ring with a bell-like music in my ears, “He is wonderful in counsel.” 5. Then turning from Redemption itself, look at the Gospel. That Gospel is just the reverse of what human wisdom would advise. It is not “do and live,” but “believe and live.” 6. Then I might speak of God’s plan and God’s work in inward experience. The experience of every Christian is in some respects different from that of another, but it is always the result of God’s plan. 7. Another illustration will be found in the use of instrumentality. It is a wonderful design of God to use one man in the conversion of another. The one is benefited while the other is blessed. 8. The grandest, illustration of all will be when, at last, God’s counsels shall be perfectly fulfilled. Man shall burst forth into one mighty song, “Hallelujah! Hallelujah! the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth!” (Rev. xix. 6).

II. Some of the lessons from it.—1. To the unconverted: seeing His counsel is so wondrous, I would to God you would agree to it! 2. To the people of God: I want you to agree to this in your own particular case. 3. Brother workers, let us have a well-formed plan, and let it be God’s plan. 4. When we know God’s plan we must remember to carry it out. 5. When you are resolved to carry out God’s plan, joyfully expect singular assistance.—C. H. Spurgeon.

Ariel.

xxix. 1. Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt.

The word “Ariel” properly means “the Lion of God,” and is elsewhere used of the great brazen altar on which the sacred fire blazed, and which might be said to devour as a lion the sacrifices presented on it to God. In our text, however, “Ariel” is used as a name for Jerusalem. The fact that David had dwelt in it is mentioned, not by way of historical reference, but as aggravating the guiltiness of the city, and as in some way proving that it might expect to be visited with more than common vengeance. In what way is the fact that Jerusalem could be described as “the city where David dwelt” a justification of the woes which the prophet was about to denounce against it? The answer is easy: We are answerable to God for every blessing received at His hands, so that we cannot possess a single privilege which will not, if neglected or abused, be brought against us as a charge and heighten our condemnation. This is as true of communities as of individuals: and the fact that Jerusalem had profited so little, morally and spiritually, from David’s residence in it was a clear aggravation of its guilt.—1. David had dwelt in Jerusalem as a king. As such, his authority and his example might have been expected to have made a deep impression on the religious life of the people. Consider how powerful is the example of men in exalted stations.—2. David had dwelt in Jerusalem as a poet. Consider how powerful is the influence of song on national character, and how truly David’s psalms were national songs. As every English child is taught loyalty by the notes of “God save the Queen,” every Jewish child was instructed in piety by the well-known strains of the sweet singer of Israel. Surely if anything could have kept religion alive in Jerusalem, it would have been this writing it into the poetry this weaving it into the music of the nation. It was like taking possession of the strings of a nation’s heart, and providing that their vibrations should respond only to truth.—3. The memory of David had long been a blessing to Jerusalem. For his sake evil had been averted from it (2 Kings xix. 34). To pronounce a woe upon the Jerusalem or the city where David had dwelt was to tell the Jews that the conservative influence of that monarch’s piety would no longer be of any avail for them; that even as children, though long spared in recompense by the righteousness of their fathers, may reach a point at which they have filled the measure of their guilt, and at which, therefore, they can receive no further favour as the offspring of those whom God hath loved; so their iniquity had reached such a height that forbearance, long manifested for the sake of the most pious of kings, was at length wearied out, and there remained no further place for intercession.

The principle involved in this passage is applicable alike to communities and individuals. 1. It is made the charge against Jerusalem that it was the city where David had dwelt—the plain inference from this being that it was a great aggravation of the national wickedness that so righteous a prince, so zealous a supporter of true religion as David, had sat for years upon the throne of Judah. By parity of reasoning, if there have been raised up in our own country men mighty in the exhibiting and establishing truth, and if in the lapse of time we grow indifferent to the truth, and perhaps even half inclined to the errors which were exposed and expelled, will it not be made a matter of accusation against us that ours is the land in which those worthies dwelt? Suppose, for example, we were to undervalue the Reformation, suppose we were to think lightly of the errors of Popery, then might our text be regarded as denouncing special woe on ourselves—woe to England—to England, the country where Wickliffe, and Cranmer, and Ridley dwelt! For is it not to be questioned that we shall have much to answer for it, after God had raised up Reformers, and they, with incalculable labour and at incalculable cost, had cleansed our Church from the abominations of Popery, we should in any measure let go the truth and make alliance or truce with the tenets or practices of Rome. This same principle is applicable 2. to many a parish in which some devoted minister of Christ has laboured, and 3. to many a household in which the example and teaching of godly parents have been set at naught.—H. Melvill, B.D.: Sermons Preached during the Latter Years of his Life, vol. i. pp. 125–140.

Dreaming.

xxix. 7, 8. Shall be as a dream of a night vision, &c.

