PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Expositions of Holy Scripture: Isaiah and Jeremiah
Alexander Maclaren, 1826-1910 · 230,785 words · 340 reading sections
The Judgment Of Drunkards And Mockers
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 flow…
750 wordsSECTION 62The Judgment Of Drunkards And Mockers
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 th…
676 wordsSECTION 63A Crown Op Pride Or A Crown Of Glory
'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 w…
706 wordsSECTION 64A Crown Op Pride Or A Crown Of Glory
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, 'Vanit…
662 wordsSECTION 65Man'S Crown And God'S
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.…
656 wordsSECTION 66The Foundation Of God
'Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee.' '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…
659 wordsSECTION 67The Foundation Of God
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 Ch…
829 wordsSECTION 68The Foundation Of God
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 r…
720 wordsSECTION 69The Foundation Of God
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. …
709 wordsSECTION 70God'S Strange Work
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 buil…
669 wordsSECTION 71The Husbandman And His Operations
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. It…
674 wordsSECTION 72The Husbandman And His Operations
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 woul…
688 wordsSECTION 73The Husbandman And His Operations
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 ou…
289 wordsSECTION 74'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, lin…
653 wordsSECTION 75'Quietness And Confidence'
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 li…
343 wordsSECTION 76God'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 t…
639 wordsSECTION 77Three 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 prom…
829 wordsSECTION 78Three Pictures Of One Reality
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 …
773 wordsSECTION 79Three Pictures Of One Reality
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…
665 wordsSECTION 80The Lord'S Furnace
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 live…
673 wordsSECTION 81The Lord'S Furnace
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 strang…
1,014 wordsSECTION 82The Lord'S Furnace
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 t…
770 wordsSECTION 83The 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…
773 wordsSECTION 84The Hiding-Place
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 bit…
713 wordsSECTION 85The Hiding-Place
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 want…
748 wordsSECTION 86The Hiding-Place
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 da…
844 wordsSECTION 87The Hiding-Place
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 spi…
651 wordsSECTION 88The Hiding-Place
'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 crie…
297 wordsSECTION 89How 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 fr…
678 wordsSECTION 90How To Dwell In The Fire Of God
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 pu…
667 wordsSECTION 91How To Dwell In The Fire Of God
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 …
729 wordsSECTION 92How To Dwell In The Fire Of God
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 slightes…
753 wordsSECTION 93How To Dwell In The Fire Of God
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 …
519 wordsSECTION 94The 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 devourin…
786 wordsSECTION 95The Fortress Of The Faithful
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 worl…
708 wordsSECTION 96The Fortress Of The Faithful
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 o…
512 wordsSECTION 97The 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 …
825 wordsSECTION 98The Rivers Of God
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…
792 wordsSECTION 99The Rivers Of God
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 with…
628 wordsSECTION 100Judge, 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. …
580 wordsSECTION 101Miracles 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…
655 wordsSECTION 102Miracles Of Healing
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 a…
654 wordsSECTION 103Miracles Of Healing
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 w…
436 wordsSECTION 104Mirage 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 veg…
697 wordsSECTION 105The King'S Highway
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.…
675 wordsSECTION 106The King'S Highway
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…
698 wordsSECTION 107The King'S Highway
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 …
466 wordsSECTION 108What 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, …
662 wordsSECTION 109What Life'S Journey May Be
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 Himse…
651 wordsSECTION 110The Triumph Of Faith
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 …
668 wordsSECTION 111The Triumph Of Faith
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 secur…
718 wordsSECTION 112The Triumph Of Faith
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 burd…
812 wordsSECTION 113The Triumph Of Faith
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 a…
498 wordsSECTION 114Where 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…
624 wordsSECTION 115Great 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,…
655 wordsSECTION 116Great Voices From Heaven
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…
762 wordsSECTION 117Great Voices From Heaven
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 …
752 wordsSECTION 118O Thou That Bringest Good Tidings
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 ret…
674 wordsSECTION 119O Thou That Bringest Good Tidings
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 …
741 wordsSECTION 120O Thou That Bringest Good Tidings
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…
964 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.