The mission of the prophet was to sweep out of the life of his people those contradictions between religious profession and habitual practice which in every age are the besetting danger of all those who live in conventional worship, and with what we might call a tame conscience. The Hebrew prophet is, above all things, the preacher of reality in personal religion, of con- sistency in personal conduct, and of righteousness pervading every department of national life. It was because of their lack of this reality and consistency that another of these prophets flung out the graphic condemnation of his countrymen :
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" Ephraim," he said, " is a cake not turned." Their devotion to Jehovah was only a half devotion ; they delighted in their worship, they gave Him of the external, of the emotions of their life, but they did not turn the cake.
/ Isaiah begins his prophecy by calling upon the heavens and the ^earth to witness the exceeding sinfulness of God's chosen people. " Hear, 0 heavens, and give ear, 0 earth, for the Lord hath spoken : I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib : but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider." Such ingratitude and sin as this, he naturally supposes, would shock the very heavens and earth. Then follows a vehement and terrible rebuke. The elect people of God are called " Sodom " and " Gomorrah." " Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom ; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah." " Why should ye be stricken any more ? ye will revolt more and more."
This outflow of holy displeasure would prepare us to expect an everlasting rejection of the rebellious and unfaithful people, but it is strangely followed by the most yearning and melting entreaty ever addressed by the Most High to the creatures of His hand : " Come now, and let us reason together : though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow ; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
The text may be considered in three parts —
1. An Invitation from God to reason with Him.
2. The Eeasoning and its Kesult.
3. The Surprising Sequel.
I.
AN INVITATION FROM GOD TO REASON WITH HIM.
i. An Invitation from God. " Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord." The proposition comes from God. It does not arise from the human side at all. It is a piece of pure condescension on the part of the Almighty Himself. Grace comes out of the sovereignty of God. The possibility of salvation comes from
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God's grace. It is not in anywise of our conception or of our own doing. We are saved by faith, and that not of ourselves, for faith is the gift of God. God, having made this proposition, proceeds upon the assumption that He knows Himself to be right in this case. It is precisely so in our own affairs, in the common controversies of the day. The man who knows himself to be in the right, who feels himself to have a just cause in hand, is always the first to make the noblest propositions, and to off'er as many concessions as are possible without impairing the law of absolute right, truth, and propriety.
I said, " I will find God," and forth I went
To seek Him in the clearness of the sky,
But over me stood unendurably
Only a pitiless, sapphire firmament
Einging the world, — blank splendour : yet intent
Still to find God, " I will go seek," said I,
" His way upon the waters," and drew nigh
An ocean marge, weed-strewn, and foam-besprent ;
And the waves dashed on idle sand and stone
And very vacant was the long, blue sea:
But in the evening as I sat alone,
My window open to the vanishing day.
Dear God ! I could not choose but kneel and pray,
And it sufficed that I was found of Thee.^
Come.
The Eev. James Vaughan, of Brighton, one of the masters in the art of addressing children, makes use of this verse and other four verses which contain the word come, as the basis of an address to children on the afternoon of Advent Sunday. Advent, he calls " Come Sunday," and rejoices that there is no " Go-away Sunday " in the Christian Year. Then he says : I want to tell you of five beautiful Comings, and when I have told you of all the five, I shall ask you which you like best.
1. I shall call the first the Grand " Come." You will find it in the 40th Psalm, and the 7th verse : " Then said I, Lo, I ' come ' I " Jesus said it when He was up in heaven. " Then." When, I do not know. Thousands and thousands and thousands of years ago. " Then said I, Lo, I come ! " Jesus was up in
^ Edward Dowden.
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heaven, and He saw that we were going to be in this world, and He saw that we should be unhappy, because we were lost ; and He saw that there would be a great many sacrifices, but they would not do any good, and the poor people would not be able to save themselves and help themselves ; so He said to God the Father — He said it then, " Then said I, Lo, I come. I will go and save them. I will go." How the angels must have wondered ! I should think there was a perfect silence. I should think all heaven was silent when the Son of God said, " I will go to that world." " Lo, I come ! " I am so glad He came. He might have had us all up in heaven without coming here first. Then we should not have had Him as a little baby in a cradle. Then we should not have had Jesus as the Boy of twelve years old, or the young Man, as the pattern for us. It was so kind to say, " Lo, I come ! " — better than if He did it all up in heaven.