The reference in these two verses is to the threatened attack on Jerusalem by the Assyrian invasion in the reign of Hezekiah. They take us to the time the invader had taken all the other fortified places in the kingdom; and now his general, Rabshakeh, was encamped before the capital, with the confident expectation of easily taking it. It would seem as if, the requisite preparations having been made, that immense army had retired to rest, with the intention of making the assault on the next day. We can imagine them in their dreams picturing to themselves the scenes of the approaching capture, the shouting, the onset, the slaughter, the devastation, the prisoners, the booty, the triumph, the glory—scenes, however, these which they were destined never to witness! For, in the dead of night, the Destroying Angel went forth, and in the morning nothing remained of 185,000 of them but their lifeless corpses. So ended their dreams!

Even as the army of Sennacherib was dreaming of a conquest which had no real existence, so are there multitudes of persons now dreaming that they are accomplishing the great object of their existence who are no more doing so than if they lay wrapped in the slumbers of the night. I propose to speak of such persons under three heads of Pleasure, Work, Religion.

I. Pleasure. I am not condemning pleasure. Pleasure has its place in every human life, just as truly as work and religion. I am speaking of a life devoted to pleasure. Nor do I speak of the grosser pleasures—these shock us at once, others delude us—but of those whose great aim in life is to please themselves: who, in respect to any proposed course of action, never think of asking, “Is it my duty?” But what is there to show that such a life is only a dream-like substitute for real life? 1. It leaves our best faculties unused. Can it be believed that God made us “a little lower than the angels” that we might spend our lives in pursuits which hardly require the faculties of a man? 2. A life of pleasure is a selfish life. Where pleasure is the habitual object of pursuit there must be selfishness. Wherever pleasure is the great object of life, the interest of others will be held in low esteem. 3. A life of pleasure also exposes to temptation. 4. It unfits men for another world. We shall never be ready for heaven if we never think seriously about it; and pleasure pre-eminently withdraws our thoughts from that world (H. E. I., 5059).

II. Another form of the dream is the impression that work, i.e., secular occupation, is the great business of life. Work is not to be spoken of without respect. 1. The Bible praises work. “Six days shalt thou labour.” 2. It keeps us from dependence on others. 3. It benefits those dependent upon us. 4. It is good as enabling a man to help his neighbours. 5. Good as giving a man influence by means of the wealth it produces. 6. Good as keeping us out of much evil. Intemperance is usually the vice of the idle. So of other vices. But still it has its dangerous side. It shuts out the other world by the undue prominence it gives to this. It diminishes our sympathy with the suffering, and makes us unconcerned about the kingdom of Christ. Noble as work is when compared with idleness, it is not the great business of life. God did not endow us with intellect, heart, and spirit, with relations to Himself, to our fellows, and to immortality, that we might spend our lives in a practical denial of them all. A life of mere work is a dream as truly as a life of pleasure.

III. Another thing which men are apt to consider the great business of life is religion. In many cases “religion” is little more than amusement; in others superstition; in others mere sentiment. There is a “religion” which is merely an affair of the intellect; another where it is hereditary, where a man follows a form of religion because his fathers did so before him. It is forgotten that religion is a life. Religious knowledge, beliefs, feelings, exercises are but the scaffolding and not the building; means to an end, not the end itself. The great end of life is not to be religious, but to be good. True religion has two sides: it first puts us right with God and then with our fellow-men. We love God first, and only then do we love man and work for his good.

The prophet tells us how the dreams of these Assyrians vanished. Even such will be the disappointment of those who are dreaming away the grand possibilities of the present life.—B. P. Pratten, B.A.: Christian World Pulpit, vol. iii. pp. 187–191.

Awakened from the Dream.

xxix. 8. It shall be even as when an hungry man dreameth, and behold he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty.

This passage describes the disappointment of the Assyrians, whose imagination had feasted on the conquest of Jerusalem. The simile is striking. A man in extreme hunger or thirst will dream that his craving is satisfied. He awakes to feel the privation more acutely. The text may be applied to the case of a man disappointed with the world, awakened to a sense of its emptiness, concerned for his soul. There is a sense of sin, danger, need. On the day of Pentecost the awakened cried, “What shall we do?” Thus the Philippian Jailor. We will address this state of mind—

I. In words of sympathy. The awakened solicitude is justified by—1. the value of the soul; 2. the fact of sin; 3. the reality of danger; 4. the provision of the gospel; 5. the call of God; 6. the unsatisfactoriness of neglect; 7. the flight of time.

