But sinful men, especially when they are suffering the bitter punishment of their sins, are apt to be hopeless men. When you speak to them of the Mercy that is more than all their sins, they are apt to think that Mercy incredible, or at least to doubt whether it is about to be shown to them. As nothing is possible to doubt and despair, as above all the energy of active moral exertion is impossible, God sets Himself to remove the natural incredulity and hopelessness of the men He was about to save.
374 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
That His mercy is incredible, He admits ; but He affirms that it is incredible only in the sense of being incredibly larger and better than they imagine it to be. They might have found it impossible to forgive those who had sinned against them as they had sinned against Him. " But," pleads God, " My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways. They are a whole heaven above them. And, therefore, / can forgive you the sins which you could not have forgiven had they been com- mitted against you. Nay, your very unbelief cannot limit or defeat My mercy. The word I have sent you, this message of salvation and deliverance, must do the errand on which I sent it ; and therefore you must and will go out of the house of your captivity with joy, and be led forth with peace, the mountains and the little hills breaking forth into singing as you climb them, and all the trees of the field clapping their hands as you march through and under them." So that the main point of these verses is not so much that God Himself is unknowable to us, as that His mercy is incredible to us — incredibly higher, incredibly deeper and wider, incredibly more heavenly and inex- haustible, incredibly more affluent, and tender, and sweet , in fine, as high above our conceptions of it as the heavens above the earth, and so broad that it embraces the whole world of men as the heavens embrace the earth with all its mountains and woods and seas.
*[[ This old admonition falls upon modern ears like the once familiar, but half-forgotten, cadence of a song. Time was when such a scripture roused the deepest emotions and brought the sweetest peace to human hearts. Such texts were, within the memory of man, the characteristic foundation of all evangelical sermons. The old-fashioned gospel invitation had an imperative- ness, a fine entreaty, which nettei magnificent results for the visible Kingdom of God. Men groaned in spirit and fairly ran to Christian altars lest the Divine invitation should be withdrawn. But the old appeal fails to stir men as formerly. Like some quaint hymn or ballad, kept as a sort of relic among the more dashing modern music, this old Bible melody is apparently outclassed by the more philosophical compositions of our day.i
There are five things in the text. Three we are to do, and two God promises to do. The three which we are asked to do ^ G. C. Peck, Old Sins in New Clothes, p. 211.
ISAIAH 375
are (1) to forsake our wicked way, (2) to forsake our thoughts, and (3) to turn unto the Lord. The two God promises to do are (1) to have mercy upon us, and (2) to pardon us abundantly.
What we are told to do.
1. The wicked is called upon or invited to forsake his way. That is, he is called upon to give up his sinful habits. Is he dishonest ? He is to give up his dishonesty. Is he profligate in his life ? He is to give up his profligacy. Is he addicted to intemperance ? He is to give up his unsober practices. Is he a profane swearer ? He is to give up his oaths. Does he speak what is not the truth ? He is to give up his falsehoods. Does he break the Sabbath ? He is to give up his Sabbath-breaking. Does he neglect Divine ordinances ? He is to give up that neglect. From all his evil ways he is to turn : he is to forsake them, as Israel forsook Egypt, when he crossed the Eed Sea ; as Euth forsook Moab, when she went with her mother-in-law to the land of Israel.
IT The best way for a man is the way which God has made for him. He that made us knows what He made us for, and He knows by what means we may best arrive at that end. According to Divine teaching, as gracious as it is certain, we learn that the way of eternal life is Jesus Christ. Christ Himself says, " I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life " ; and he that would pursue life after a right fashion must look to Jesus, and must continue looking to Jesus, not only as the Author, but as the Finisher of his faith. It shall be to him a golden rule of life, wlien he has chosen Christ to be his way, to let his eyes look right on, and his eyelids straight before him. He need not be afraid to contemplate the end of that way, for the end of the way of Christ is life and glory with Christ for ever. " It doth not yet appear what we shall be : but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him ; for we shall see Him as He is." A friend said to me the other day, " How happy are we to know that whatever happens to us in this life it is well ! " " Yes," I added, " and to know that if this life ends it is equally well, or better." Then we joined hands in common joy to think that we were equally ready for life or death, and did not need five minutes' anxiety as to whether it should be the one or the other. When you are on the King's highway, and that way is a