42 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
and the ass his master's crib ; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider " (Isa. i. 2, 3). And of whom speaketh He this ? Not of Israel only. Which of us can recall an hour of life unmarked by some blessing from God ? Mercies have been showered upon us. Blessings have been bestowed upon our country, our friends, our family, ourselves — mercies of providence and mercies of grace. Through the whole journey of life we tread upon God's blessings, strewn as flowers in our way, and their perfume fills the very air we breathe.
3. Their sins were crimson, hecmise they vjere committed against special covenants and vows. They were sins of faithless- ness and recklessness. Is it not so that among men the breach of a solemn bond is more to be reprehended than failure to meet any other engagement ? This was the special aggravation of the sin of those to whom the prophet preached. They were solemnly engaged by covenants with Abraham, with Moses, and with David, to be peculiarly Jehovah's people, as He to be peculiarly their God and Redeemer. In this regard, their sins were more aggravated than those of Sodom and Gomorrah, whose cry ascended up to heaven, and brought down the fires of vengeance. For besides the intrinsic wickedness of doing the deeds of Sodom and Gomorrah, these sinners in so sinning added the guilt of faithlessness to their solemn vows and the vows of their fathers. And it is this that gives their peculiar aggravation to the sins of such as have formally and publicly entered into the covenant of Jehovah in our day. They add to the intrinsic guilt of their transgressions this violation of solemn faith pledged. And on this account it is that their sins are also the most hurtful in their influence, by bringing reproach on the religion of Jesus Christ, as a religion that hinders not its professors from being found faithless.
IT It was no figure of speech, it was no morbid self-depreciation, St. Paul spoke the real language of his heart when he called him- self " the chief of sinners." I greatly mistrust the state of that man who cannot, at this moment, truly and honestly, lay his hand upon his heart, and say this : " I do not believe that there ever was a more wicked man upon the face of the whole earth than I am." For only a man's heart knows its own wickedness. Only a man's own heart knows the aggravations of his own guilt before Almighty God. It is not a question of acts; it is a matter of
ISAIAH 43
thoughts. It is not only what we are positively; it is what we are negatively. It does not depend on what stands in the foreground, but upon what lies behind in the background. It is the convic- tions you have resisted ; it is the feelings God has put into you ; it is the early advantages you enjoyed in the nursery, with a pious mother and a holy father ; it is the glimpses of particular provid- ences, and the still small voices you have heard ; it is the name you have borne, and the profession you have made ; it is the hedges you have thrown around you, and the barriers you have overleaped ; it is the love you have put away from you, and the grace you have quenched — it is these which make a man's sins glare before God, like red-hot under an Eastern sun, — it is these which cause a man's sins to be steeped sevenfold, like the fastest crimson. ^
III. THE SURPRISING SEQUEL.
The sequel of the reasoning is that sins which are scarlet become white as show, sins which are crimson become as wool. Acknowledgment of the utter sinfulness of the heart and life is followed by pardon, cleansing, and new obedience.
" I recollect," says Spurgeon, " that I used to say to myself, when I was quite a lad, ' If God does not punish me for my sin. He ought to do so.' That thought used to come to me again and again. I felt that God was just, and that He knew that I did not wish Him to be anything but just ; for even my imperfect knowledge of God included my recognition that He was a just and holy God. If I could have been certain of salvation by any method in which God would have ceased to be just, I could not have accepted even salvation on those terms ; I should have felt that it was derogatory to the dignity of the Most High, and that it was contrary to the universal laws of right. But this was the question that puzzled me — How can I be saved, since I have sinned, and sin must be punished ? You see, in our text, the blessed answer which the Lord Himself gives, ' Though }K)ur sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow ; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.' That is to say, the Lord means, ' You shall have no sin to be punished, for I will so effectively remove it that there shall be