II. In words of caution. 1. Beware of relapsing into indifference (H. E. I., 1479–1490). Many are awakened and anxious, but it does not endure. Herod heard John gladly and did many things. Transient impressions are like Ephraim’s goodness (Hos. vi. 4). Some are excitable but fickle. When the charm of novelty departs, their enthusiasm departs. Religion experiences similar treatment. Nor is it from yourself alone that you are exposed to this peril. You will meet with those who will endeavour to repress your earnestness. They will commend a moderate attention to religion, but will counsel you to wait until you are older, &c. A quiet, sober, decent attention to religious duties is well enough, but they cannot see the necessity for making religion the primary concern. Beware of such advisers. This is a matter in which earnestness is demanded. Keep fresh and vigorous in your mind the considerations by which you were first awakened. Salvation is either the supremely important thing the gospel declares, or it is nothing. Is the sick man too anxious for health, too attentive to the physician’s directions? When the starving man has dreamed of food, does any one repress his eagerness for the reality when, on awaking, he finds it was only a dream? Beware lest either unsympathising friends or your own weakness administer the opiate that will send you back into the slumber of indifference from which you have been awakened. 2. Beware of assuming that you are converted because you are awakened. Awakening is not conversion. Conviction is not conversion; it does not necessarily end up in it. Pharaoh said, “I have sinned.” It is a hopeful circumstance; a step on the road; attention called to the disease; disappearance of the dream. The awakened on the day of Pentecost were directed respecting conversion. 3. Beware of finding comfort anywhere else than in the gospel. Performance of religious duties; prayers; peaceful feeling, you know not why; impression that you are forgiven. It is untempered mortar; it will not bind the walls. Nothing less than faith in Jesus.

III. In words of counsel. Comply at once with the call of the Gospel. Christ’s work is all-sufficient. Faith and repentance is submission at both points. The call is—1. Gracious. 2. Immediate. Do not delay; do not wait for the Spirit nor anything else. You are a man, not a machine. You must obey the Gospel. The Spirit is working with the Gospel.—John Rawlinson.

The Futility of Fighting against Mount Zion.

(Missionary Sermon.)

xxix. 8. So shall the multitude of the nations be that fight against Mount Zion.

Nothing tends to inspirit exertion in any great enterprise so much as the certain prospect of success. Hope is the spur of action, the very life of enterprise. Hence to encourage the fearful and animate the brave in the culture of their own piety, and especially in their efforts to extend the kingdom of the Redeemer, there are given in God’s Word the amplest promises of Divine help and assurances of ultimate success. But for “the sure word of prophecy,” the servants of God would long since have trembled for the ark of the Lord, and have despaired of the salvation of the race. But delays to us are not delays with God. Long ago He has declared, “Yet have I set my King on my holy hill of Zion.” “But we see not as yet all things put under Him.” The foot of His Providence falls too soft for mortal ear to mark. While He walks on the great ocean of human affairs as Jesus walked on the Galilean sea, His footsteps leave no traces behind. But yet He never stands still. “My father worketh hitherto.” His progress is certain. In reference to the spread of His Gospel it may be said, “In such an hour as ye think not the Son of man shall come.” At His approach all opposition is fruitless, all resistance vain. Every obstacle shall vanish, as a dream is forgotten when the dreamer awaketh.

This passage suggests—

I. The number and might of the enemies of the Gospel. It is always unwise to underrate the forces of the enemy. Injury has been done to the cause of missions by this action. Good men in the ardour of their zeal seemed to speak as though heathendom was to be won by one new crusade, and that the walls of Satan’s kingdom would fall flat at a single blast of their rams’ horns. But Scripture takes opposite ground, and intimates that there must be a continuous and persistent struggle. Our great General does not conquer in a single campaign; He goes forth “conquering and to conquer.” These numerous and powerful enemies of Christ’s kingdom arise from our own corrupt nature; from the peculiar circumstances of the heathen world; from every class of society, and are perpetually set in motion by the powers of darkness. Though they are “the multitude of all the nations,” they have one prince, “the prince of the powers of darkness.” To prevent our forming exaggerated pictures of success, let us remember: 1. That the original enmity of the human heart is always and everywhere the same. Every sinful passion of the human heart starts up an armed enemy against Christ and His truth. If at home after centuries of Christian work, the obstacles to the gospel are so great, how much more formidable must they be in pagan lands! 2. The power of Satan is at all times the same. And if here he rules supreme in the children of disobedience, what must his power be in those heathen lands where he is so strongly entrenched in superstition, idolatry and prejudices, crimes and passions of men confederated with him since Adam fell! 3. The world at large, in its spirit and pursuits, is decidedly hostile. Even in our own country, how few can be looked upon as the genuine disciples of Christ, the true soldiers of the Cross! How mighty the forces sent out even here against the Lord and against His anointed! This part of the earth is still in the hands of the wicked.

II. The utter futility and certain overthrow of their projects. 1. Their schemes are all fallacious and visionary. “It shall be as when a hungry man dreameth.” What more delusive than a dream! 2. Their disappointment is certain. The history of the past is against them. Past history has verified the words of the Master, “And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. xvi. 18). The prophecy of the covenant of grace, the very progress of civilisation, but more than all the very existence of God, is against them. “The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice” (Ps. xcvii. 1).

