Isai. lxii. 10 — 12. Go through, go through the gates : prepare ye the way of the people : cast up, cast up the highway ; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people. Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the toorld, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation, cometh ; behold, his reward is with him, and his ivork before him. And they shall call them, The holy people, The re- deemed of the Lord; and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken.
TRULY wonderful is the power of faith : it looks through hundreds and thousands of years ; and not only anticipates events as future, but sets them before
the mind as present. In the prophetic writings this assured faith is frequently exhibited. The Prophet Isaiah in particular seems to have been endued with it in a pre-eminent degree. He rarely mentions the conversion either of Jews or Gentiles to the faith of Christ, but he represents it as already passing before his eyes : " Lift up thine eyes round about," says he, "and see" these prophecies already accomplishing throughout the world. " Who are these that I be- hold flying as a cloud, and as the doves to their windowsa?" In the chapter before us God had de- clared, that " he would not rest till he had caused the righteousness of his Church to go forth as bright- ness, and its salvation as a lamp that burnetii V And this promise he had confirmed with an oathc. To this word and this oath the prophet gave such perfect and assured credit, that he addressed the Jews above a hundred years before they were carried captive to Babylon, as if they were already at the close of their captivity, and ready to be re- stored to their own land : " Go through, go through the gates," for the purpose of returning to your own country. At the same time he looks forward also to the Jews in their present state of dispersion, and bids them receive their Messiah as already come for their deliverance ; assuring them at the same time, that in returning to God through Him, they shall be restored to all the privileges which, by their rejection of him, they have forfeited.
His address to them sets forth in a very animated point of view the circumstances that shall take place at the time of their restoration ;
I. The preparation to be made for them —
The former part of the address is directed imme- diately to them. As at the time of Cyrus's decree vast multitudes needed to be stirred up to avail them- selves of the permission granted them to return to their own country, so now, when the gates are opened to them, they need repeated exhortations,
a Isai. xlix. IS. and lx. 4, S. b ver. 1. c ver. 8, 9.