Isai. xxxii. 16, 17. Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. And the work of righteousness shall be peace ; and the effect of righteous- ness, quietness and assurance for ever.
THROUGH the introduction of sin into the world, man was altogether despoiled both of holiness and happiness : and the design of God in sending to us his Gospel was, to restore both the one and the other to
our fallen race. This in a former chapter is set forth under the image of the brute creation, which, having through the fall of man been reduced to a state of the greatest disorder, shall be restored once more to uni- versal harmony and peace. " The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid : and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed ; their young ones shall lie down together : and the lion shall eat straw like the ox : and the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den : they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain : for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the seaa." In the passage before us the same truth is set forth under a different image, namely, that of the vegetable creation; which, having been reduced to the condition of a wilderness through the curse inflicted on it, shall be rendered fruitful, even beyond the most fertile parts of Palestine in the most fruitful seasons.
That the passage really relates to the times of the Gospel, does not admit of doubt. In the beginning of the chapter it is said, " Behold, a King shall reign in righteousness ; and princes shall rule in judgment : 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 land1'." A season indeed of great desolation should intervene between the prophecy and its accomplish- ment0 : but at the appointed time " the Spirit should be poured out in such abundance from on high, that the wilderness should become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be so productive as to be counted for a forest."
In my text the metaphor is explained : and wre are told in plainer terms what shall be,
I. The character of Gospel times —
a Isai. xi. G — 9. h ver. 1, 2. c ver. 9—14.