III. The glory that shall rise from thence to Zion’s King (Ps. lxxii. 10, 11, 15). His wisdom will baffle all their designs, His power crush every hostile force, and His kingdom rise on the ruin of their dark confederacies (1 Cor. xv. 25).—Samuel Thodey.

Lip-Service instead of Heart-Worship.

xxix. 13, 14. Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people drew near to Me with their mouth, &c.

The charge against the people is clear; it is that of a heartless religion, formal and full of hypocrisy. “Their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men.” That is, their religion is a mechanical following of human directions, instead of the spontaneous uprising of a heart inspired with the fear and love of God.

I. The charge against the Jews in Isaiah’s day. It is twofold—the removal of the heart and the substitution of a lip-service. The removal of the heart. God demands the service of the heart (Prov. xxiii. 26; Jer. xxix. 13). The Psalmist felt how reasonable was this demand when he said, “I will praise Thee, O Lord, with the whole heart” (Ps. ix. 1). A man may do some things with a slack hand and yet be blameless, but to steer an Atlantic steamer in a storm, he needs the whole force of both hands. Unless our whole soul be in God’s service, our worship will be thrown back upon us with the withering words, “Who hath demanded this at your hands?” This worthless thing! “Bring no more vain oblations.” How strikingly our Lord put this principle of supremacy (Luke xiv. 26): “In every man’s heart I must be supreme, or therein I cannot dwell.” Infidels must ignorantly misread this passage. One of their counts against Christianity is that it frowns on family joys; while every day’s facts prove that the truest Christian is the best husband, father, &c. God being first in a man’s heart, that heart is humanised, its generosity enlarged, so as to take in, not only the family, but “all mankind.” But some, after having given their hearts to the Lord, withdraw them from His service (Matt. xiii. 22; 2 Tim. iv. 10).

II. This charge has been true in every generation. The heart’s weakness and the world’s force are ever the same. This evil existed in our Lord’s day (Matt. xv. 8, 9). For long years before the Reformation whole nations of Christendom presented to God a mere formal worship. And to-day, of how many congregations may the words of Ezekiel be said! (Ezek. xxxiii. 31).

III. The worthless substitution presented to God. “And with their lips do honour Me.” The instinct of worship is so strong within the soul that men everywhere worship something. It may be the hideous fetish of the African or the artistic statue of the refined Greek, but something the Greek and the barbarian must have. When that young mother, in the days of Solomon, arose in the morning and found a dead child by her side instead of her own living one, how severe must have been the shock! Had there been no child by her side, no dead substitute, she might have thought that her own child lived somewhere and might sometime be found. But that dead substitute at first nearly killed her by despair. It is bad to withdraw a living heart from the Lord, but to substitute a dead one is first to rob God and then wickedly insult Him (H. E. I., 5066–5070).

IV. The threat (ver. 14). The threat is that of cherished expectations bitterly disappointed. In times of extremity, full of confidence in the wisdom of their leaders, they shall seek light and leading, and behold nothing but darkness and folly. How often have the leaders of a nation been stricken with folly, and, like a blinded steersman, have driven the ship to destruction! “The wisdom of their wise men shall perish.” Disappointment! It is only another expression about the foolish man disappointed in his false security, his house resting on the sand, and of those who “make lies their refuge, and under falsehood hide themselves.” The threat is that “the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place.” Though men may not admit that their worship is mere lip-service, and their neighbours not see their hypocrisy, yet to the eye of God

“The painted hypocrites are known Through the disguise they wear.”

—William Parkes, F.R.G.S.

Two conditions under which religion is in a declining state. 1. When the ordinances of Divine worship are generally neglected. 2. When the attendance on worship, however large, does not represent a religious state of mind, but is simply an outward performance. The latter was the state into which religion had fallen in Judea. The religious observances of the people were not inspired by knowledge of God’s Word, but by human authority. The text—

I. Describes a great privilege. “This people draw near me.” God speaks after the manner of men. When we desire to speak closely to a friend we get near him. This is coming close to God (Ps. lxxiii. 28; Heb. x. 22; Heb. vii. 19; James iv. 8). Is it not a wonder that the Almighty permits us to draw nigh to Him? Men make it difficult for their inferiors to obtain access; but the Infinite and Eternal One makes Himself accessible to His creatures. Not only so; He has made a way for creatures stained by sin. The Lord Jesus Christ stands between God and man by virtue of His atoning death and interceding life. The guilty, condemned, utterly impure, have only to renounce their sinfulness and avail themselves of this new and living way. If there is truthfulness and sincerity, they will be welcome. In the sanctuary, in meeting for prayer, in the family, in the closet, in the round of daily duty, we may draw near to God. Do you know anything of the blessedness of this privilege? Enjoyment, comfort, purity, fitness for intercourse with men, for the battle of life, for the work of the world, do they not all come through this privilege?

II. Points out a serious abuse (ver. 13). Their sin was not the abandonment of worship. That is a measure of ungodliness not reached without a long process. Unsettled faith, indifference to spiritual blessings, habits of sinful indulgence, conduct to it. What multitudes have reduced themselves to this predicament? But it was not their case. They had not relinquished the ordinances of worship; they observed them. But there was a twofold defect: the heart was absent and the motive was wrong. 1. Something was present that ought to have been absent. “Their fear toward Me is taught by the precept of men.” Their piety was only out of respect for some human authority. Our Lord quoted this part of the text in His exposure of externalism as exemplified by the Pharisees of His time (Matt. xv. 9). Human authority in religion is here distinctly denounced. One man may hand the Word of God to another, but no man must impose his notions of religion on another by his mere authority. A man’s religious service must be the result of his personal conviction. If he is religious because some one else is, or because it is respectable, or because it may promote his worldly interest, or because it is recognised and imposed by the authority of the state, it is not really the honour and worship of God at all, but of man. 2. Something was absent that ought to have been present. “But have removed their heart far from Me.” God must be worshipped with the heart. Apart from the outward expression of inward reality, the movement of the lips and the utterance of the mouth are nothing. Real worship is the consent of the understanding, will, affections, to the homage which is paid by the lips. Without this they are mockery, as when one who stands in the king’s presence is alienated from his allegiance.

III. Utters a solemn warning (ver. 14). Their religion was only the counsel of man. It was unavailing for its purpose, and would come to nothing (1 Cor. i. 19). Such worship is: 1. Unacceptable. God is not deceived. Realise the terribleness of being rejected. He says, “It is not the kind of worship I require.” After all your wisdom (Isa. i. 11–15). 2. Unsuccessful. The prayers offered only by the lips are not heard. No answer comes, no blessing descends. This comes of the policy which followed the precepts of men. 3. Unstable. After such religion reaction may be expected. There is no inward life to sustain the outward exercises. Does not the test point to that deeper spiritual blindness which follows the attempt to put the wisdom of man in the place of the wisdom of God?

In religion and at its worship take care: 1. That there is sincerity. See that the heart is right with God. “Ye must be born again.” 2. That there is simplicity. Let there be no superfluous externalism in worship; only what is necessary to the suitable expression of the heart’s worship. 3. That there is earnestness.

And if a merely formal worship is rejected, what is the predicament of those who do not even offer that, but who live without any acknowledgement of God?—John Rawlinson.

The Joy of the Meek.

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

I. The persons here described.

Meekness does not mean timidity (2 Tim. i. 7); not the craven spirit of the coward, but the quiet power of the strong man (Prov. xxviii. 1). It does not mean the absence of courage, but the absence of that ignorant and arrogant self-sufficiency which Peter showed when he said, “Though all men forsake Thee, yet will not I.” It is that calmness of spirit which grows not out of reliance on self, but out of reliance on God. It is recorded of one whose courage at times had flashed up like a consuming fire, “Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.” His meekness was not feebleness, but a calm strength; quiet endurance in the doing of duty under difficulties. He was not provoked by the wrong-headedness or irritated by the ingratitude of the nation he wished to serve, but he quietly bore their stubbornness, and persisted in doing them good against their will. Hence a quiet doing and a quiet bearing of the will of God is one consistent in this quality of the mind “meekness.” It does not mean that equableness of disposition which comes from nature, so much as that calmness of spirit which comes from grace. It is one of the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. v. 23). This quality of mind in God’s people is shown: 1. In their intercourse with God. In His presence they manifest “a humble, lowly, and contrite heart.” Theirs is not the spirit of the Pharisee, but the lowly contrition of the publican. Not “Stand by, for I am holier than thou,” but “I am not worthy,” &c. In a ready acceptance of the doctrines of grace and salvation through a Saviour crucified. Not like the Pharisees, who scorned the Saviour “as a root out of a dry ground,” but like those few elect souls, just and devout, who “were waiting for the consolation of Israel.” Christianity is a discipline of humility. In making men Christ-like it makes them meek. Jesus was meek and lowly, and He promises to those like Himself rest of soul. 2. In their submission to the allotments of Providence (Job xiv. 14, xiii. 15; Micah vii. 9; Lev. x. 3; 1 Sam. iii. 18; H. E. I. 157, 158, &c.) 3. In their deportment before their fellow-men. They do not arrogate to themselves that superiority which despises and neglects others, but obey the apostolic injunctions (1 Pet. ii. 17, iii. 8).

II. The blessings God confers upon them.

1. He saves them. Often in outward troubles they become the charge and care of His providence (Zeph. ii. 3). How wonderfully was Moses saved from the strivings and rebellions of the people! Leaving his vindication in the hands of the Great Judge, God took up his cause; and when the whole camp was against him, God delivered him. How wonderfully was Joseph delivered from the pit and the prison, and Jeremiah in the siege! But always are they saved from soul-destruction. “Saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation.” 2. He beautifies them. “He will beautify the meek with salvation.” By the robe of righteousness, the inward adorning of the soul in every virtue, by the special manifestation of His mercy when most needed (chap. lxi. 3), by giving them that esteem and commanding influence which often attracts and impresses their fellow-men. 3. He makes it appear that He delights in them. “The Lord taketh pleasure in His people.”

III. Their grateful response.

“The poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.” They rejoice in His salvation; they praise Him in voice, and heart, and life (Isa. lxi. 10).—Samuel Thodey.

Religious Joy.

xxix. 19. The meek shall increase their joy.

It is commonly said that while religion is man’s duty and his interest, it is not productive of enjoyment. Yet the Bible is full of joyful expressions, and of exhortations to joy. It even meets the sorrows of humanity and brings joy out of them. Its association of joy with conditions not joyful is remarkable (Matt. v. 3–5). Observe the contrasts in our passage (vers. 18, 19). Circumstances are mentioned which amount to the removal of all alarm (ver. 20). From the outward fact, the faith of the persons here described ruses to the hand that accomplished it.

Our subject is religious joy.

I. The source whence it is derived.

“The Lord. The Holy One of Israel.” We rejoice in what we have desired, hoped for, and obtained. This does not exclude enjoyment of the blessings of the present life. They are closely associated with it. They suggest it. We ask whence they come. The habit of regarding earthly advantage as gifts from the hand of God keeps the Divine character before us as that of a Being to be regarded with pleasure.

Thus, if we ascend to the spiritual region and contemplate the salvation of man, it includes the compassionate love of God, which gave His Son to impoverishment, suffering, and death; full forgiveness of sin; the various influences of the Divine Spirit; the elevated spiritual privileges and hopes bestowed on fallen men. All this came from the grace of God; it originated in His nature. “God is love.” But the God whose nature can be read in this way is not a God to repel, but attract; not a god of whom to stand in terrified awe, but a God in whom to rejoice.

And this result emerges if we take a more direct look at the Divine character. We are supplied with verbal asservations as well as historical illustrations. We read of the Almighty, the All-wise, the All-righteous, the All-holy, as well as the All-loving. Power, even with justice, would fail to produce joy. But a God of power, and love, and holiness can be a delight, because He can be loved.

But no object of delight can be considered apart from its subject. Nothing is universally delightful. Before you can enjoy anything you must have sympathy with it, a taste for it. There are people who cannot enjoy the finest concert. There must be the heart that is capable of joy in the Holy One of Israel, the heart of “the meek, the poor among men;” the heart changed by the grace of God.

II. The elements of which it consists.

We know our feelings better by experience than by analysis. We can imagine a father so utterly unsatisfactory in his character and conduct that his own children are ashamed to mention his name. We can imagine one whose kindness, whose faultless conduct, whose commanding intellect render them proud of his name. They think of him with pleasure. Thus the poor among men rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

If you attempt to examine, you will find that your joy in God is compounded of several other feelings, which, like tributary streams, swell with the river of your pleasure. 1. Gratitude. For experience of the Divine goodness. It expresses itself in thanks and songs. You think with pleasure of one for whom you are grateful. 2. Affection. Love is closely akin to gratitude. And God has taken away all cause of alienation. The love of God in Christ possesses the heart. Love delights in its object (Rom. v. 11). 3. Confidence. We trust Him entirely. In present distresses or future fears. If distrust crosses our minds, we dismiss it as inconsistent with the truth of which we have satisfied ourselves. Now if there is perfect confidence in Him on whom we depend, we cannot fail to rejoice in Him. 4. Approbation. We find the Holy One of Israel a Being in whom we can be infinitely satisfied. At no point, in no respect, could we desire Him to be different from what He is. Nor is it the admiration sometimes expressed for characters there is no desire to imitate. Christians earnestly desire likeness to God. Putting all these together, there must be joy in the Lord.

III. The augmentation which it receives.

“The meek shall increase their joy in the Lord.” Earthly joy is short-lived. The objects from which it proceeds are liable to change and perish. Many of these, even if they continue, fall. They become flat by satiety and continuity. We outgrow them as a child outgrows his toys. But Christian joy is permanent and tends to increase, because its object remains the same for ever, while His fulness is ever unfolding itself. Knowing and experiencing more of God, there is more joy in Him. Thus there is a constant increase—in the present world, and in the world to come.

Would you enjoy this privilege? Then make it possible. Possess the character. Ye must be born again. Do not indulge sin. Keep Christ in your thoughts. Thus you will be superior to earthly enjoyments.—John Rawlinson.

The Origin and the End of Sin.

xxx. 1–3. Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of Me, &c.

The policy inculcated by the Divine Ruler on the Jewish nation was a policy of isolation. Now, this would be a self-destructive policy. But the circumstances of that nation were peculiar. It was not a missionary to the world, but it was a witness. When it formed alliances with surrounding nations, its witness became indistinct. It often dropped its testimony and adopted the idolatries against which its protest should have been uniform. This prophecy is against the alliance with Egypt. Assyria was about to invade that country. It was feared she would take Judea on the way. Now, the Lord was its defence; there was therefore no need to seek assistance from any other power whatsoever. It was a rebellious and unbelieving spirit that sought this alliance. The politicians sought a covering from the impending storm; but they did not seek it by Divine counsel. They were adding another sin to the number against them. It would be shame and confusion at the end. Egypt would be unwilling or unable to help.

Human nature is ever the same. Here is a representation of the way in which sinners act, and of its consequences.

I. All sin proceeds from neglect and defiance of God’s counsel.

1. It is implied that God has counselled or may be consulted respecting human conduct. By the prophet He had declared against the alliance with Egypt. In the written word we have His will. It does not deal with our modern life and circumstances in detail. Impossible. But we have what is better; principles of action which we are to apply to circumstances. No one ever long in a moral difficulty, if he honestly apply these principles. Every act which is of the nature of evil is forbidden. Many sinful acts are forbidden by name. We have the example of the Son of God. We have the most inspiring motives; gratitude, love, hope, fear. A revolution of our nature in the direction of God’s holiness is demanded. The ministry of the Word expounds and enforces these great principles. Men do not sin for want of counsel from God.

2. Our text charges men with acting on other counsel than the Divine. The charge is twofold. (1.) Neglect of the counsel they ought to have sought. Sincere desire to be right would apply to the Divine Word in relation to all the conduct of life. How many adopt and act upon the principle that it shall guide everything? Is not its authority discounted? When tempted to the questionable or sinful, but advantageous, how many, with steady clearness of moral vision, look straight at God’s counsel? As to the ministry of the Word, one part of the function of which is to keep men’s moral perceptions clear, how many absent themselves from it entirely! (2.) Seeking the counsel they ought not to have sought. They sought counsel of their own inclinations. It was a foregone conclusion. They wished to go down into Egypt. If they consulted, it was, as often happens, with those inclined in the same way. Men are secretly conscious of alienation from God, which instinctively dislikes His recommendations. Man’s moral nature is unhinged; and he turns from God anywhither. The maxims of the world, the opinions of associates, considerations of worldly interest, conspire to the rejection of His counsel. Micaiah must be imprisoned if he prophesy evil, although it be true.

II. Sin is cumulative and growing.

“That they may add sin to sin.” Sin is rarely single (H. E. I., 4507–4509). A rope is twined from many threads. The Jewish people committed one sin by forsaking the counsel of God, another in trusting to the help of Egypt. Some substances have an affinity for each other. So have moral elements. Sins have a fearfully attractive and accumulative power. The youth wanders from the house of God. Conscience is stifled. Amusement is sought. Loose companions are cultivated. Restraint is gradually thrown off. Fraud is necessary. Fraud requires falsehood. One falsehood requires another. Sin is added to sin. Soon as a sin is committed it drops the seed of another, and so onward in terrible progression. Add grain of sand to grain until it becomes a mountain. Money is scraped together by care and labour, but sins rush to each other with mutual attraction. If you could have foreseen the growth of your own sins, surely you would have refrained. Count the sins of your life. They are added up in God’s book.

III. Every sin contains the germ of its own punishment.

“Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.” Sin makes promises which it fails to perform. You are disappointed. This is part of the punishment. Punishment is often appropriate, growing out of the sin. Sometimes this is palpable, as in the case of sensual lusts. Oftener subtle. Punishment accumulates, as sin does. There is a treasuring up of wrath (H. E. I., 4603–4614). Will you continue to accumulate it? or will you pause, cease? You must repent. Do not hug your chains. You must cry for mercy. You must yield. You must repair to the cross.—John Rawlinson.

Strength in Quietness.[1]

xxx. 7. Their strength is to sit still.

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

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

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

FOOTNOTES:

Dislike to Ministerial Fidelity.

xxx. 9–11. This is a rebellious people, &c.

Many wish to be deceived. They have made truth their enemy and shrink from the light, desiring present relief and peace, even at the expense of future happiness. Many a man does not like to be told the truth about his business or his health. The Jews did not like to be told the truth about their national prospects. The incessant reference of the prophets to the holiness of God was offensive to them, and they tried to silence their faithful monitors. Faithful ministers of Christ meet with the same reception from many of their hearers. These cannot bear to have their consciences roused, their fears alarmed, and their minds rendered uneasy.

I. The truths which are usually obnoxious to such persons. The spirituality and unbending strictness of the Divine law, the deep depravity of human nature, the exceeding sinfulness of man’s conduct, the universal necessity of regeneration, the inefficacy of works for justification, the indispensable obligation to a separation from the world, the holiness of God, His irreconcilable hatred to all sin, and His irrevocable purpose to punish it, and the awfulness and interminableness of the doom of the impenitent. Such subjects call up the enmity of the carnal mind. They distress those who are wrongfully at ease in Zion, and they demand that the preacher shall leave them, and discourse on more pleasing themes.

II. The cause of the dislike of ministerial fidelity. 1. Unbelief. Multitudes who admit in gross the authority of the Bible deny it in detail. Its unpalatable truths are rejected. 2. The refinements of modern society and taste. It is allowed that the curses of a violated law may be uttered in barns or churches for the poor, and may fall on the rude ears of the multitude, but the doctrine and style of preaching to the congregations of rank and fashion must be smooth and soft. 3. Wounded pride. Persons of outwardly blameless life hate the doctrine which disturbs their self-complacency, and revile the man who attempts to sink them in their own esteem. 4. Painful forebodings of future misery. Resolutely cleaving to their sins, they do not like to be reminded of the doom to which they are hastening.

III. The characteristics of this dislike of ministerial fidelity. 1. It is foolish. Is it wise in the victim of vice to ask the physician to tell him that he is in good health, and is carrying on a harmless course of indulgence, &c., &c.? No concealment of the situation of the sinner can alter his condition in the sight of God or change the relation in which he stands to eternity. 2. It is sinful. (1.) In its origin. It springs from a determination to go on in sin. (2.) In its nature. It is a love of falsehood, a desire to confound the distinction between sin and holiness. Nor is this all; in aiming to suppress the voice of warning, he acts the part of that infatuated and cruel wretch who would bribe the sentinel to be silent when the foe is about to rush into the camp, or would seduce the watchman to be quiet when the fire had broken out at midnight and was raging through the city. The attempt to induce the preacher to utter “smooth things,” is an attempt to induce him to destroy himself and to contribute to the destruction of them that hear him. (3.) In its consequences. Notwithstanding the most faithful warnings, they are hurried on by it to ruin. Like infatuated Balaams, they force a passage to destruction. 3. It is dangerous. It leads men to close their ears to what it concerns them especially to know. It is only by a faithful disclosure of their situation that they can escape, but they will not hear it.

Application. 1. To ministers. (1.) The guilt of ministers who do not discharge the duties of their office with uncompromising fidelity is indescribable. They are mere pulpit agents of the devil, receiving the wages of the sanctuary while they do his work; keeping all still and quiet among his slaves, preventing all attempts to throw off his hateful yoke by flattering them with the idea that they are the servants of God. (2.) The conversion of sinners should be the chief object of every minister of Christ. They constitute the majority of every congregation; they will soon be beyond the reach of salvation. (3.) The conversion of the impenitent must be sought by suitable means. What may be called the alarming style of preaching is most adapted to convert the impenitent. Not gross and revolting descriptions of eternal torment; these are offensive and disgusting, and generally defeat their purpose, especially when done in a harsh, unfeeling manner. But a minister’s habitual preaching should be so discriminating as to leave no unconverted sinner at a loss with whom to class himself, whether with believers or with unbelievers; and it should not unfrequently contain those allusions to and descriptions of the wrath of God which, like the distant rumblings of the gathering and approaching storm, should drive men to the refuge provided by infinite mercy in the cross of Christ. (4.) It is at our peril that we soften down the terror of the Lord to please any man; we must not shun to declare the whole counsel of God; we must stand clear of the blood of the rich as well as of the poor. Did Paul regard the feelings of Felix? 2. To professing Christians. (1.) Many would have the preacher confine himself to words of comfort, and object to everything searching and practical as legal. Upon their principles, all parts of God’s Word but the promises are unnecessary; they are useless to believers, for they are above them by privilege; useless to sinners, for they are below them in respect to obligation. What is this but a requesting that the Holy One of Israel may cease from before His people? (2.) Inconsistent professors are likewise anxious that the preacher should confine himself to consolatory topics. Hypocrites! he gives you that which belongs to you. Consolation would be to you a deadly poison, a fatal opiate. (3.) Sometimes even those who have only the ordinary imperfections of even the best men wish to hear less of the alarming parts of Divine truth. But have you no concern for the salvation of others? Besides, who can tell but what you dislike may be necessary for keeping you awake? (4.) Let those who cannot bear to hear the descriptions of future punishment think with themselves how they shall be able to endure it.—John Angell James, Sermons, ii. 181–214.

Christian Quietness.[1]

xxx. 15. In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.

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

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